Trane

This article is about the HVAC company. For other uses, see Trane (disambiguation).

Trane Inc.
It's hard to stop a Trane.
Type	Subsidiary of Ingersoll Rand
Industry	General building materials
Founded	1913 as The Trane Company La Crosse, Wisconsin 2007 (reincorporated as successor to American Standard Companies)
Headquarters	Swords, Dublin, Ireland
Products	Building Management Systems, HVAC equipment
Revenue	$10.264 billion USD (2005)
Operating income	$875.400 million USD (2005)
Net income	$556.300 million USD (2005)
Number of employees	29,000 (2007)
Website	www.trane.com

Trane Inc. is a manufacturer of heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and building management systems and controls. The company is a subsidiary of Ingersoll Rand and is the successor company to the American Standard Companies. It makes products under the Trane and American Standard brand names.

A global company, Trane's international headquarters are in Piscataway, New Jersey. Trane employs more than 29,000 people at 104 manufacturing locations in 28 countries, and has annual sales of more than $8 billion. In addition to its activity in HVAC systems, Trane is involved in energy conservation and renewable energy projects.

History

Trane chiller

In 1885, James Trane, a Norwegian immigrant from Tromsø, opened his own plumbing and pipe-fitting shop in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He designed a new type of low-pressure steam heating system, Trane vapor heating. Reuben Trane, James' son, earned a mechanical engineering degree (B. S. 1910) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and joined his father's plumbing firm.^[1] In 1913, James and Reuben incorporated The Trane Company. It was Reuben's invention of the convector radiator in 1923 that firmly established the company's reputation as an innovator, a reputation Trane people have been building on ever since.^[2]

By 1916, the Tranes were no longer in the plumbing business, but rather were focusing their attention on manufacturing heating products. Reuben conceived the idea of the first convector radiator in 1925 which replaced the heavy, bulky, cast-iron radiators that prevailed at the time. Trane's first air conditioning unit was developed in 1931.

In 1982, Trane purchased General Electric's Central Air Conditioning Division. With that purchase came many of the most recognizable traits of Trane's residential air conditioning products. Many of those traits, like the distinctive red "Climatuff" compressors, the "Spine-Fin" all aluminum spiny outdoor coil and the all aluminum evaporator coil, are still found in Trane's current residential equipment lines.^[3]

In 1984, Trane was acquired by American Standard Inc., and became a fixture in the American Standard Companies business. Following a leveraged buyout in 1988, American Standard returned as a publicly held corporation in 1995.^[4]

Breakup of American Standard

On February 1, 2007, American Standard Companies announced it would break up its three divisions. The company sold off its namesake kitchen and bath division and spun off WABCO, American Standard's vehicle controls division, while retaining The Trane Company. American Standard then renamed itself Trane Inc. effective November 28, 2007.^[5]^[6]

Acquisition by Ingersoll Rand

On December 17, 2007, Trane announced it had agreed to be acquired by Ireland-based Ingersoll Rand in a cash and stock transaction.^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10] The sale was completed on June 5, 2008.^[11]^[12]

Notable Trane buildings

^[13] ^[14]

Manufacturing locations

Commercial Products manufacturing locations

Bangkok, Thailand
Cairo, Egypt — Plant closed
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charmes, Vosges, France
Clarksville, Tennessee
Colchester, England — Plant closed in 2010
Columbia, South Carolina
Forsyth, Georgia
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Golbey, France
La Crosse, Wisconsin
Lexington, Kentucky
Lynn Haven, Florida
Macon, Georgia
Penang, Malaysia
Pueblo, Colorado
Rockingham, North Carolina
Rushville, Indiana
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Springhill, Louisiana
St. Paul, Minnesota
Taicang, China
Yangmei, Taiwan
Waco, Texas
Araucaria, Brazil

Residential Products manufacturing locations

Other offices

CEPC, Santiago, Chile
CEPC, Buenos Aires, Argentina
CEPC, Vicente Lopez, Argentina

Controversy

On July 2, 2011, a Trane project manager and three employees from O-Ryun Engineering died while servicing HVAC equipment at an E-Mart store in Seoul, South Korea. This included one college student from the University of Seoul.^[15] The family of the deceased claimed that either one or both of E-Mart and Trane had responsibility for the tragedy,^[16] and that E-Mart refuses to meet with them to settle the matter. Trane has agreed to cooperate with authorities and investigators and is conducting its own investigation to determine if safety practices need to be revised. Trane has said it acts in accordance with the law.^[17]

References

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