Faults on Purpose - Accelerating Experience Today for Africa’s Cooling Engineers of Tomorrow
In Rwanda, and across Africa, cooling is becoming established as a critical infrastructure for physical and mental health, economic development, and financial well-being. Cold rooms preserve harvests and vaccines, refrigerated trucks safeguard temperature controlled logistics, and reliable cooling systems keep shops, supermarkets, factories, hospitals, local health facilities, and data centres running. When the equipment fails, the consequences are immediately felt in the wasted food, loss of income, compromised healthcare service, and failed communication networks.
So why is the Clean Cooling Academy using a refrigeration training rig designed to break down in the training of Africa’s future cooling engineers and technicians? The answer is simple - to accelerate their practical experience so that they can quickly learn how to diagnose, troubleshoot and solve real-world equipment problems out in the field.
At the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain (ACES) in Rwanda, we are training engineers and technicians on a novel unit that deliberately fails. With 25 built-in designed faults, this teaching rig gives our students the confidence and competence needed to tackle a range of technical challenges that they will likely encounter once in practice beyond the Academy.
The Training Unit
The PA Hilton Advanced Training Unit looks like a conventional refrigeration system, complete with compressor, evaporator, gauges, and pipework. However, its unique strength lies in the fact that it is designed to be able to activate 25 hidden faults. Our training courses are specifically planned around these faults and this allows us to create a controlled environment in which we can build up fault-finding skills in a step-by-step process.
The Training rig is a fully operational multi-evaporator system, simulating both freezer and cold-room conditions. Initially our students observe and record operational parameters associated with normal conditions, such as pressures, temperatures, frost lines and strategically-placed sight glasses, to gain deeper insight into the hidden physical changes that accompany the various refrigerant phases in the system, before we introduce a fault.
The early challenges are then simple basic faults, like an undercharged system or a restricted filter drier. As a student’s confidence grows, we can increase the complexity of the faults and develop their diagnoses skills and knowledge of methodology to interpret the system indicators. Finally, we can simulate mechanical and electrical faults that would challenge even the most experienced technicians.
By the time they have completed our training programmes, the students at ACES will have already worked through scenarios that could take years to encounter in the field. They leave the Academy not just with theoretical knowledge and a better understanding of health and safety requirements, but with the practical experience necessary to give them confidence in diagnosing and solving real-world problems.
Further benefits of our Academy training courses
Many technicians learn on the job on live systems, which is an expensive and risky way to train. With the training that we provide on our equipment at the Centre, these training rigs allow for the mistakes that are expected, and even encouraged, because they happen in a safe and controlled environment. The result is that we develop stronger skills and a higher confidence in students that will be a benefit to everyone.
As the demand for cooling grows across Africa, so does the need for engineers and technicians who can work safely and efficiently to maintain refrigeration systems. By teaching through failure, we can accelerate learning, prepare our students for success in the field, and help deliver sustainable cooling for all through best practices.