Over 95 percent of Samsung’s refrigerators have a digital inverter compressor that automatically perceives environmental changes caused by the surrounding temperature, opening and closing of the door as well as the operating mode, and adjusts its operating speed accordingly. Yet, approximately 90 percent of refrigerators in the world are equipped with conventional, fixed speed compressors. This compressor operates at a fixed maximum speed of 3,600RPM (or 3,000RPM according to electric power) even when only a little amount of cold air is required, ultimately consuming a lot of unnecessary energy and making noises.

Samsung refrigerators are smart and have a ‘strong heart’ that maintains performance evenly for as long as 21 years. This is the reason why Samsung Electronics leads world’s refrigerator market and ranks No.1 with over 50 percent in market share for digital compressors. Let’s look into the details of Samsung digital inverter compressors and the source of their unparalleled competitiveness.

1. Advanced Temperature Control with Unrestricted Speed from 0 to 4,500RPM

The Samsung digital inverter compressor operates by automatically detecting changes in the surrounding environment. It instantly responds to temperature change like people hunching their bodies in cold weather. The temperature inside the refrigerator rises when the door is opened and closed frequently, or when the surrounding temperature increases in the summer. In such cases, the compressor operates intensely at the maximum speed of 4,500RPM as cool air must be injected quickly. Samsung compressors do not require complex handling because they automatically detect these changes and operate at an optimal speed. In comparison, other conventional compressors operate at a fixed speed of maximum 3,600RPM based on a simple on/off system.

The Samsung Chef Collection Refrigerator has a unique, fixed temperature refrigeration technology that stores fresh food within the range of ±0.5 degrees Celsius. This special feature is possible due to Samsung’s digital inverter compressors that detect the slightest temperature change inside the refrigerator and control cool air. Fridges equipped with conventional compressors that always create the same amount of cool air have a significant variation in inner temperature and thus lack the capacity to preserve fresh food.

Samsung digital inverter compressor

‚2. Power Consumption Reduced by 30%

As a Samsung digital inverter compressor stops or slows its operation when the cool air is not required as much, such as at night or in the winter, it significantly increases power efficiency. The variable-speed refrigerating technology unique to the digital inverter can save power consumption by an average of 30 percent compared to other compressors that operate at a fixed speed of generally 3,600RPM.

3. Less Noise: a Fridge that Becomes Silent at Night

There may have been times when you’re in bed at night with your eyes closed, and suddenly the refrigerator starts making a buzzing sound. Samsung digital inverter compressors stop operation or operate silently at low speed at night, dawn, or even daytime if the refrigerator door is not frequently opened and closed. Such flexibility is one of the strengths of Samsung compressors that can control speed without restrictions.

„4. Performance Maintained Evenly for 21 Years

Samsung’s digital inverter compressor under performance testings

After more than 300,000 tests for 120 days, the German certificate authority VDE (Verband Deutscher Elektrotechnicker) issued a life-span certificate of 21 years to Samsung digital inverter compressors, which is the longest in the industry.

There is a motor inside Samsung compressors (refer to the video), and the compressor changes the rotational motion of the motor into linear piston motion, compressing and circulating refrigerants. This can be compared to a car’s engine, which requires a high level of reliability. Samsung achieved strong durability by incorporating the digital inverter control system with its unrivaled nano-processing technology, which has been developed on based on Samsung’s accumulated experience of manufacturing over two hundred million compressors in the last over 40 years.

Helmut Boehn, Head of Section (Cooling, Freezing Safety / Energy) at VDE.

*What is nano-processing technology?

The technology that precisely processes the metal surface at the scale of a few nanometers. If there is even a slight, minute unevenness on the surface of the compressor’s moving parts, such as piston, cylinder and bearing, it could increase friction that could gravely impact performance and reliability. Samsung has developed industry’s leading technology which processes at the scale at 100 nanometers or below (around one four-hundredth width of a single strand of hair) for manufacturing its compressors.

World’s No.1 Manufacturing Competitiveness, with One Compressor Manufactured Every Second

In addition to the strengths of a Samsung’s digital compressor, it is worthwhile to note Samsung’s strong manufacturing competitiveness. Samsung manufactures one compressor every second. It produces 54,200 compressors daily by operating the manufacturing line for 16 hours a day. These compressors are used in various products including Samsung refrigerators, and Samsung is planning to apply digital inverter compressors to all of its refrigerators by next year to enhance competitiveness.

The smart and strong Samsung compressors are used by not only Samsung but also other refrigerator manufacturers. In addition to household appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners and dryers, the compressors are also used for automobiles, ships, and even for communication base stations. By conversely applying the principle of the refrigeration cycle of the compressor and changing the circulation structure of refrigerants, it can be used for heaters, dryers or heating sheets in cars that release heat.

One of the competitiveness of a Samsung digital inverter compressor, composed mostly of motors and super precision nano-processed parts, is that it can be made as small as a beverage can. It also has a competitive edge in manufacturing cost which allows it to be used in various household appliances and machinery.

Manufacturing process of Samsung’s digital inverter compressor

It’s a dilemma that has two options. One choice is to buy fewer items in the weekly shop and then make more trips to the local store throughout the week. But that’s inefficient, and ends up costing more in the long run. The other option is to buy a bigger fridge. The only problem there is the space in the kitchen limits your ability to buy bigger white goods.

The solution that makes the most sense is to opt for a bigger fridge that has the same footprint as your old one. Impossible? No, this is actually an issue refrigerator engineers have been tackling for quite some time.

Samsung SpaceMax Technology

SpaceMax technology is the sum of solutions Samsung engineers have found. One way Samsung works to offer more capacity than the average fridge is by being smarter with the insulation. The insulation in SpaceMax fridges is thinner but efficient.

The technology first made an appearance in Samsung’s 2008 refrigerators developed under project name Guggenheim. The application of thinner insulation helped increase the capacity by an additional 100 litres. Proving its impact on the market, this model is still on sale eight years on.

To get the correct formula for success, it requires an incredible feat in optimization. There’s a need to consider both capacity and energy. For instance, you cannot only make the wall thinner for expanded capacity. Similarly, you can’t just make the walls thicker to achieve better energy efficiency. You have to consider both factors rationally.

SpaceMax works through high efficiency poly-urethane (PU) foam insulation and Vacuum Insulation Panels (VIP) working in tandem to increase capacity without compromising on insulation. The results are clear. The freezer wall has gone from 60mm to 55mm, and the fridge wall 45mm to 30mm. The freezer door and fridge door have both slimmed down by 20~25mm and 5~10mm respectively.

Poly-Urethane Foam Insulation with Smaller Cells

Let’s take a closer look at the high efficiency foaming technology used in the insulation. Urethane is a well-known material that fills up the inner wall of the fridge. It’s used in both commercial and general fridges. With an innovative advancement in creating a poly-urethane layer, Samsung was able to decrease the cell size from 200-300㎛ to 100-150㎛. This helped reduce thermal conductivity, which in result improves insulation efficiency by 6.5%.

Vacuum, Arguably the Best Solution for Insulation

While the PU foam layer became better at cutting of heat radiation, Samsung wanted to do more. That’s where the vacuum insulation panel comes in.

A vacuum state, by definition, eliminates matters that conduct heat. (That’s why many thermal bottles have a vacuum layer.) While it would be structurally and economically challenging to build a whole refrigerator wall that is in a vacuum state, Samsung engineers still found a way to add vacuum panels to cut off heat conduction. If you were to dismantle your Samsung refrigerator wall, you would find the panels on the outermost layer of the insulation – right under the surface material, inwardly sealed off by the PU foam.

Although the exact numbers vary between different models, the rule of thumb is that if the thickness of insulation decreases by 1mm, the capacity increases by 10 liters. Continued breakthroughs have meant that average capacity of our fridges has grown over the years. In the 1990s, capacity sat between 200 and 300 liters. By 2014, that figure was 980 liters.  Every millimeter counts in the challenge to increase fridge space. And if it means your groceries can slide in with ease, the SpaceMax innovation is worthwhile.

Despite being from Bihar, a rural province in northeastern India, Mayank Mohan was surprised how little he really knew about his home country before he joined Samsung. “I grew up in Bihar, and I went to university in Delhi, but that was it,” he said. “The first time I traveled by plane was when I came to Korea. The first time I saw the ocean was on that flight.”

After joining the Digital Appliances Business at Samsung Electronics as a product manager in 2010, he began to learn. Mohan was assigned to the product management team, developing refrigerators for India (along with Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka).

Learning About India as a Product Manager

As a product manager, meeting new people is an essential part of unlocking the nuances and patterns of the region, visiting people’s homes and getting feedback from business partners and local sales teams. Whereas once he had not really known India and perhaps taken it for granted, his job at Samsung quickly caused him to truly learn about his country and its great diversity.

Mohan soon discovered how something as simple as color can vary widely from area to area. In Mumbai, consumers prefer Western-style refrigerators, according to Mohan. In northern India, people prefer smooth, soft colors like silver. But in the south, dark colors do best, like wine red or green. In the east, more traditional colors are most popular. Pebble blue is liked around the country. Reds and fanciful colors are popular in general around India, so Mohan and Samsung tried unusual hues like rich yellow and light green, generating plenty of attention for the unconventional choices and further developing the market by experimenting with new possibilities.

Samsung was also a pioneer with patterns, offering colorful floral patterns on refrigerators since 2006. “Flower patterns, like on a woman’s sari, are appreciated on the refrigerator doors,” he said. And while other types of patterns have been tried, none have found the popularity of flowers. “We will keep trying to offer special designs that nobody else is.”

One of the biggest challenges consumers face around the region is irregular power supplies. To help consumers protect their food from spoiling when the power goes out, Samsung developed the Cool Pack for freezers, which at first were good for just an hour, but eventually improved to keep the freezer cold for 12 hours.

Understanding these needs and interests took countless hours of research, but Mohan saw how they are all important parts of localization. “India is a market that is still full of potential,” he said. “And localization is crucial to this market.”

Always on the Front Lines

Another difference around the region is how people use their refrigerators. In Bangladesh, where meat is a bigger part of the diet, larger freezers are necessary. But in much of India, people eat less meat, don’t eat ice cream or use ice often and prefer room temperature water. In visiting one home, Mohan noticed that the freezer was actually empty.

“The marketing team is always on the front lines…”

This simple observation soon led to another unique local feature. Mohan was dispatched to the local team for three months, and together they came up with a refrigerator that had what they termed a “Convertible” function. The top section of the refrigerator could be used to store frozen items or converted into a cooling area like the main compartment for keeping foods fresh.

It was an idea they developed in 2012, but even good ideas have to wait until the time is right to be implemented. Back then, the Convertible function was too expensive to support, however, the Samsung team has determined the market is ready now, so this new feature is giving consumers around the region a useful new option to suit their lifestyles with an affordable technology.

“The marketing team is always on the front lines in the market,” Mohan said. “As a product manager, I have to care for the product from birth to death. I have to ensure the right product will be available at the right time. The most important and difficult thing to find is ‘What is the right product and the right time?’”

Every Day Is a New Challenge

“I’m active. I hate routine jobs,” he said. “And one of the best things at Samsung, when you come in the morning, you don’t know how your day will end. I like the dynamism. Every day is a new challenge, a new task, meeting new people.”

“It’s up to me to be the initiator. I like that kind of empowerment.”

Since starting his career at Samsung, he credits the words of his mentor for his approach to work: “Be good and be seen.” “If you do good work, but nobody knows it, it doesn’t matter. But if you do bad work and everybody knows it, you’ll get fired. And if you don’t do good work and nobody knows, then you need a new job,” he said with a laugh.

For Mohan, the work and travel as a Product Manager is challenging, but he says he likes the energy of his job. “At Samsung, it’s up to me to be the initiator. I like that kind of empowerment.”

What’s Next?

The job of improving products is never done. Spending so much time with refrigerators has also helped re-inspire his own love for cooking, which in turn has helped him understand his product better. “With such a long connection with refrigerators, I know what to store where, for the best effect,” he said. “As a chef at home, I am really sensitive to how my refrigerator works, and it gives me many ideas to improve them and make them more user-friendly.”

Mohan said that cooking also helps him bond with his teammates and others, noting that his mushroom curry, fried rice and bhujia potato wedges are particularly popular.

“The IoT is going to change everything.”

But what really excited Mohan is the Internet of Things, which is coming to home appliances, including refrigerators. “For the last 100 years, home appliances haven’t changed that much,” he said. “You have cooling machines and heating machines and cleaning machines. But the IoT is going to change everything. What you’ve seen so far, it’s really just the beginning. Trust me, the changes in the next five years are going to be amazing.”