Has anybody out there seen overhung fans affected by heat distortation before? Readings have been taken from a set of cooling tunnel fans in a aluminium plant. We have recently conducted tests on these fans with and without the influence of the heat and have found the results to be remarkably different.

Fans running at about 3.5mm/sec without product then run with product at about 25mm/sec in the radial direction.

This is a first time experience for myself,it has been a good learning curve. BE Aware of the effect of heat!

Some more information, apparently one of these fans has failed in the past due to cracks in the fan hub. We have already asked to have the remainder of the fans inspected for this same problem. This may take some time due to the fact that this section of the plant does not stop for some time. This will be interesting to follow anyhow.