ebm-papst Fans, Blowers and Technology

by Bob Sobolewski - President & CEO

If one thing was evident at last month's Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration (AHR) Expo in New York, it's that innovation and sustainability must go hand in hand.

AHR provides us with an opportunity to meet our partners, suppliers and customers face to face. Every year, the show renews our belief that energy savings and resource conservation are a priority. It renews our commitment to our GreenTech philosophy: that every product we develop must exceed its predecessor in terms of efficiency and economy.  At this year’s expo, we gave a group of editors and industry experts a re-cap of our company’s achievements in 2013.

2013 Growth
2013 marked the 50^th anniversary for the ebm-papst Group. Founded by Gerhard Sturm and Heinz Ziehl in 1963 with only 35 employees, the company now has 11,400 employees at 57 sales offices and 18 production facilities worldwide. ebm-papst Group grew 10 percent to around 730 million euros ($993 million) for the first half of the current fiscal year (April 1 - September 30, 2013). Over the past three years, the global company has grown by 37 percent.

The double-digit growth of ebm-papst USA last year was fueled by a growing need for climate control across nine major markets and the applications within each, as well as employees’ focus on exceeding customer needs.

Awards for AxiTop
The epylen wood-plastic composite AxiTop diffuser, introduced in 2012 as a new, passive component in ebm-papst 800 and 910 mm series fans, recently earned ebm-papst top honors at the MATERIALICA trade fair in Munich. AxiTop was honored in the Material category for its combined energy savings, noise reduction and energy efficiency.

US production of Axial and RadiPac fan assemblies
Over the past decade, we’ve expanded our product portfolio into much larger dimensions. Ten years ago, a large ebm-papst fan was 500mm to 630mm in diameter. Now, we’re selling fans up to 1.5 meters in diameter that are used in large-scale refrigeration and ventilation applications.

To increase responsiveness to our NAR customer base, we began localizing production of our larger axial fans, which are typically used in condensers and chillers, and for our RadiPac backward curved impellers used in rooftop A/C units, computer room A/C units and other applications.

Localizing production of these fan models also helps us customize the venturi, housing, mounting and paint color specs to customers’ requirements, speed turnaround and further reduce our transport-related carbon footprint.

GreenTech in practice at our Farmington, CT production facility and offices
Last year, our production facility completed installation of a new large capacity powder paint application system complete with an automatic feed system and new spray guns. The guns allow for more even coating and better use of powder at lower air pressures – further reducing powder spray waste and improving paint quality. The new powder paint system’s dual cyclone technology feeds back (recycles) the 40% of powder that hits the parts and falls into the bottom of the paint booth – increasing our actual powder usage efficiency to about 95%. As a result, production has increased our powder spray efficiency, disposed of less scrap powder, achieved higher quality for painted parts, and significantly reduced color change times.

We also replaced all highbay lights in our production facility and warehouse, and all outdoor lighting around the plant with new energy efficient LED fixtures. Energy savings for this recent installation will be measured throughout 2014.

A comprehensive new high-efficiency 15-unit HVAC system with an average Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) rating of 12.0 is being installed to replace a circa-1999, 9.0 SEER-rated 200 ton cooling system on the roof of our US headquarters. Based on today’s energy rates, we expect that these new HVAC units will save the company 20% per year in electricity expense. To further boost efficiency, a sophisticated web-based control system will allow for in-house and remote monitoring. What’s more, the new HVAC units employ ebm-papst impellers!

by Lou Moffa, Market Manager - Refrigeration

Take a walk outdoors in any suburban area and it is difficult to avoid the sounds created by the mechanical inventions in our modern society.  The drone of an aircraft passing overhead, the rush of vehicles from a busy street or the buzz of a lawnmower in the neighbor's yard create a measurable soundtrack to our daily activities.  Most of us are pleasantly surprised by just how quiet it becomes when these sounds suddenly stop and we are exposed to the underlying level of quiet that is present.  We cannot eliminate these noises entirely, but by applying our GreenTech philosophy of continuous design improvement during our product development, ebm-papst can again help engineers create air moving systems that are found outdoors that we can comfortably live with. 

In congested cities, with living spaces adjacent to supermarkets and small industry, the need for quiet operation is not just desired, it is mandatory by local codes.   Fans that are used to move large amounts of air to cool our mechanical equipment or keep our refrigeration systems running are necessary components in the systems that are placed on rooftops and the outside of our buildings.  Engineers and designers work very hard to meet the strict guidelines that are put in place to limit noise but these restrictions can negatively affect their final designs.

To lower noise in these applications, there are standard "fixes" that the designer can call upon to help meet the required noise and performance levels.  With axial fans, the common fix is to reduce the motor RPM and increase the number of fans to handle the air performance needs and or increase the blade size.  These solutions can lead to a reduction in system performance, add components increase the system footprint and increase energy consumption.   Not an appealing solution with today's high electrical costs, small installation areas and increased refrigeration costs.  Even worse, in many cases, these changes are not always effective and further fixes must be done on site where additional changes are even more costly. 

AxiTop from ebm-papst, a leader in air moving technology, offers a groundbreaking solution.  We have combined our high efficiency AC and EC axial fans with a passive diffuser assembled in one complete package to help simplify installations.  Our optimized AxiTop design has been shown to reduce noise lower energy consumption when installed in typical applications.  Integration of this assembly is simple.  The fan and diffuser are delivered as a complete assembly that can easily be integrated into an existing design using our standard square wall plate.  Or custom wall plates are available so that the AxiTop fan assembly can be integrated seamlessly into your air handling system.  

AxiTop is currently available worldwide in 800 and 910mm diameter axial fans.  These popular sizes are perfectly suited for use on rooftop condensers, fluid coolers, and agricultural ventilation applications.

If you need a real solution to meet applications with low noise requirements and at the same time reduce total cost of ownership and simplify your design, our AxiTop product line provides an answer! 

Please visit us at booth #2967 at the upcoming AHR Expo in Dallas, TX, to see the AxiTop units on display and for a complete overview of this exciting new product. Or contact us at sales@us.ebmpapst.com to review the benefits of using AxiTop. 

by Lou Moffa, Market Manager - Refrigeration

Our definition of "Giant" is continually evolving here at ebm-papst.  Our new W3GZ50 series EC axial fan has a 1250mm (49.2 inch) blade diameter and is currently the world's largest diameter EC air mover with integrated electronics!

Just like the other products in our EC giant line up, this new axial fan was designed from the beginning to be energy efficient, simple to use and able to be installed in a variety of air moving applications.  It can easily be customized by the end user so that it is a perfect match for use with refrigeration condensers, chiller applications or large scale ventilation applications.  Its large size allows you to reduce the number of smaller fans used.

A complete fan assembly like the W3GZ50 series streamlines your purchasing and inventory requirements.  The complete fan assembly has a motor, blade, venturi and finger guard that have all been designed to work together for maximum efficiency and eliminates the need to work with multiple vendors and patch together a fan assembly from various manufacturers.  A complete assembly can simplify your production line by reducing wiring and installation time.  

This air mover has an impressive list of features to match its size. 

-Air performance- the direct drive motor and blade combination are able to produce over 38,000 CFM and can operate efficiently with backpressure levels of up to 0.8 inches of water.

-Factory balanced blade - the rotating motor and blades are balanced as a complete assembly on the production floor to insure a smooth operation.

-Accepts traditional control inputs - So that you can fully speed control this fan in your application, our integrated electronics will accept a variety of control inputs.   For a simple set up, this means that you can use either a 0-10VDC input, 0-100% PWM input, or a 4-20mA input from an outside controller to completely vary the speed of the fan. 

-RS485 Modbus RTU protocol ready - Many of the previously mute devices that are part of our daily lives are starting to become vocal whether we like it or not!  Our cars, heating systems and even our home refrigerators are now capable of telling us what condition they are in with texts and e mails.  Our lineup of EC Giants that are over 500 Watts are ready to be heard as well!  If you would like this fan to be a vocal participant in your assembly, it is simple to establish two-way communication using the on board RS485 Modbus RTU protocol.   Not only can you command it what RPM to run at, but you can obtain the run hours, the specific alarm status, internal motor temperature and many other bits of information that will keep you informed and up to date for critical applications.   Our ongoing partnerships with key worldwide controls manufacturers make incorporating  digital communication  easier than ever before. 

-Built in PID controller- for ultimate flexibility, our built in process controller allows you to program this unit to run independently without the need for a separate process controller to handle common field tasks.  For example, when programmed to operate in closed loop sensor mode with your supplied temperature, pressure or other sensor, the fan will maintain a process specific set point.  Simply set the sensor parameters and how quickly you want the fan to respond and the process controller will take it from there.  The set point can be either entered using software to prevent unauthorized changes or from an accessible potentiometer for simple adjustments by anyone in the field.  This powerful feature is a perfect way to reduce components in your overall assembly.  Even if you choose to not use this feature as the main process controller, it can easily be programmed and can remain dormant in the background as a back up to the main process controller.

These are just some of the advanced features that this exciting new product has to help simplify your larger air moving projects.  

We welcome you to come see this impressive fan and all of our equally advanced products on display at the AHR Expo in Dallas.

Visit us at Booth #2967 at AHR Expo at the Dallas Convention Center in Dallas, Texas on January 28-30, 2013 

Please contact us for additional information at Marketing@us.ebmpapst.com

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!