Brazeway Keeps Getting Cooler

Right now, you’re using a Brazeway product. Whether you drive a car, own a refrigerator or have an A/C that cools your home — Brazeway technology is making your life better.

Never heard of Brazeway? That’s ok.

While they’ve been around since 1946, they’re more like the “microchip” in a brand-name computer. Still, if you drive a car, own a refrigerator or have an A/C pump that cools your home, there’s almost certainly something made in a Brazeway facility in your life.

See, Brazeway makes something so diabolically simple—cold air—and they make it better, and more cheaply than the competition.

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A Quantum Leap in Cooling

Brazeway’s first quantum leap in cooling was figuring out how to use aluminum rather than copper tubing for the banks of coils you’ve probably seen inside your refrigerator or under the hood of your car.

Compared to copper, aluminum is far cheaper, lighter weight, and has comparable corrosion characteristics making it the preferred choice of manufacturers. Over time, Brazeway leapfrogged the initial breakthrough by scaling down the structure of their heat exchangers, lowering weight and material costs while dramatically increasing efficiency.

This latter fact is even more critical today. Why? Because more efficient cooling is cheaper and more sustainable.

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More Affordable & Better for the Planet

Brazeway’s breakthrough eco7 heat exchanger is far smaller and more efficient than competing products. That means the same size refrigerator has more room inside for your food—and its Energy Star certified cooling system is more affordable and better for the planet because it uses less juice. It also saves their customers money.

Now, those refrigerator manufacturers don’t have to resort to more costly alternatives (like more powerful compressors or thick insulating panels) that crowd the icebox.

“It’s a warming, more crowded planet with a growing middle class. We’re going to need more food preservation and more A/C,” says Mike Adams, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer. “This demands more development and innovation from Brazeway, so the increasing adoption of these important health and safety needs doesn’t drive up global energy consumption and costs.”

Different by Design

Brazeway doesn’t just make metal shapes and tubing, they do their own research into the metals and alloys themselves.

“We don’t just study what’s coming out of labs worldwide, we beta-test new designs... this combination of research, development and fabrication is unique in the industry.”


Mike Adams
EVP & Chief Marketing Officer

This goes way beyond looking at what a customer needs; Brazeway’s research and development includes 23 scientists in three labs studying metallurgy, refrigeration systems, and heat transfer. Their work has yielded patents across the entire scope of Brazeway’s production.

It gives the company a distinct advantage—control over everything from proprietary alloys, to the ways they’re extruded and then shaped, all yielding faster production at lower cost with less waste.

Brazeway frequently works with its customers directly, not just supplying parts, but collaborating to understand their entire system and methods of production.

Recently, this unique research and production philosophy yielded a more efficient and more reliable heat exchanger design, that allowed their manufacturing client to achieve energy targets while generating substantial savings.

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Going forward this ability to review and revise every aspect of a client’s process will be critical. By 2023 the DOE is demanding a significant bump in efficiency for A/C units. This challenge is further complicated by refrigerant changes mandated under the EPA SNAP (Significant New Alternative Policy) program. As a result, Brazeway’s research and development team has been working alongside manufacturers to help them meet these more stringent targets.

A key advantage Brazeway has over the competition is working in multiple industries, allowing them to borrow from their own patented technology and apply it to other needs. Routinely, the team will adapt automotive or commercial technologies to work for in-home A/C and appliance applications.

Pretty ‘cool’ indeed.

Inventor as Supplier

Brazeway employs scientists. Its two Michigan labs have more than 23 people who study metallurgy, heat transfer, product, and process development.

This allows Brazeway to take a systems approach to being a supplier, studying not just metals, but their extrusion, fabrication and in the field application.

As a result, the company’s new eco7 heat exchanger is smaller, more affordable and 30% more efficient. They’re always looking for efficiencies. Not just in science, but in the factory processes and field deployment as well.

Brazeway doesn’t just deliver products. They innovate at scale.

All told, this gives Brazeway a leg up on the competition, because they don’t look at just the blueprint—they examine a customer’s needs and identify ways to improve every aspect of delivery, so the end product is more than cooling. It’s innovation.

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“There’s always a way to take the next step.”


Omar Gadalla,
Director of Sustainability & Corporate Communications