Fenagy / RLAY

Fenagy (now RLAY), a Danish SME specializing in industrial heat pumps, faced a fundamental controls engineering challenge: industrial heat pump systems involve tightly coupled thermodynamic processes — compressor staging, refrigerant circuit management, and heat exchanger balancing — that require real-time, precise control to maintain optimal coefficient of performance (COP) across varying load conditions. Off-the-shelf control approaches lacked the flexibility to handle the dynamic demands of industrial heating applications, and custom-built solutions would not scale across a growing product line. Without a robust, reusable control architecture, each new installation risked performance inefficiency and prolonged commissioning time.

Rockwell Automation provided the programmable control architecture underpinning Fenagy's industrial heat pump product line. The platform — built on Allen-Bradley programmable controllers — handles real-time management of compressor sequencing, refrigerant flow regulation, and thermal load balancing. Rather than developing bespoke control logic for each deployment, Fenagy standardized on Rockwell's integrated automation framework, enabling reusable control templates across different heat pump configurations. This approach allowed the engineering team to encode thermodynamic control strategies once and adapt them to specific site conditions, reducing development overhead per unit. The HMI layer provides operators with visibility into system efficiency metrics and fault diagnostics, supporting both commissioning and ongoing operation at customer sites.

The standardized Rockwell Automation control platform enabled Fenagy to ship industrial heat pumps with consistent, optimized energy performance across its product range. Key outcomes include:

• Repeatable commissioning: Standardized control templates reduced site-specific engineering work per installation
• Scalable product line: New heat pump configurations can inherit proven control logic rather than requiring ground-up development
• Operational reliability: Integrated diagnostics support proactive maintenance at customer sites

As European industrial decarbonization regulation accelerates demand for high-efficiency thermal solutions, the reusable automation foundation positions RLAY to grow its installed base without proportional increases in controls engineering resource.

• Standardize early: OEMs that build reusable control architectures before scaling their product line avoid compounding technical debt as variant count grows.
• COP optimization is a controls problem: Maximizing heat pump efficiency under variable load conditions requires real-time adaptive control — this cannot be addressed through hardware selection alone.
• Platform vendor selection has long-term consequences: The automation platform becomes embedded in every unit shipped; evaluate ecosystem depth (tooling, support, spare parts) alongside upfront capability.
• Decarbonization regulation creates OEM tailwinds: Industrial heat pump demand is policy-driven — OEMs with proven, scalable platforms are better positioned to capture volume as compliance deadlines approach.