Cold Logic expanding into defence with new hi-tech testing facility

Industrial refrigeration company Cold Logic is expanding into the defence industry, with the launch of a new hi-tech testing facility at its Wingfield HQ.

Cold Logic managing director Eddie Lane at the company’s new headquarters in Wingfield. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Industrial refrigeration company Cold Logic is making a strategic expansion into the burgeoning defence industry, with the launch of a new hi-tech testing facility at its Wingfield headquarters.

After relocating to its new multi-million dollar premises earlier this year, the company has unveiled its new industrial environmental chamber used to test the operational performance of defence technologies and equipment in extreme temperatures.

The facility exposes hi-tech equipment such as naval-based warfare electronics, battle management systems, troop shelters and vehicles to wild temperature fluctuations from -33 to 50-plus degrees Celsius.

It will be used for major defence projects and platforms including the Collins-class submarines and Hunter-class frigates.

Managing Director Eddie Lane said that while the company’s roots were in the commercial food and beverage industry, defence was emerging as a rapid growth sector for the business.

“We are proud to be able to support the nation’s sovereign capability through our new state-of-the-art defence testing facility which represents an exciting new phase in our company’s growth,” he said.

“Nowhere else in the country can you test the operational running performance of critical defence equipment in the very harshest of conditions – from -33 degrees, which you might find in the Arctic, to the scorching heat associated with combat in desert environments.

“We expect to see electronic equipment for land, naval and air applications that need to perform in places such as the Middle East or Antarctica, and even in space, being put through

their paces right here at Wingfield.”

Mr Lane said the multi-million dollar facility was the first of its kind in Australia, and was supported by $1.7m in grant funding as part of the federal government’s Sovereign Industry Capability Priority program.

He said Cold Logic was on a recruitment drive for refrigeration apprentices and mechanics, boilermakers, technicians and engineers on the back of its expansion, and expects to increase the size of its 100-plus workforce by up to 25 per cent over the next three-to-five years.

“The last two years has seen rapid growth for the company, and we are currently in the midst of the largest recruitment drive in our history.”

Cold Logic was established 40 years ago in 1984, and opened a defence division in 2018 after being awarded a major contract with ASC.

Late last year, it was awarded a multi-million dollar contract with BAE Systems Maritime Australia to construct and install cold and cool rooms for the first batch of three Hunter-class frigates, in partnership with UK company Ernest West & Beynon, which supplied into the Type 26 program – the reference design for the Hunter-class frigates.

Originally published as Cold Logic expanding into defence with new hi-tech testing facility