One world – many climate zones – one fan

Whether in an icy or sandy desert, in the tropics or at the equator – cooling is always required

State-of-the-art tech­nology is used today world­wide in all climate zones. This often results in a wide variety of vari­ants for the manu­fac­turers, since the specific on-site condi­tions often require major changes to compo­nents. That increases the effort both from a design stand­point as well as logis­ti­cally, and with these the produc­tion and oper­ating costs. For the active cooling of elec­tronic compo­nents there is now a genuine “world fan”. It with­stands the most extreme temper­a­tures and weather condi­tions, which can occur in outdoor use world­wide. By doing so, it covers all possible appli­ca­tions and thereby increases the value creation for system manu­fac­turers and users The earth’s climate zones serve up temper­a­tures ranging from far below -30 °C at the poles to an average of over +33 °C at the equator. Then in addi­tion to this are the local extremes, such as desert areas with even higher daytime temper­a­tures at lowest humidity or the tropics with high temper­a­tures and air 100 % satu­rated with water vapour. The manu­fac­turer can enclose systems that rely on active heat dissi­pa­tion by means of cooling air, if neces­sary. But the actu­ally active part, the fan, always has to work “in the open” to move ambient air to the intended cooling surfaces. This is where the fan expert ebm-papst from St. Georgen comes in. The special­ists from Germany’s Black Forest region devel­oped a fan which reli­ably performs its duty under all climatic condi­tions and there­fore is ideally suited for cooling systems in world­wide use.

Glob­al­i­sa­tion of tech­nology

The new “world fan” for universal outdoor use

In the economy and poli­tics in general, glob­al­i­sa­tion is the fore­most modern buzz­word. Tech­ni­cians have been acquainted much longer with “glob­al­i­sa­tion” and above all its specific require­ments for devices to func­tion reli­ably all over the world. From time immemo­rial, there­fore, the “tech­nical” equip­ment for polar regions has been different than for cara­vans in the desert. In modern times, the problem has been solved for many years by specific adap­ta­tions of the prod­ucts depending on the target region. This approach, however, is less than optimal for two reasons. For one, the logis­tics equip­ment, stock-keeping and main­te­nance exper­tise usually to be kept ready for a wide variety of special compo­nents. For another, once defined, a compo­nent selec­tion severely limits the ability to react to market changes, in other words, a new target region. Even if systems are used at other loca­tions, for example in the case of a resale or move, such as relo­cating produc­tion to other regions, costly compro­mises may have to be made. For this reason, compo­nents which can be used univer­sally and ensure flex­ible manu­fac­turing for a minimum cost outlay lend them­selves as a solu­tion today. This inno­va­tion is partic­u­larly advan­ta­geous in the case of fans for waste heat manage­ment. A fan which is used, for example, in telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion modules, has to work reli­ably under diffi­cult condi­tions world­wide. Solu­tions for indi­vidual cases are possible, but, for reasons that are easy to see, not econom­ical.

Fan tech­nology for all climates

Potted inte­rior of the fan, stator and elec­tronics are encap­su­lated in plastic

With dimen­sions measuring 60 x 60 x 25 mm, ebm-papst’s 630 axial fan series has been designed so that even extreme envi­ron­mental demands do not impair func­tion. Thus construc­tion of the elec­tron­i­cally commu­tated external rotor fan is based on a stator pack that is completely coated in plastic. The inte­grated oper­ating elec­tronics are completely encased and the cable connec­tion is specially sealed. That means the fan satis­fies the strict require­ments of protec­tion rating IP68 (immer­sion beyond 1 m) and IP65 (powerful water jets). The potting has the addi­tional advan­tage of very high corro­sion resis­tance for the compo­nents protected by this. Thus a salt spray test with fan running for 30 days is easily passed. The motor’s high effi­ciency in conjunc­tion with low lost heat, thus minimum intrinsic heating, prevents salt crys­tals from depositing in the air gap and extends the service life of all elec­tronics and bearing compo­nents. Thus the fans do not heat up addi­tion­ally and the thrifty power consump­tion makes them ideally suited for use in systems which can be supplied only by battery or solar panel. As the IP68 type of protec­tion already indi­cates, the fans are fully trop­i­calised; long-term tests with a rela­tive humidity of over 85 % at 85 °C confirm this impres­sively. The appli­ca­tion area of the robust air mover is proven in the temper­a­ture change test from -40 °C to +85 °C. The number of cycles here corre­sponds to a service life of approx­i­mately 20 years with the corre­sponding fluc­tu­a­tions for day/night and season. The elec­tronics corre­spond to the highest EMC compat­i­bility require­ments and, like the robust bearing, are immune to vibra­tions.

For every­thing, every­where

Compact solar inverter with inte­grated fan for long service life

The small energy-saving fans are there­fore suited for all diffi­cult oper­ating condi­tions. High and low temper­a­tures, such as occur in solar inverters or telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion modules on roofs and poles, pose no prob­lems for them. Salty sea air or the finest desert dust impair the func­tion just as little. In an indus­trial envi­ron­ment, where the “climate changes” from produc­tion condi­tions can turn out to be even more dramatic than in nature, the fans like­wise stand their ground. That makes them suit­able also for switch cabinet venti­lation, residual heat dissi­pa­tion in power inverters, robots, welding inverters and other equip­ment oper­ating in a harsh envi­ron­ment. In the case of large instal­la­tions, which often require a wide variety of fans for very different purposes, the increased reli­a­bility is impor­tant even after fail­ures with exces­sive temper­a­ture or dust accu­mu­la­tion or the like. Accord­ingly, small, robust fans which are also able to with­stand the adverse condi­tions of outdoor use are suit­able for a wide variety of appli­ca­tions. Thus they are suit­able for world­wide use in all climate zones as well as oper­a­tion under diffi­cult ambient condi­tions in industry. Compared to specif­i­cally sought-out fan solu­tions, the use of universal fans signif­i­cantly reduces produc­tion costs and substan­tially improves the benefit for the user. This is an advan­tage not to be under­es­ti­mated in today’s glob­alised world.