ESSEN, Germany — The organizers of the annual "Red Dot" design awards have bestowed a Product Design 2020 honor on Mahle Aftermarket Inc. for its ACX 480 air-conditioning service unit.
The Red Dot recognizes creative designs of products, brand communications and projects and showcases the winners in Red Dot Design Museums around the world. The award judges test all product entries to assess their aesthetics, materials selection, craftsmanship, surface structure, ergonomics and functionality.
The Mahle A/C service unit was recognized for its design quality in the new Smart Products metacategory.
The ACX 480 is characterized by modern and elegant aesthetics and its ergonomic and intuitive operating concept, Mahle said, enabling maintenance of vehicle air conditioning systems in workshops to run up to 50% faster.
"Mahle has more than 30 years of experience in constructing A/C service units. When designing the ACX 480, we paid close attention to the needs of workshops: simple operation and a functional design as well as a robust construction capable of withstanding workshop conditions, Olaf Henning, corporate executive vice president and general manager of Mahle Aftermarket, said.
"We are proud to have this recognized and our work confirmed with such a prestigious award."
The ACX 480 uses a smartphone app so technicians can view workflows and the unit status or automatically order a service. The large touch screen, which is standard on all units, provides the user with a continuous display of all information and programmed procedures, as well as the current status.