Toshiba Carrier World ’s First Inverter Air Conditioners Honored as IEEE Milestone

Kawasakishi, Japan – Toshiba Carrier Corporation announced that the world’s first inverter split air conditioners that the company developed, and mass produced for commercial and residential applications in 1980 and 1981, respectively, have been recognized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as an IEEE Milestone for the historic significance of the achievement in electrical and electronics fields.

Toshiba Carrier is an air conditioning joint venture in Japan between Toshiba Corporation and Carrier. Carrier is a part of Carrier Global Corporation (CARR), a leading global provider of healthy, safe, and sustainable building and cold chain solutions.

The IEEE Milestones program commends historic achievements of groundbreaking innovations in the areas of electrical, electronics, information, and communications technologies, which are at least 25 years old and have made a significant contribution to the advancement of society and industry.

Since the start of the program in 1983, IEEE has awarded 209 milestones in the world.

 The first IEEE Milestone for achievement in the HVAC industry* is awarded to Toshiba.  With this honor, the Toshiba group has received three IEEE Milestones; “Japanese Word Processor JW 10” in 2008 and “Laptop PC T1100 in 2013” are the previous two Milestones awarded in addition to this most recent Milestone.

Toshiba, with a state-of-the-art power electronics technologies and microprocessor control, achieved a significant downsizing in its inverters that were instrumental in variable speed compressor operation for optimized temperature control with significantly improved comfort and energy efficiency. These innovations have led to widespread use of inverter air conditioners across the world.