Adjustable HVAC Fan

• Reinforced Nylon Compounds Perfectly Fits Universal Fan Blade

Trimmable blade length and adjustable pitch control allow quick on-site repairs.

“One size fits all” isn’t a statement normally used to describe cooling fans for commercial refrigeration system compressors. With a myriad of manufacturers all with various models that use different size fan assemblies, it’s impossible for a repair shop to keep every possible version on hand.

Refrigeration system downtime puts valuable merchandise at risk; store operators and repair technicians often find themselves searching with little advance notice to find someone who stocks a specific size replacement fan. That predicament led Lamont Van Slate, owner of Van’s Refrigeration Service, to conceive a universal fan with blades that could be resized on-site to fit individual system needs.

After years of collaborative development and testing, Mattox Machine & Molding and Van’s Refrigeration have pioneered their universal fan with interchangeable blades they call the “Van Fan” — which reduces the number of fan assemblies that need to be stocked.

“Instead of storing large inventories of bulky fans with blades of various sizes and designs,” said Bob Mattox, Owner of Mattox Machine, “repairmen and suppliers can now simply stock a series of interchangeable blades that snap on and off a common hub. Our product has the potential to revolutionize the industry.”

Unique to the Van Fan’s design is a trimmable blade feature, which enables them to be individually resized to work on any fan from 6 to 26 inches (15-65 cm) in diameter. Additionally, blade pitch can be set to eight different choices to allow the most efficient airflow. “With so many blade options available in one fan, technicians will no longer have to spend time searching for the correct size fan blade,” explained Mattox.

After evaluating the fan’s requirements, RTP Company engineers recommended an RTP 200 Series glass fiber reinforced nylon 6/6 compound for the blades. The material provided necessary stiffness and rigidity to remain balanced during operation, along with incorporating high impact resistance and UV stability. These characteristics enable the blades to withstand the harsh climate and temperature changes associated with a challenging outdoor operating environment.

“We really searched far and wide for a material supplier who could engineer a solution that exactly met our specifications,” added Mattox, “RTP Company’s custom compound matched our needs far better than any other material we tried. The result has been just remarkable.”

Based in Carson City, NV, Mattox Machine and Molding specializes in product design and injection molding for industrial markets. For more information, call (775) 885-9298. Lamont Van Slate owns and operates Van’s Refrigeration Service in northern California, and has been in the refrigeration/HVAC industry for more than 35 years.