Cape Town-based Colcoil is a division of Colcab which is the largest manufacturer of refrigerated display cases in Africa and has been steadily growing its operations since the 1990s.

Colcoil is a division of Colcab (Pty) Ltd. Colcab manufactures refrigerated supermarket display cases in Cape Town and started operations in the 1960s. The company grew rapidly to be the largest manufacturer of refrigerated display cases in Africa. Colcab satisfies most of the local demand for refrigerated display cases and customers range from small independent retailers to large retail chains.

Colcoil has its origins when Colcab acquired the assets of Centurator and employed their staff in the 1990’s to manufacture in-house tube and fin heat exchangers for refrigerated display cases. Colcab acquired a new fin press from the USA and soon started to expand their coil supply to external customers. When the opportunity arose to acquire the assets and intellectual property of Yucon and also employ their staff, the coil division reached critical mass to become Colcoil and trade under its own name.

As the industry demand for total solutions increased, Colcoil launched its Multiplex and Simplex range to complement its extensive coil range.

Currently Colcoil offers design solutions and total equipment solutions to its customer base.

Colcoil manufactures tube and fin heat exchangers. The product range includes evaporator coils, condensers, steam coils, water/glycol coils, and any other tube and fin application. The product range also includes blowers, blast freezers and chillers, and any other bespoke assembly.

The process starts with de-coiling and straightening level wound copper tube and bending it into hairpins or cut-to-length straight tubes. Parallel to this, fins of the appropriate configuration are pressed from coiled aluminium or copper strip.

Colcoil has access to Colcab’s state-of-the-art sheet metal facility, which includes a laser cutter and various CNC punch machines and benders. Colcab also has its own organic powder coating facility. Once the fins, tubes, and sheet metal are ready, the coil can be stacked. This entails inserting the fins into the frame (end plates, centre plates, and side plates) and inserting the tubes into the fins according to the required circuiting.

Once the coil is stacked, it is ready for expansion where the tubes are mechanically expanded to fit snugly inside the fins, ensuring superior heat transfer from the tube to the fin. The expanded coil then becomes ready for trimming and brazing. After all tubes are trimmed and flared, return bends are fitted according to the circuit design and brazed in place while the tubes are purged with nitrogen.

Headers and distributer subassemblies are manufactured in a parallel process and finally brazed to the coil as per design. The coil is then ready for testing where it is pressurised to detect any leaks. The coil will remain pressurised right up to delivery and the pressure is monitored until the coil is dispatched.

Depending on the product, the coil can be assembled into an evaporator or condenser casing complete with fans and other accessories, such as expansion valves or fan controllers.

All units are subjected to a final quality inspection where the form and the function are evaluated according to strict guidelines before dispatch to the customer.

Each product is manufactured in line with an assembly, inspection, and test protocol aligned with ISO 9001 procedures.