Commercial Refrigeration Solution for Broken Fan Blades

Challenge

A major commercial refrigeration OEM approached us looking to see if we could provide a solution for a cooling fan to be used in the evaporator in their fridges and freezers. They had previously been using a competitor’s product and had experienced technical issues. Some of the fan blades had broken off the fan motor that they had been using in their applications.

Solution

After looking at the customer's application we supplied samples of our EXRi50 motor assembly in 172-millimeter format for testing. We ran air flow charts to show that the performance of our motor would match or exceed the performance of their original fan they were using.

The OEM put our motors on a long-term test. They were on test in units for three to four months. At the end of that test process our engineering team met with the customer and discovered the issue in the design. It was determined that there was excessive pressure being applied onto the fan blades of the competitor product, which was causing the fan blades to break.

Result

The customer incorporated a re-design based on the observations we'd made. They were also extremely happy that despite the unacceptable operating conditions that had been created inside the unit due to the original design fault, they were very pleased that our unit had performed far better than the competitor unit. Also, and more importantly, had not suffered the same catastrophic damage.

As a result, we supplied further samples. We then supplied them with a lot of comparative back-to-back air flow test data and reliability data. Currently, we are now the preferred supplier to the OEM in the two units that we'd originally engaged them on with other opportunities to follow.