The Less Vibration the Better

Hello, and welcome back to our blog. Here at Industrial Cooling Solutions Inc., we specialize in the construction and upkeep of industrial cooling towers and, as a result, we come across a lot of issues that crop up in the cooling tower industry. One of the most common issues that we run into has to deal with vibration. Anyone who deals with industrial machinery knows that vibration, unless it is specifically asked for, is hardly ever a good thing for machines to experience and can cause a lot of issues if not properly addressed. In relation to industrial cooling towers, vibration issues most commonly occur within the tower’s fan system. In today’s post, we are going to go over a few ways that you can make sure your fan system experiences as little vibration as possible. Continue reading below to learn more.

Contact us today and let us help you make sure that your cooling tower is running as efficiently as possible.

Error: Contact form not found.

Is Your Cooling Tower Fan Running Properly?

Traditionally, rotating equipment is mounted at grade and uses the mass of a foundation and grout to reduce vibration and provide both support and stiffness to the rotation apparatus. Unfortunately, cooling tower fans are elevated several feet above a basin a basin of water and are most commonly held in place with support beams made of wood or fiberglass. This means that cooling tower fans do not get the benefit of a solid base to help reduce vibrations and must instead be tightly calibrated to reduce vibrations as much as possible. Below, we have listed a few steps that can be taken to help make sure that a cooling tower fan vibrates as little as possible.

• Tighten Everything: When it comes to the structures responsible for holding a cooling tower fan in place, it is important to make sure that everything is held together as tightly as possible. Making sure the structure is as stable as possible be reduces the amount of movement that the fan can experience. Before beginning any other type of calibration work, make sure that the bolts holding the fan are as tight as possible as well as the bolts that hold the mounting structure to the tower. Additionally, it is important to check the bolts that hold the fan to the rotator. If these bolts have become compromised, the fan is more likely to become damaged.

• Inspect the Fan: Once you have made sure that the structure holding the fan is as secure as possible, take a moment to assess the fan. Each blade of the fan should be securely fastened and angled in the same way. If you notice that any of the blades have become damaged, assess the situation to determine whether the blade can be repaired or if it is time to replace the blade altogether. If a single blade on the fan is warped or damaged, it can cause the entire fan to wobble as it rotates. While these wobbles might be tiny in the scheme of things, over time they can cause serious damage to the machinery designed to rotate the fan.
• Inspect Gearbox and Driveshaft: While inspecting the fan blades is an important part of ensuring that the cooling tower fan experiences as few vibrations as possible, neglecting to check the mechanisms that actually rotate the fan can lead to issues as well. Without a properly functioning gearbox, the fan inside of a cooling tower will not properly rotate, causing myriad issues in terms of functionality and efficiency. When inspecting the gearbox and driveshaft, make sure to note any signs of wear that may have cropped up since the last inspection. While these components are designed to operate under heavy use for long periods of time, they are still machines and will become compromised if they are not properly taken care of.

If after performing a maintenance check on your cooling tower fan system you find that there are some issues that need to be addressed, contact the experts at Industrial Cooling Solutions Inc. today. We offer a wide range of cooling tower maintenance services and we also provide a variety of cooling tower replacement parts. With years of experience in the cooling tower industry, we are more than qualified to assist in the replacement of key components in cooling towers and we are certain that we can handle any issue that you may be experiencing.

Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic Fan Blades Combine Form and Function
Hello, and welcome back to our blog! In our previous post, we highlighted some of the limitations associated with aluminum fan blades in industrial cooling tower applications. Because these limitations exist, experts in the cooling tower industry explored other materials that could be used to construct fan blades that were more reliable while delivering the same light-weight design of aluminum blades. From this research, it was found that fiberglass reinforced plastic, FRP, provided many additional benefits that aluminum fan blades could not. In today’s post, we are going to further explore why FRP fan blades are becoming a popular option in cooling tower fan design. We hope that by the end of this blog our readers have a better understanding of the basics of FRP fan blade design.
Industrial Cooling Tower Parts are Important
If you think of an industrial cooling tower like a car, the fan is the motor. The fan is responsible for circulating air within the tower and effectively mitigating the heat produced by industrial processes. To achieve this, cooling tower fans must rotate almost constantly at a high speed, meaning that the entire assembly needs to be able to handle tens of thousands of rotations per minute. FRP fan blades have proved to be an effective component in fan designs and below we have listed a few ways that FRP fan blades outperform aluminum fan blades.

• FRP blades are molded as a single piece, resulting in higher performance and durability than aluminum fan blades.
• FRP fans are set up to be statically balanced, allowing 100 percent interchangeability between fan blades without the need for additional setup. Conversely, aluminum blades must be balanced with weights each time they are replaced.
• The single piece design of FRP fan blades provides uniform stress loading characteristics, resulting in a significantly longer service life with a decreased chance of failure. Aluminum fan blades, because they are made from multiple, separate parts introduce weak points into the entire fan assembly.
• FRP fan blades are more energy efficient than aluminum fan blades.

Given the above benefits, it comes as no surprise that more and more industrial cooling towers are taking advantage of FRP fan blades.
FRP Fan Blades can be Molded Into any Shape
While the above benefits already make FRP fan blades the obvious choice for many industrial cooling tower applications, an additional benefit makes them even more desireable. Because FRP is a moldable plastic material it can be molded into any shape that the manufacturer desires. This means that the manufacturer can design the fan blade to have a shape that more efficiently circulates air through the cooling tower. An ideal cooling tower fan blade will have a non-symmetrical airfoil that includes a variable chord and twist to help compensate for the change in speed present from the tip of the blade to the base of the blade. Additionally, FRP fan blades provide better performance because they are better able to handle the vibrations that are ever present in cooling tower fan blades. Small interruptions in airflow from structural supports, mechanical supports, and the fan’s drive shaft place constant pressure on the fan blades. While aluminum fan blades will eventually succumb to these small interruptions, FRP fan blades are better able to flex and absorb the vibrations.
In summation, while aluminum fan blades are typically cheaper to install, over the life of the cooling tower this cheap installation cost is offset by high failure rates, shorter equipment life span, and increased energy costs. For these reasons, we here at Industrial Cooling Solutions Inc. utilize FRP fan blades in all of our new industrial cooling tower designs because we feel that the quality of the material leads to better overall performance over the life of the cooling tower. If you would like to learn more about our FRP fan blade designs, or you would like to talk to us about your cooling tower project, please visit our website today. We have a long track record of constructing high-quality industrial cooling towers to meet the needs of a wide range of applications and we would be honored to help you with your needs.