ebm-papst Fans, Blowers and Technology

Why brushless motor designs are gaining momentum for commercial truck and bus ventilation

By Bill McBaine

Not so many years ago, designers of commercial truck and bus ventilation systems had only a few choices for motors. These products offered economical solutions but were not without issues.

Then came a global fuel crisis, which forced truck fleet owners to re-think how they operate their vehicles. Because it was no longer fiscally practical to idle a large diesel engine during evening truck stops to power and ventilate the sleeper cab, HVAC manufacturers began to integrate their HVAC and power generation systems into auxiliary power units.

Mass transit authorities faced similar challenges: save fuel while providing adequate ventilation for passengers. They pushed for reducing buses’ down time and improving their life span, which required a new solution: a DC input motor device capable of drastically longer service life.

As a global manufacturer of air movers and drive systems, our challenge was to adapt to these new realities. The result? A brushless motor design that offers longer life, lower maintenance, better fuel efficiency and improved performance.

Let’s look at the old-versus-new options for powering ventilation systems in commercial vehicles.

Low voltage (12/24VDC) brush commutation motors, offered by many suppliers, were the standard for many years. Featuring a consumable carbon brush in contact with a commentator to provide power to various motor windings, they offered a simple, inexpensive approach. 

However, brush commutation motors have always been prone to wear-and-tear issues as they age.

The motor’s brush material is consumed over time through physical contact with the spinning commentator. This abrasive material becomes trapped within the motor, leading to bearing failure if it contaminates the grease. Typical brush life is 4,000 to 6,000 hours. “Long life” variations may exceed 10,000 hours but have unfortunately resulted in even greater amounts of abrasive brush material building up in the motor.

In addition, water penetration/condensation in brush commutation motors during extreme external temperature swings can result in moisture being drawn deep inside the unit (especially at the seams). Once trapped, this moisture cannot easily escape, leading to corrosion and shortened life span of the motor.

Another ventilation motor option, high voltage (230VAC) induction motors allow higher power levels at a lower amperage draw compared to 12/24VDC brush designs. On the down side, this approach requires a high-capacity AC power source, which adds a lot of additional expense to the system. These motors’ physical space requirements are also more suited to the mass transit industry/ bus market than for other types of commercial vehicles.

So what’s the third option? Automotive brushless commutation motors, which ebm-papst has refined over the past 10 years to offer truck and bus fleets better efficiency and performance.

The brushless generation of automotive motors introduces a Gortex membrane within the electronics components, allowing any condensation to be safely eliminated from the circuit board. Leading suppliers of HVAC systems within moving vehicles and equipment have embraced these designs, now used in quantities of hundreds of thousands of pieces in commercial and industrial vehicles.

Our third generation W3G300 fan, introduced to North America in 2011, and the new W3G385 fan, which joins ebm-papst’s brushless motor product family this year, build on the success of earlier models while offering new capabilities such as greater air performance, thinner and lighter construction, reduced power usage and lower noise levels.

As fuel prices continue to rise, we’ll keep listening to the needs of our mobile customers and their HVAC suppliers, developing and testing new improvements to our brushless motor systems.

If you’re a truck or bus fleet owner, manager or maintenance pro, we want to hear from you. What are your experiences with brushless motor systems? How can we continue advancing brushless motor designs?

If you work in a climate controlled office cubicle with a low ceiling, the mystical term “thermal destratification” may never play a role in your comfort or productivity.

However, if you’re on a production floor or in a warehouse that swelters in the summer and freezes in the winter, shivered or sweated in an enclosed stadium or mall, or peered into a frost-covered grocer’s freezer, you may appreciate the benefits of a device that evens out temperatures by continually exchanging a building’s hot top air layer with cooler, lower layers.

Nine years ago, entrepreneur Ray Avedon, president of Longmont, Colorado-based Avedon Engineering and founder of Airius LLC, invented the turbine-shaped Air Pear Thermal Equalizer® to solve air flow problems and to save energy at his contract manufacturing facilities.

 Ray Avedon with the AirPear

He hit upon a novel design and concept for a ceiling mounted air mover that would meet the needs of enclosed spaces – manufacturing facilities, warehouses, groceries, aircraft hangers and gymnasiums – that needed to stabilize temperature and humidity levels. 

The energy efficient air turbine, named the Air Pear® by Airius for its appealing shape, was born. Initially developed in five models offering progressive voltage and size options, the more than 30,000 Air Pear® systems that have been installed since 2004 have been saving buildings — such Siemens Transportation Systems’ rail maintenance facilities in Acton, UK — 35 percent or more on energy costs with an ROI of 12 to 36 months.

Before 2006, Airius sourced internal fan assemblies for its Air Pear systems from a low technology manufacturer. Airius had to meet specific regulations by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stipulating that pharmaceutical warehouse temperatures vary by no more than two degrees from ceiling to floor. The company needed to work with a manufacturer that would be able to deliver a dependable, controllable fan that would meet FDA’s stringent requirements.

Enter ebm-papst, Inc., the North American headquarters for ebm-papst, a global manufacturer of energy efficient air moving systems.

“At our request, ebm-papst came up with a special fan motor – the EC motor – to facilitate our marketing with the pharmaceutical industry. That motor series is now the norm for our Air Pear destratification product line,” expained Avedon.

“The beauty of our axial fans’ EC motor is that everything can be remotely controlled. There are no separate motor speeds to hassle with … meaning dependable consistent ventilation and ease for the customer,” said Randy Rau, ebm-papst’s Denver-based sales engineer.

Six years later, Airius utilizes ebm-papst fans in 75 percent of its Air Pear systems. According to Rau, linked arrays of remotely controlled Air Pears that incorporate ebm-papst EC axial fans are installed in hundreds of applications.

The customers are diverse; Air Pear usage ranges from warehouses and plants to grocery stores, movie theaters, even a dairy producer that keeps its cows cool to increase milk production. Air Pear Model 45s are being used to equalize temperature and humidity in Washington D.C.’s botanical garden and soon will be installed at Hartford, Conn./Springfield, Mass.’s Bradley Airport. The larger Air Pear Model 100s are installed in aircraft hangers, large atriums, retail malls and sports stadiums.

As part of its GreenTech commitment to energy efficiency, ebm-papst Inc.’s U.S. headquarters in Farmington, Conn. recently installed 12 Air Pear units in an area that formerly served as warehouse space and now houses the company’s assembly operations. According to ebm-papst Director of Manufacturing Brian Ladegard, the units, which are wired to be controlled as one collective “node” as well as operate independently, serve three purposes.

“The Air Pear units will help keep employees in our assembly building comfortable during winter months by circulating warm air to floor level,” said Ladegard. “We anticipate saving on energy costs by equalizing temperatures in this building. And because ebm-papst’s fans and motors are at the heart of the Air Pear Thermal Equalizers, observing them operate in our facility allows us to conduct practical on-site research and development and offer new configurations to Airius that can help them reach new markets.”

Under rainy skies, a celebration of green

While last Wednesday’s showers prevented an outdoor celebration, the weather didn’t dampen our Every Day is a Green Day luncheon at ebm-papst’s US headquarters in Farmington, Connecticut. Employees have been preparing for this day by bringing their old and outdated electronic devices to the office for recycling.

Just a small sampling of the many electronics collected this week!

Employees also took the opportunity to purchase energy efficient and environmentally friendly CFL lighting from TechniArt, Inc. and had the ability to shred personal documents with Cintas.

After eating locally-sourced hot dogs, burgers and strawberry shortcake, we learned what many employees do to be green at home and work with a trivia contest.

The winning answers:

“At work, I requested a filtration system for the Deburring Machine, and was granted... My house has energy efficient insulation, windows, faucets, thermostats on a timer set for occupancy times, no greater than 58°F. We grow our own vegetables, fruits, have a compost bin for the garbage. I have rain barrels to catch rain water for plants, a wood stove heats our house. Our town has, and we utilize, a transfer station, recycle bins. We have solar panels for hot water. We have CFLs throughout the house (inside & outside).” Thomas Dunbar, Facilities Maintenance.

“I supplement my transportation needs with an electric bicycle of my own design. Counting the 28 miles I put on it this weekend, I’ve logged over 12,300 miles on it. I use solar thermal panels of my own design to supplement my upstairs heating in the winter time. The panels use a re-programmed older revision ALU board and sample 5000 series fans from the previous decade. I drive a Smart car which has cut my commuting gas consumption in half. I’ve switched over to LED lighting in approximately half of my household.” Charles Blow, Design Engineer.

We also formally ‘threw the switch’ on the power inverter to begin converting energy produced by the new, additional 50 kilowatts of solar panels on the roof of our production facility into power for our facility for a total of 100 kw now installed. When that power isn’t needed, we’re sending excess power back to ‘the grid’.

Flipping the switch!

ebm-papst President and CEO Bob Sobolowski and Vice President of Engineering Scott Beauchamin with Mark Waldo, president of Waldo Electric, with Waldo’s energy inverter in the plant’s power control room.

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ebm-papst’s trash patrol hauls lots of junk

June 14

On Friday, the trash pickup team from ebm-papst donned tear proof clothing and braved weeds, thorns and wild animals to haul hidden trash from a public area next to Farmington River off of Route 4. Among the interesting items we found: tires and traffic cones! 

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Every Day is a GreenDay! Closing:

June 18

A closing newsletter was sent out to all employees, highlighting the winners of the trivia contest. A compilation of tips from all of the contest entries was included, to encourage the employees of ebm-papst to continue living a green life style.

Here are some different ways to expand your efforts:

• Motion detector lights throughout the house

• Wrap water tank to make it more efficient

• Wash clothes in cold water and line dry them

• Set heat to 65 degrees and AC to 80 degrees

• Use a vegetable garden to supplement your meals

• Bring all unwanted books to the library

• Use a composte pile to recycle kitchen waste

• Fill a bin with soapy water to wash pots and pans

• Use rain barrels to collect water for a garden and house plants

• Buy produce from local farm stands

By Bob Sobolewski

To demonstrate that everybody can do something for a more environmentally friendly world, this year employees at ebm-papst offices around the globe are organizing Every Day is a Green Day campaigns, developing unique ways to demonstrate our shared GreenTech philosophy.

Next week (June 11-16) is our time to celebrate Every Day is a Green Day with a special week at ebm-papst’s U.S. headquarters. We’ve got a full lineup of activities, including the kickoff of our Every Day is a Green Day Video Contest. Students 13-18 years of age who live in Hartford County can enter the contest by submitting a brief video showing the creative ways they incorporate green practices into their lives at home and school. Deadline to submit videos is August 11; winners will be announced on August 27.

The student who submits the most compelling green video will receive a grand prize of an iPad 3 (16GB WiFi model). The second prizewinner will win a family trip for four to the Connecticut Science Center, including lunch for four at the museum’s Café and four tickets to a performance at the IMAX Theater. The third prizewinner will receive a ‘green’ basket of environmentally friendly products.

Check our Faceboook page regularly to view students’ ‘green’ videos!

We’ve launched a “How are You Green?” contest for employees, who are submitting their green living practices and tips, and a Green Trivia contest. Employee winners will be announced for both contests on June 15.

An adventurous team of seven ebm-papst employees will scour the fields around our facility on June 12 or 13 and remove trash wherever they find it.

During a green luncheon and employee social at our facility on June 13 we’ll be using locally sourced burgers and hot dogs from Saint’s in Southington. The Super Natural Market and Deli will deliver locally sourced ingredients for strawberry shortcake! Employees will bring their personal documents for shredding by Cintas, which will have a truck on site between 3 and 4 p.m.

Also on June 13, from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., employees will be able to purchase energy efficient lighting from Collinsville-based TechniArt, Inc. during a Lighting Fair, with displays in our café and at the receiving/loading dock.

Here’s wishing you a summer of exploration, relaxation and green living!

By Bob Sobolewski, President and CEO at ebm-papst Inc.

FIRST® Championship

What keeps ebm papst’s team – our engineering, production and marketing people – fresh and energized? Observing the creativity and fun that 30,000 motivated young people can generate over three days during a riveting robotics event that’s called “The Olympics of the Mind.”

Continuing our support of FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and FIRST teams in Connecticut, from April 26-28 we travelled to the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, where students, fans, families, educators and company leaders from all over the world gathered for the annual FIRST ^® Championship.

More than 600 teams from 32 countries demonstrated Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition® (that means competing AND working with your opponent) in the three levels of FIRST: FIRST^® LEGO^® League (FLL); FIRST^® Tech Challenge (FTC) and FIRST^® Robotics Competition (FRC) while 40 teams of 6 to 9-year-olds showcased their smarts during the Junior FIRST^® LEGO^® League World Festival Expo.

In addition to serving on FIRST®’s regional planning committee and chairing Connecticut FIRST®’s executive advisory board, I’ve been honored to serve as an FRC judge at both regional and national competitions for almost 15 years. Every year, the teams get better and the judging gets tougher!

ebm-papst’s booth at the championship helped students and mentors learn not only about the small ebm-papst tubeaxial fans that cool their teams’ robots, but also how our larger radial and axial fans are employed across dozens of industries and hundreds of applications.

Bill Aston, Team 178 mentor and ebm-papst Inc. Operations Manager with the Enforcers at the CT Regional's.

By Bob Sobolewski, President and CEO at ebm-papst USA

Two weeks ago, after CBIA’s Business Day at the Capitol, Don Beckwith posted here about the challenges that Connecticut manufacturers have in attracting new employees. While cost of living and wages have a big impact on our efforts to remain competitive, there’s another piece of the puzzle that’s equally important: helping new generations become adept, capable and confident employees of the future.

Our state’s business community has a responsibility to enhance our children’s education in ways that build their critical thinking and technical skills. We can help them aspire to be team members and leaders, regardless of the professions they choose, by showing them what we do every day and helping them visualize themselves within our companies.

In 1989, ebm-papst Inc. began its journey to support a fledgling organization called FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). Founded by inventor Dean Kaman, FIRST is now an international program that inspires nearly 300,000 young people from kindergarten to 12^th grade to get involved with science, engineering, math and technology and helps them develop self-confidence, teamwork and leadership skills. ebm-papst began to supply our air-moving products to FIRST competitions, as well as engineering expertise and manufacturing support to teams. That support continues to this day.

Being involved in FIRST is a labor of love…and belief. Just ask Electrical Engineering Manager Hogan Eng, who devotes nights and weekends to helping Woodbury’s FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Team #2836, Team Beta. Or Operations Manager Bill Aston, who has mentored Farminton’s FRC Team #178, the 2^nd Law Enforcers, for nine years. Or everyone in the company who has gone the extra mile to help manufacture parts for these teams’ robots and support their transportation, logistics and community outreach efforts.

Are our efforts working?

Brandeis University recently surveyed young people in FIRST Robotics Competitions around the country and compared them to a group of non-FIRST students with similar backgrounds and academic experiences, including math and science. The survey revealed that FIRST students are:

• More than three times as likely to major specifically in engineering.

• Roughly 10 times as likely to have had an apprenticeship, internship, or co-op job in their freshman year.

• Significantly more likely to expect to achieve a post-graduate degree.

• More than twice as likely to expect to pursue a career in science and technology.

• Nearly four times as likely to expect to pursue a career specifically in engineering.

• More than twice as likely to volunteer in their communities.

Connecticut FIRST’s big event – the FIRST Robotics Competition Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regionals – will take place Friday, March 30 and Saturday, March 31 at the Connecticut Convention Center. This year’s regionals will bring more than 2400 high school students on 64 elite robot teams from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Texas who both compete and cooperate in this year’s game, Rebound Rumble. The event is free and open to the public.

If you’ve already been to Connecticut’s FIRST Regional robotics competition, you know how exciting and inspiring they are. If you haven’t, I invite you to bring your children, your neighbors’ children and their teachers. We’re going to have a blast!

by Joe Landrette, Market Manager at ebm-papst.

The US consumes about 4.40 trillion kWh of electric energy (Tomorrow is Greener 10/2011). Two percent of that power consumption, or 88 billion kWh, is used by data centers, which provide us with services like Apple's iCloud or Microsoft’s SkyDrive.

Because power savings is critical for hardware manufacturers and their customers, many companies are migrating from large facility data centers to portable/modular data centers that are often set up within sea containers. This new generation of data center is often fitted to house many racks of IT equipment that have ultra efficient cooling systems inside.

Not only can modular/portable data centers be manufactured and deployed more rapidly than traditional data centers, they also employ cooling solutions that can be 30 times more efficient than facility-style cooling systems and can save up to $500,000 a year in energy costs!

Because the majority of portable and modular data centers don’t have the same heat/cooling duct losses experienced in traditional data centers, the new configurations can super-charge their energy efficiency by incorporating ebm-papst’s range of EC blowers and fans, from our small 80mm fans up to 1250mm models.

The new modular/portable data centers also provide an opportunity for ebm-papst Inc. to offer builders air flow and design management strategies and custom sheet metal assemblies. Our products and engineering support services are helping shape how data centers are joining the earth-friendly movement and changing the future of both indoor and outdoor data storage.

For more information on Data Centers, contact Joe Landrette at Joe.Landrette@us.ebmpapst.com or call ebm-papst at 860-674-1515

-by Don Beckwith, senior vice president of finance and administration at ebm-papst

Wednesday, February 29, Accounting Manager Jack Relidzinski and I attended Connecticut Business Day, sponsored by the Connecticut Business Industry Association (CBIA) and the Connecticut Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives.

The event took place in the state Legislative Office Building and featured Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman as keynote speaker, Senate Republican Leader John McKinney (R-Fairfield) and DECD Commissioner Catherine Smith.

Each speaker focused on the importance of education reform, as Governor Malloy prepared to kick off his Education Reform Tour on March 1. Our children are lagging in reading and critical thinking skills. The legislators recognize the importance of fixing this issue, but also recognize it will take many years to do so. Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman assured everyone that the millions of dollars this agenda item will consume are in the new proposed budget, and there will be no new taxes necessary to make it happen (this got a nice laugh from the crowd). But what this achievement gap means is that our workforce is in jeopardy, and finding skilled workers could become a significant challenge in the future. This, coupled with current challenges, puts Connecticut’s companies in a tenuous position.

Right now, manufacturers, in particular, are having a difficult time attracting lower wage employees to Connecticut and retaining them because of the cost of living, among other issues. I suspect other companies are facing the same challenges, because the main comment coming repeatedly from the crowd was, “Stop putting millions of dollars into attracting new businesses to Connecticut and focus on keeping the businesses that are here and have been committed to the state for years.”

The message was clear – Connecticut is currently not a business-friendly state. Each of the speakers acknowledged there is a lot of work to be done. In the meantime, I ask other Connecticut businesses what they are doing to attract and retain employees. Please post any comments below or on our Facebook page!

The AHR Expo is the largest HVAC&R trade show we exhibit in, and it’s coming up fast. With less then a month to go, it's getting a little crazy in the Marketing department! Preparations have become a daily occurence at ebm-papst - we even dream about AHR. Along with packing extra clothes to keep warm during a visit to the Windy City in January, we'll be bringing many of our products used in the HVAC&R market.

Some featured products will include:

• HyBlade (www.ebmpapst.com/hyblade)

• RadiCal (info.ebmpapst.com/RadiCal)

• i-Maxx (info.ebmpapst.com/i-maxx)

• Plenum (Plug) Fan (info.ebmpapst.com/plenum)

This week, literature, promotional giveaways and bottled water (in case our visitors get thirsty) are being packed up and shipped to our new display company, DisplayCraft. Once they receive this last batch of supplies, the whole booth will be sent on it's journey to Chicago!

This year's booth will be a little different from our past booths at AHR, thanks to DisplayCraft! They've helped up redesign the layout of the exhibit to make it more spacious and functional. We're very excited to see the final result at the show on January 23rd-25th!

Throughout the show, expert ebm-papst Market Management teams that represent each industry will be there to expertly solve any air moving problems you might have!

For anyone who wants to do a little homework before visiting the ebm-papst booth (#2046) at AHR, here is a selection of some of the literature that will be available.

• VACR
• Heating
• GreenTech EC Technology

Click here to register for the show!

We hope to see you there!

At ebm-papst, our philosophy is focused on constantly trying to improve the effect the company has on the environment, whether through the products manufactured here or by the actions of those that represent the company. A recent undertaking was the installation of solar panels on the Tech Center and Manufacturing Facility at 110 Hyde Road. The solar panels became operational on June 16, 2011. The power generated by the panels is enough to satisfy the needs for powering the Tech Center offices. At the peak output, the panels are capable of producing 50kw of electricity.

Some facts and figures:

• 238 solar panels

• 32 Mega-watt hours have been generated to date

• Daily electricity production is more than enough to power the Tech Center offices

• Environmental equivalent to planting 425 trees

This is an aerial shot of the new solar panels on the Tech Center and Manufacturing Facility at ebm-papst. In the background are the corporate offices.