Dixell: Refrigeration and air-conditioning controllers and XWEB supervisors

Overview

Dixell was founded in the mid-1990s in Alpago, in the province of Belluno, to make electronic controls for refrigeration and air conditioning. HVACR Advisors dates the company to 1995 and its acquisition by Emerson to 2009, a date the Belluno CISL union also gives. When Blackstone bought a majority of Emerson's Climate Technologies business in 2023 and renamed it Copeland, Dixell went with it; Copeland's brand page now says Dixell Electronics is Copeland.

The brand's strength is the compact panel controller. Its XR family in the 32 x 74 mm format runs the compressor, defrost, fans and lights of refrigerated cabinets and cold rooms, and the manuals for each model publish the parameters and the serial addresses of the readings. Above the controllers, the XWEB supervisors collect a store's equipment on one network for alarms and records, and the XC and iPro ranges handle compressor racks and custom applications. Dixell is therefore a building block for refrigeration equipment builders and food retailers rather than a software platform in its own right.

Offering

Copeland's Dixell solutions page groups the range into parametric controllers, fan speed controllers and inverters, compressor controls, EEV drivers, sensors and monitoring systems. XR controllers have one to four relays, one to four sensors and one or two digital inputs, in the 32 x 74 mm panel format or a 4 DIN module.

Three XR models show the spread. The XR60CX controls the compressor, fan and defrost of medium and low temperature ventilated units. The XR170C adds an alarm or auxiliary relay, a door switch input and up to three probes. The XR77CX runs low temperature units with a configurable light relay and an optional real-time clock for scheduled defrosts.

For compressor racks, XC controllers take 2 to 6 probe inputs, 2 to 23 digital inputs and up to 15 relays, with run-hour signals for maintenance. XWEB PRO supervisors come in three sizes: XWEB500D PRO for 36 to 75 instruments, XWEB1000D PRO for 100 to 150 and XWEB5000 PRO for up to 494. The Expoclima listing describes XWEB as web-based monitoring and supervision under HACCP rules and iPro as programmable controllers for HVAC/R units. The products are sold through Copeland's distribution network.

Technology

XR controllers communicate over a serial line, and how they reach RS-485 depends on the model. The XR170C and XR77CX have built-in RS-485 terminals that answer Modbus RTU at the address set in the Adr parameter, so several controllers can share one bus. The XR60CX exposes only a TTL line on its HOT KEY connector; the XJ485-CX converter, documented in the XC650CX manual, plugs in there and turns it into RS-485, after which the connector cannot also carry an X-REP display.

The XWEB PRO supervisors poll those networks, record data and raise alarms, with RS-232 and Ethernet interfaces and Wi-Fi access from mobile devices, according to the Dixell solutions page. Some XR models also speak to Copeland's E2 and Site Supervisor controllers, which links the Dixell range to the parent company's store-level systems.

The supervisors are network-facing equipment and have had serious flaws. In February 2026 CISA advisory ICSA-26-057-10 listed 23 vulnerabilities in XWEB 300D PRO, 500D PRO and 500B PRO firmware 1.12.1 and earlier, the worst an authentication bypass rated CVSS 10.0, and directed users to update to the latest firmware.

Markets

Dixell's products are aimed at commercial refrigeration, air conditioning and retail. Copeland's brand page presents them as protecting food through the cold chain, and its refrigeration offer includes CO2 controls for transcritical and subcritical systems. The XWEB sizing, from a few dozen instruments to several hundred on one supervisor, covers sites from a single shop to a large supermarket with many cases and cold rooms.

Sales reach customers through Copeland's own channels. In the United States, ACHR News reported in March 2018 that Emerson was taking over distribution from Weiss Instruments, which had been Dixell's exclusive third-party distributor there for 22 years. Elsewhere the products are sold by Copeland's regional organisations and listed distributors, which its brand page links from a where-to-buy search. The Copeland renaming in 2023 placed Dixell inside a heating, cooling and refrigeration business with revenues of around $5 billion, which gives the brand access to compressor and valve customers worldwide.

Company

The legal entity is Copeland Controls Srl, at Via dell'Industria 27 in Alpago. Copeland's affiliate notice records its renaming from Dixell S.R.L. as part of the name change announced in February 2024. Dixell had been part of Emerson Electric since 2009, according to the CISL union notice of June 2019, which counted more than 190 employees in Alpago.

The site has grown since. The Corriere delle Alpi reported in November 2022 more than 220 employees by 2021 and turnover above €61 million for the year to August 2022, against a target of €57.9 million.

Ownership changed at group level in 2023. Cooling Post reported that Blackstone completed its acquisition of a majority of Emerson's Climate Technologies business on 31 May 2023, valuing it at $14 billion, with Emerson keeping 40% of the common equity. The business took the Copeland name and is run from St. Louis. Dixell figures are not published separately in Copeland's group reporting, so the Alpago turnover and headcount above come from local press.