The hood is protagonist of the kitchen environment, both due to its refined aesthetics and design and the technological performances that optimize energy efficiency and environmental comfort, from the drastic noise reduction to the lighting technique.
In the kitchen, the state-of-the art hood is not a simple appliance but a multitasking product that furnishes with valuable shapes and materials, increasingly interacts with the hob, drastically reduces noise, purifies air and heats it thanks to the heat recovery and is protagonist of the lighting technique concept. However, it is especially designed and manufactured according to sustainability criteria that accompany the product along its entire life cycle. These are the most interesting trends that are characterizing the world of kitchen hoods.
By “Elica’s”, the hood becomes a smart device that dialogues with other systems to assure the air purity and paves the way to an approach in line with the contemporaneous domotics applications. The latest product generation of the company is characterized by the presence of smart systems that exploit connection, sensor technology and mobile applications: a range of hobs and a dedicated series of hoods, able to interact one another, to detect quantities and qualities of steams and odours, while autonomously granting the optimal operation. In addition to all that, the energy saving and the filtering efficiency of suction systems, the study of an innovative lighting able to integrate with the other light spots of the kitchen, and the release of Snap, the suction system that monitors and improves the air quality by reducing the presence of polluting agents, odours and excessive steams in closed environments.
In the opinion of Edoardo Pontoni, Elica marketing manager, “design and technology are the main drivers in the development of products that stand out on the market for the attention to details, refined materials and care of sustainability. The coming into force in 2015 of the Labelling and Ecodesign directive was a boosting action in terms of development of sustainable products. The constant research of low energy consumption solutions has allowed Elica to propose cutting-edge systems witnessing its market leader role”. Sustainability is realized also by the choice of materials and by a global product vision, from the design to the service life end. “In the design and manufacturing of its products, Elica is increasingly addressing recyclable materials like plastic, glass, wood and ferrous components, according to a policy of environmental sustainability and social responsibility towards the territories where we operate, to which we intend to bring added value by operating in synergy with all stakeholders. Elica hoods are easily installed, used, maintained and also disassembled. Moreover, the packaging is greener and greener: we have replaced wooden components with cardboard, thus granting higher resistance and favouring recyclability”.
Craftmanship, detail care and valuable materials. But also research of high technological performances, with a design that integrates, upstream, the whole life and use course of the kitchen hood. Faber aims at this pair, expressed in the exclusive line “Limited Edition” composed by unique models, with handcrafted finishes and various materials. “Today the market is demanding for more and more eco-friendly household appliances” explains Serena Sorana, Marketing Manager of Faber: “Faber is attentive to these themes and develops solutions able to grant excellent Ecodesign results. This year we are presenting Nautilus technology, developed by our researchers, a new-concept diffusor able to suck and to purify air through a circular path, granting very high-energy performances in A-class. This device is applied inside a vertical hood, with finishes of precious materials like titanium and copper that highlight geometrical lines and lightness”. The attention to the ecologic impact of the product along the entire life cycle is one of the strongholds of Faber production that, underlines Luca Colciago, R&D Director – Business Unit Hoods of Faber, “has implemented a software that can calculate a sustainability index of hoods, inserted in the ambit of Genesi project in collaboration with Bath University (UK).
The programme can calculate a sustainability index of the product, from its assembly in the factory, considering also the impact of external supplies and of the related transports from the production place to the factory, to the service life and the disposal. Faber calculates this index for each new product platform that it develops and it does not industrialize the product until when it finds the suitable technical solutions for an index reduction by at least 20% compared to the previous generation”.
Design, innovative technologies and installation flexibility in the kitchen environment are, in an inseparable mix, the research field for Falmec which in the latest product lines released on the market focuses on aesthetical quality and strict connection between hood and hob. An approach that, as explains Camilla Piovesan, Graphics and Communication coordinator of Falmec, derives from the relevant change in course both in the aesthetical field and in the suction world: “on one hand there is the trend to minimal furniture and essential lines that imply the hood integration inside the furniture or in the false ceiling, in case of elements mounted on the ceiling. On the other hand, customers pay growing attention to the technical performances of the appliance and therefore the functional and technical elements of the product that grant high performance and reliability in time and that, at the same time improve the life quality in the kitchen, become more and more important”. The most felt problems include, for instance, the noise, the air quality and the energy saving. “To solve the noise issue, Falmec has introduced into its range an extraordinarily silent hood family allowing very low noise levels. Speaking of air quality, in line with the trend towards solutions that reduce energy consumptions and are oriented to hoods in filtering version, Falmec has patented the exclusive E.ion technology: this allows eliminating cooking fumes and odours through a ionizing process that emits clean air into the domestic environment, avoiding the energy wastes caused by the air ejection outside, with a drastic reduction of the carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere. Besides the above mentioned E.ion collection, we will present at Eurocucina a new collection of filtering hoods that, thanks to their innovative patented Falmec technology will allow and will grant a better filtering efficiency”.
The hoods signed by Novy interpret in various design declinations the common characteristics of silence, high performances and durability, attention to technical details. The target consists in offering designers and customers a reliable product in terms of functional performances and easy maintenance in time, with a strong bent for eco-sustainability.
“Novy has always paid great attention to the sustainability of its manufacturing processes– underlines Simone De Marchi, Channel Manager Italia Kitchen Manufacturers -. In an epoch in which this theme is the constant central issue of the debate, also a market like ours must keep pace with times through an intense work of research and attention, both in design and implementation phase. Ecodesign so becomes the philosophy that inspires our activity that matches shapes and efficiency, beauty and environment protection. Products are more and more integrated into the furniture, modify their features in search of originality and functions that make the difference”. Commitment that results in the will of “equipping the strategic models with Led lights, A+ motors, granting the recycling efficiency, both in terms of certifications and of materials; the company is in the forefront because the planet safeguard is achieved through design as well”. The appliance disassembly at its life end “is more fundamental than ever to manage at best both the disposal and the recycling/reuse of materials and components – further adds De Marchi -. Also the design and manufacturing processes must consider how to make the life end of a product more eco-sustainable. Novy dedicates energies to the accomplishment of researches to make its products easily disassembled and practical, in order to simplify their successive management”. Innovation pursues efficiency and capability of integrating the hood into the kitchen environment in functional and less and less invasive manner. “These are the aspects on which the research activity is focusing, dedicating a particular attention to connection systems among products. The InTouch system for instance, allows controlling the hood from the hob by “linking” two products that are generally used simultaneously. Another matter on which we intend to bet is recycling. Monoblok filter goes towards this direction, its particular composition eliminates air impurities, granting efficient suction and high silence. It is possible to regenerate this filter in electric oven at 120 °C for one hour, up to a maximum of 10 regenerations, for an average duration of 6 years, granting the odour absorption, while the recycling hood sends back the filtered air inside the kitchen, contributing in its heating”.
