Cubigel at Chillventa 2026: The NUS R290 Range for Light Commercial Refrigeration

By the Qishanr technical desk. Reviewed 27 October 2026.

Cubigel Compressors is the brand under which Huayi Compressor Barcelona, S.L. exhibited at Chillventa 2026 in Hall 5, stand 5-306, offering hermetic reciprocating compressors and condensing units for light commercial refrigeration. The entry carries exactly one downloadable document, a two page flyer on the NUS range: six R290 models from 4.5 to 8.9 cc, each with a full Cecomaf and ASHRAE performance row. This article reads that flyer against the manufacturer's own range pages and against our catalogue listings, keeps every capacity attached to its rating point, and names the figures that none of the three sources publishes.

The useful question at a light commercial stand is not which compressor is largest. It is which model in the band still holds its coefficient of performance when the evaporating temperature falls. The NUS flyer answers that question directly, because it prints two separate rating systems side by side, and the answer is not the same in both.

Key facts at a glance

The first eight rows are event and company facts. The next two describe the catalogue rather than a product. The last two are the boundary of this article: every capacity below comes from a printed flyer row that also prints its rating condition, and nothing else is quoted as a model level figure.

What did Cubigel show at Chillventa 2026?

The stand photograph shows a white floored island with orange based plinths, bare hermetic compressors mounted on them at working height, and a curved orange banner carrying the Cubigel wordmark repeated three times. Above it the white ceiling beam carries the green triangle logo and the words HUAYI COMPRESSOR BARCELONA. Two staff in orange shirts are on the aisle side of the island. The stall reads as a component display, not a unit display: the compressor bodies are shown without cabinets or condensing assemblies.

The exhibition entry states the offer in two lines, reciprocating compressors and condensing units, and lists six keywords: 60 years manufacturing, condensing units, efficient solutions, energy saving, natural refrigerants and variable speed compressors. Those six keywords map onto the range structure described further down. The entry also lists four named contacts: Pedro Olalla as Sales and R&D Director, and Oscar Girardi, David Bernet and Bru Coll as Sales Area Managers.

One detail matters for anyone using this page as a source. The only file offered for download on the 2026 entry is named Flyer NUS 2022.pdf. It is a two page document dated 2022, hosted by the exhibition organiser rather than by the manufacturer. It is therefore the exhibitor's standing NUS document, not a launch sheet written for this show, and this article treats it as such.

Who is behind the brand

Three names appear in one sentence of the exhibition entry and they are not interchangeable. Huayi Compressor Barcelona, S.L. is the legal entity. Cubigel Compressors is the brand it operates under. Huayi Compressor Co. Ltd. is the group it belongs to. The entry describes the company as designing, manufacturing and selling hermetic compressors and condensing units for the light commercial refrigeration market, with European quality production, a site in Sant Quirze del Valles outside Barcelona, more than 90 percent of production exported and more than 195 employees. It states more than 60 years of experience in commercial refrigeration, which is the origin of the 60 years manufacturing keyword.

The distinction has a practical consequence for a buyer. A quotation, a certificate or a declaration of conformity may carry the legal entity name rather than the brand, and a search for the brand alone will not always reach it. The contact address in the entry is c/Antoni Forrellad 2, 08192 Sant Quirze del Valles, Barcelona, with the telephone number +34.93.7106008.

The NUS range: six R290 models from 4.50 to 8.90 cc

The flyer's cover makes four claims in large type: a super efficiency compressor range, natural refrigerant R290, a displacement span of 4.5 to 8.9 cc, a maximum efficiency up to 1.9 W per watt on ASHRAE 32, and an LMBP working envelope of -40 C to 0 C, described as compact. The second page carries the table that those claims rest on. It is reproduced here in full, with the rating condition written into every column header.

Every row also states a common electrical basis: 220 to 240 V, 50 Hz, single phase, fan cooled. That is one supply condition for the whole band, which is unusual for a range that spans nearly a factor of two in displacement, and it is the reason the same motor designation appears six times.

The two rating systems are not interchangeable. Cecomaf columns in this table are stated at three evaporating temperatures, -35 C, -30 C and -25 C, and the coefficient of performance column that follows belongs to -25 C only. The ASHRAE columns are stated at -10 C and at -23.3 C, and again the COP belongs to -23.3 C only. A buyer who compares a 1.46 with a 1.88 is comparing two different test points, not two different machines.

What the efficiency claim covers, and what it does not

The headline number on the cover is 1.9. In the table it is reached by two models, NUS55NA and NUS60NA, both at ASHRAE -23.3 C. The band runs from 1.85 at NUS80NA and NUS90NA up to that 1.90 pair, a spread of 0.05. On the Cecomaf basis the same six models run from 1.42 to 1.46, a spread of 0.04. Both spreads are small enough that the efficiency argument inside this range is not about picking the best model but about whether the range suits the cabinet at all.

The capacity progression is close to linear, which matters more than the efficiency spread. From NUS45NA to NUS90NA displacement grows from 4.50 to 8.90 cc, a factor of 1.98, while ASHRAE capacity at -23.3 C grows from 225 to 440 W, a factor of 1.96. There is no step change hidden in the middle of the band: each step buys roughly what its displacement buys.

The motor column carries the one structural discontinuity. Five models use RSCR, and NUS90NA uses CSR. In plain terms the top of the band is a different electrical design, and the run capacitor is part of that design rather than an optional efficiency upgrade. A panel built for the lower five should not be assumed to take NUS90NA without change.

Why R290 changes the selection, not just the label

The manufacturer's own natural refrigerant page makes four claims that a selection argument can be built on. Propane has no direct contribution to global warming. In an application its energy consumption is between 12 and 15 percent lower than a similar application running R404A. R290 compressors offer higher cooling capacity and coefficient of performance, which allows the same duty from a smaller displacement. And when the R290 charge is combined with the design criteria of the high efficiency range, the more advanced versions can save up to 35 percent of energy against standard efficiency R404A series.

Those numbers are the manufacturer's, not measurements, and they are stated for an application rather than for a compressor in isolation. The distinction is worth keeping, because a compressor coefficient of performance and an appliance energy saving are not the same quantity and cannot be substituted for each other.

The regulatory frame sits outside the flyer. Regulation (EU) 2024/573 governs fluorinated greenhouse gases in the European Union and is the reason a light commercial range moves toward a refrigerant with no direct global warming contribution in the first place. EN 12900 is the European standard for rating positive displacement refrigerant compressors, and it is the basis on which a Cecomaf style capacity table is normally built. Neither document appears in the flyer, and neither is needed to read the table, but both are needed before a rating is put into a tender. The European Commission's fluorinated greenhouse gases page summarises the same regulation in plain language, and the International Institute of Refrigeration publishes the wider technical background on natural refrigerant applications.

Where the NUS band sits in the wider range

The NUS band covers 4.5 to 8.9 cc. The manufacturer publishes eight compressor platforms and one unit platform around it, and the overlaps are the part a buyer has to resolve.

The overlap that matters is U and L. NUS is not listed among these platforms at all, because it is the R290 super efficiency band described by its own flyer, yet its 4.5 to 8.9 cc span sits inside the U and L spans. The L platform is the direct alternative, since it covers the same band with six refrigerants and three efficiency levels selected through an optional run capacitor. Two of the stocked L models mark the steps either side of the NUS band: NLY80RA below it and NLY90RA at its top.

The family as we stock it, from the Small L band up to the S platform, is indexed on the Cubigel category page.

Applications: what the envelope allows, and what it forbids

The flyer names two applications for the NUS band, chest freezers and bottle coolers, and defines the envelope as LMBP, from -40 C to 0 C evaporating. That is a low and medium back pressure envelope. It is not a high back pressure envelope and it is not an air conditioning envelope, and no model in the table should be applied above 0 C evaporating on the strength of this document.

The wider applications that a light commercial buyer usually asks about are carried by other platforms in the same catalogue. Display cabinets, display islands, supermarket refrigeration equipment and blast chillers are named for the X platform, which runs from 16.0 to 23.0 cc. Two of the stocked X models bracket that duty: NX21FBa and NX23FBa. Vending machines, beer dispensers, soft drink dispensers and ice makers are named for the L and P platforms, not for NUS.

The practical reading is that a Cubigel selection starts with the cabinet, not with the compressor. A chest freezer at -25 C to -18 C is NUS territory. A display cabinet in a supermarket aisle, with doors opening all day and a higher evaporating temperature, is X or S territory. A bottle cooler is the boundary case, named by both the NUS flyer and the L platform page.

How the model strings read, and where the digits mislead

The six designations follow one shape: the prefix NUS, two digits, and the suffix NA. The prefix identifies the band, not the displacement, and it should never be read across to another Cubigel family. NUY, NUT, NUG, NLY, NPY and NX are different platforms with their own envelopes.

The two digits look like displacement multiplied by ten, and for three of the six models they are. NUS45NA is 4.50 cc, NUS55NA is 5.50 cc and NUS60NA is 6.00 cc. The pattern then breaks twice. NUS70NA is 6.70 cc, not 7.00, and NUS80NA is 8.10 cc, not 8.00. NUS90NA returns to the pattern at 8.90 cc. So the number is a model index that happens to track displacement at the bottom and top of the band, and the displacement column is the only reliable source.

The NA suffix is not defined anywhere in the flyer. It is not a refrigerant code, since all six models are R290, and it is not a motor code, since the motor column is stated separately. It should be treated as part of the model designation until the manufacturer publishes otherwise, and it should not be dropped when ordering.

Where our own listing and the flyer disagree

Three of our catalogue pages for this band can be compared field by field with the flyer, and the comparison is not clean. Publishing both sets is the only honest option, because a buyer who finds the other number will otherwise assume one of the two is a typo.

Two of the three capacities agree exactly with the flyer's ASHRAE -23.3 C column, which suggests the listing number was taken from that column and the rating point was then dropped from the page. The NUS45NA figure does not agree, and the listing gives no rating point to explain the difference. The coefficient of performance on our pages is a single rounded 1.8 for the whole band, while the flyer prints 1.85 to 1.90, so the listing is conservative rather than wrong. The application label differs in one direction only: our page writes LBP for NUS90NA where the flyer writes LMBP.

None of this changes a selection, and all of it changes a specification sheet. Where the two sources differ, quote the flyer figure with its condition, and confirm the value on the data sheet at the point of order.

What the flyer does not publish

The document is two pages and it is a sales flyer, so the omissions are structural rather than accidental. It does not publish sound pressure or sound power level, weight, oil type or oil charge, rated current or locked rotor current, any dimension other than the displacement, any 60 Hz performance row, or any A2L variant. It does not publish a coefficient of performance at -35 C or -30 C, only capacity, so the shape of the efficiency curve below -25 C has to be requested.

The condensing unit side is thinner still. The manufacturer's unit page states a span of 1.4 to 38 cc, LBP, HMBP and HBP coverage, operation designed for 43 C ambient and R290 versions available, but it publishes no model table, so no unit level capacity can be quoted from it.

Our own listings add two fields that the flyer omits: overall height of 180 mm for NUS45NA and NUS60NA and 182 mm for NUS90NA, and certification to CCC and VDE. Those are useful for envelope work and they are the only dimensional figures available in either source.

The documents that the flyer omits are held elsewhere. The manufacturer's catalogue library carries the full technical catalogues, and the specification sheets and drawings we hold are collected in the technical download library.

How to shortlist a Cubigel compressor for a given duty

Start with the evaporating temperature and the cabinet type, not with a model number. If the duty sits between -40 C and 0 C and the cabinet is a chest freezer or a bottle cooler, the NUS band is in scope; if it sits above 0 C, it is not.

Second, convert the duty to the flyer's basis. The table gives capacity at -10 C and -23.3 C on ASHRAE, and at -35 C, -30 C and -25 C on Cecomaf. Interpolating between the two systems is not valid; pick the column that matches the rating basis the customer has specified.

Third, check the electrical design at the top of the band. NUS90NA is CSR while the other five are RSCR, so a design that needs one panel across the whole band is limited to the lower five.

Fourth, decide whether the R290 restriction is acceptable. The NUS band is R290 only. If the same cabinet has to be offered with R404A, R134a or R507 as well, the L platform covers the same 4.5 to 10.7 cc span with six refrigerants and three efficiency levels, and the choice becomes a platform decision rather than a model decision.

Fifth, treat the published coefficient of performance as a screening value. A 1.90 at ASHRAE -23.3 C and a 1.44 at Cecomaf -25 C can describe the same compressor, so the number is only meaningful next to its rating point.

Platform level comparisons across the whole family, rather than this one band, are collected in the technical article index.

Frequently asked questions

Where was Cubigel at Chillventa 2026?

Huayi Compressor Barcelona, S.L. exhibited under the Cubigel Compressors brand in Hall 5, stand 5-306, at NurnbergMesse in Nuremberg from 13 to 15 October 2026. The official exhibition entry is the authoritative record of the stand number and of the two product lines offered, and the official Chillventa site publishes the exhibitor directory and the floor plan behind it.

Is Cubigel the same company as Huayi Compressor Barcelona?

Cubigel Compressors is the brand. Huayi Compressor Barcelona, S.L. is the legal entity that operates it, and Huayi Compressor Co. Ltd. is the group that the entity belongs to. Paperwork may carry any of the three names.

Does Cubigel make rotary or reciprocating compressors?

Reciprocating. The exhibition entry lists reciprocating compressors and condensing units, and the NUS models in the flyer are hermetic reciprocating compressors with a stated displacement of 4.50 to 8.90 cc.

Which refrigerant do the NUS models use?

R290 only. All six models in the table are listed as R290 with a 220 to 240 V, 50 Hz single phase supply. No alternative refrigerant appears for this band in the flyer.

What does the 1.9 W per watt efficiency figure refer to?

It refers to a coefficient of performance measured on ASHRAE 32 at -23.3 C evaporating, and it is reached by NUS55NA and NUS60NA. The other four models in the band are published at 1.85 or 1.88 on the same basis. The lower figures of 1.42 to 1.46 in the same table are Cecomaf values at -25 C and are not comparable with it.

Why does NUS70NA not mean 7.0 cc?

Because the two digits are a model index, not a displacement. NUS45NA, NUS55NA, NUS60NA and NUS90NA happen to match their displacement multiplied by ten, but NUS70NA is 6.70 cc and NUS80NA is 8.10 cc. Always read the displacement column.

Can I compare these coefficients of performance with another brand's data?

Only if both are on the same rating basis. The NUS flyer prints Cecomaf and ASHRAE values for the same compressor, and the two differ by roughly 0.4 in the same row. Comparing a Cecomaf figure with an ASHRAE figure will make one compressor look better than it is.

Which NUS model replaces a given R404A compressor?

The flyer does not publish a cross reference, and this article will not invent one. The manufacturer states that an R290 application consumes 12 to 15 percent less energy than a similar R404A application and that R290 gives higher capacity from a smaller displacement, which means a direct like for like displacement swap is usually not the right starting point. Size from the duty and the evaporating temperature instead.

Sources