Manufacturer: The Trane Company (La Crosse, Wisconsin) Product Category: HVAC Equipment / Air Handlers

Product Description

The Trane Company of La Crosse, Wisconsin was — with Carrier and York — one of the three dominant American manufacturers of commercial and industrial HVAC equipment throughout the mid-twentieth century. Trane central-station air-handling units were installed in hospitals, schools, high-rise office buildings, industrial plants, hotels, and Navy shore mechanical rooms. Each central-station unit consisted of a sheet-metal cabinet enclosing a mixing box, filter section, cooling coil, heating coil, drain pan beneath the cooling coil, and a supply-air fan section.

Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that the condensate drain pan beneath the chilled-water or DX cooling coil of Trane central-station air handlers was allegedly insulated with asbestos-cement insulating board or coated with an asbestos-loaded cementitious coating to prevent condensation sweat-through onto mechanical-room floors and to provide thermal separation between the cold pan and the surrounding cabinet steel. According to allegations in publicly filed litigation records, similar asbestos-cement panels and coatings were used inside cabinet walls flanking the coil section.

Documented asbestos-use period, according to publicly filed litigation records: approximately 1940s through 1975.

Workers Exposed

HVAC service technicians and refrigeration mechanics allegedly encountered the drain-pan and cabinet asbestos-cement material when performing coil pulls, drain-pan replacement, and interior cabinet repairs. Publicly filed litigation records allege that removing corroded drain pans required scraping and breaking away the underlying asbestos-cement insulation, generating friable chrysotile dust in the confined cabinet interior.

Sheet metal workers fabricating cabinet modifications or installing replacement coil sections allegedly cut through cabinet panels containing asbestos-cement board, releasing fiber at the cut line.

Insulators working around Trane air-handling units allegedly applied and later removed field-installed asbestos wrap and lagging on the exterior cabinet and connected ductwork, and were bystander-exposed to asbestos-cement dust generated by service technicians working inside the cabinets.

Pipefitters connecting and disconnecting chilled-water, hot-water, condensate, and steam-coil piping to Trane air-handling units worked in close proximity to disturbed drain-pan insulation during coil-piping repairs.

Demolition and renovation workers decades later allegedly disturbed aged asbestos-cement drain-pan insulation during HVAC replacement in older commercial and institutional buildings.