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The axial flow fans are widely used for providing the required airflow for heat & mass transfer operations in various industrial equipment and processes. The grey area today is the inconsistency in proper aerofoil selection & dimensional stability of the metallic impellers. This leads to high power consumption & high noise levels with lesser efficiency. Keeping in view the international trends and energy savings potential, the project on 'Development of Energy Efficient FRP Axial-flow Fans' was launched by the Mission in partnership with M/s. Parag Fans & Cooling Systems Ltd., Dewas (MP). The project involves improvisation of fan design by the selection of the most appropriate aerodynamic blade shape to suit specific airflow applications, development of suitable composite materials and Structural design to replace the use of metals such as aluminium and mild steel in impeilers. FRP fans can thus replace the conventional metallic fans which have less efficient operation, high power consumption and shorter life span. The technology support in terms of aerodynamic design of axial flow fan impellers, composite structural design and the fabrication process is being provided by the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT, Mumbai).
The project has embarked on development of two sizes of fans to meet stringent duty Conditions and market demand:
The necessary raw materials for the fan impellers include glass fibre in various forms like chopped strand mat, rovings, woven rovings cloth surface mat and resin (epoxy & polyester) catalysts, accelerator, hardener, pigments, surface treatment agents etc. All the raw material are available indigenously. Benefits The FRP fans have the following advantages:
As the fan efficiency is defined as (Q x D Pt)/ (Shaft horsepower), thus with reduced shaft power requirement, there is a commensurate reduction in energy consumption. Under the project, the following five types of fans were identified for development for their bulk requirement in the country:
Apart from optimally designed impellers, an axial flow fan also comprises other critical components such as fan hub, support plates, fasteners, bushes for fixing the drive shaft etc. The FRP fan blades and the hub are assembled together & are again subjected to static & dynamic balance test and inspected at various stages as per the quality assurance plan. FRP fans provide substantial energy savings as compared to conventional aluminium and MS fans thereby reducing initial equipment & operational cost. All the development activities encompassing designing the fans, selection of raw materials, stabilizing fabrication procedure & finally performance testing of four fans were completed by December 1999. Five fans as mentioned above have been developed successfully under the project. The performance evaluation of all the five types of fans established an efficiency differential of around 25% over conventional fans with aluminium impellers. The air heat exchanger fan, fabricated by Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM) technique, tested at the refinery of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Ltd., Panipat with over 30% energy saving as compared to existing fans imported from overseas suppliers. RDSO fan has also been fabricated by RTM and tested as per ANSI/AMCA with improved performance. FRP Fan Test Results Vs. Conventional Fans with Aluminium & Steel Impellers
* Tested on the Test Rig as per ANSI/AMCA 210-85 It is estimated that around 2,500 fans of various sizes and applications can be replaced in a year with a growth rate of 15% per annum in the replacement market. It is also expected that around 1,500 fans of various sizes can be sold in the OEM market with a 10% p.a. growth rate. The axial flow fans enjoy good export potential, especially in the neighboring countries, as there are very few manufacturers of FRP fans, which mostly located in Europe and the U.S.A. Works Sales Office |
