If you could have a car without a timing belt, that would be nice, right? That’s an expensive bill every few years that we all would prefer to avoid.
The same applies to fans. Eliminating belts is a real time and cost saver. The fan above looks innocent enough, right?
Consider the motor above needs to be maintained. And what if it fails?
Think about it for a moment.
The service contractor will have to pull off the inlet bell. To do that, disconnect the duct from the inlet or remove the fan. Then detach the fan wheel from the motor. Then extract the motor from the side. A new motor goes in. Now try to swing that wheel back and connect to the motor. That’s no easy task, especially when the wheel is several hundred pounds or more.
Don’t forget to rebalance the fan with a professional balancer.
Also true for centrifugal fans, but it’s potentially worse because the wheel will drop inside the scroll housing if it’s not supported, and it has to be fished out.
Does it happen? Yep.
When your customer says ‘I want all direct drive!’, you may want to make sure they know all that is involved.
Just another fun topic we’ll review in our fan training!
See you online.
Tom
You’re Invited to
“A Deep Dive into 4 Very Challenging Fan Selections
Using Cook Software”
When:
October 28th
Topic:
Complex Fan Selection
