Air Innovations – the leader in custom environmental control solutions for temperature, humidity, filtration, and pressure was featured yesterday on News Channel 9 for making the air conditioning systems in the world’s tallest observation wheel.
The news story centers on Air Innovations involvement in this world renowned project. The 550′ High Roller features 28 pod-like cabins, each holding up to 40 people and opened last month to tourist lining up for a unique view of the Las Vegas skyline.
Air Innovations was tasked to maintain temperatures between 67°F and 73°F in the glass-encased cabins, even though average external daytime temperatures can reach highs of 104° in July and lows of 39° in January. In addition to achieving consistent temperatures, Air Innovations was challenged to ensure the shape of the air conditioning units conformed to the convex sides of the mechanical compartment beneath the floor of the globe-shaped cabins.
“The climate in Las Vegas presents a very broad range of operating challenges” said Michael Wetzel, President and CEO of Air Innovations. “The amount of cooling required inside each cabin is two to three times that of a typical home,” stated Wetzel.
The project took the skills and talent of several local companies, among those; Metal Solutions in Utica, Auburn Armature in Auburn and Ram Fabricating in Syracuse. Seventy-five percent of the vendors used by Air Innovations are located in Central New York.
Air Innovations designs and builds environmental process control systems for applications that can’t be addressed with standard HVAC equipment. The company customizes packaged solutions for temperature, humidity, filtration and pressure and serves a broad range of industries including aerospace, defense, semiconductor, R&D, and pharmaceutical. Some recent Air Innovations projects include partnering in the development of explosives detection devices used in airports, process control systems for pharmaceutical tablet coating machines, and a cooling system for a silicon pixel sub-detector located inside a linear accelerator at a federal laboratory.