A team from PACAIR recently has the opportunity to travel to South Korea and see the LG Electronics factories that produce the HVAC equipment.

LG’s main ‘Air Solutions’ factory is located in Changwon on the South Coast of South Korea. It’s planned on the development of Canberra in Australia, and as such has a grid based layout that makes it one of the easiest cities to navigate. It’s also home to the South Korean Navy.

This was the first time any of the PACAIR group had visited the LG factory or South Korea and initially there was some conversation about the value to them of going. South Korea is a substantial journey to make, would the value of the time spent visiting be time well spent?

The group thought the sheer scale of the LG Changwon factory was impressive, along with the volume of products that they manufacture daily. The robust quality control process was also noted.

The quality checks include leak and pressure testing using helium gas. Helium is used, despite being relatively expensive, as it has more chance of detecting a leak than an alternative gas or liquid. Every product is fully tested to the highest standard as it leaves the factory. As a seal of guarantee, every product is labelled, inputted into the system and has the details of the employee that performed each check recorded. High level accountability for everyone working in the factory.

Moving on to the compressor factory, the same quality checks are adhered to. Furthermore, the factory staff are all trained engineers, having to complete and pass courses continually. Highly qualified and regularly upskilling.

While visiting, LG took the group from PACAIR to see a mixed Multi V hotel installation and a Multi V S high end residential installation. A large number of the high-rise buildings in Korea have LG products installed. They approach residential projects differently to the UK, having an outdoor unit (Multi V S) positioned for each apartment connected to various indoor units.