My family recently moved into a new school district, and our first-born son starts first grade next week. Today I will take him to his new school to familiarize him with his classroom, the gym, the lunchroom, etc. The school district calls this designated day Curiosity Day. Wouldn't it be great if we had "curiosity days" in business? Imagine how much less anxious we would be if we had a sneak peek into our customers' plants before we met with them to discuss potential problems.

In this issue of Process Cooling & Equipment, Roy Ahlgren of ITT's Bell & Gossett Div., Morton Grove, Ill., offers the next best thing to a curiosity day when it comes to selecting the right pump for your secondary refrigerant system. Given the variety of secondary refrigerants available and the increasing popularity of using secondary refrigerants instead of direct expansion coils, Ahlgren says it is wise to consider some of the problems that may result if some basic pump selection principles are ignored. Turn to page 38 for Ahlgren's explanation of how the usual practices in hydronic system pump selection must be modified when secondary refrigerants are being pumped through large systems.

If you are curious about how to get your product to cool or freeze rapidly at your food processing plant, you will want to check out the article on impingement freezing technology by Torbjorn Persson, freezing equipment product line manager at Chicago's FMC FoodTech. Beginning on page 22, Persson explains what the technology is and how it may benefit your process.

If your compressor control panel is a classic, you may be wondering what a PC-based model system can do that yours can't. Those who follow the "If it's not broke, don't fix it!" approach may encounter trouble, according to Paul Orlando and Paul Danilewicz of Toromont Process Systems, Houston. Go to page 25 to read about how to improve your compressor operation by utilizing new technology.

Have you heard of enclosure cooling using pulse width modulation? Educate yourself with the help of Michael Huang, senior engineer at JMC Products, Austin, Texas. Starting on page 28, Huang discusses one trend in electronic enclosure cooling, which is to regulate the cooling fan/blower speed according to the temperature inside the enclosure using pulse-width modulation. This method does not generate additional heat when used to regulate motor speed.

Finally, you don't want to miss our Cooling Capabilities Chart on Heat Transfer Fluids, beginning on page 32. Several suppliers have provided specs to help make it easy to find the fluid that's perfect for your process.

What are you waiting for? Satisfy your curiosity and journey through these pages, compiled just for you.