COOLING

Multi-Wing has launched a line of engine cooling fans

with an entirely new blade profile engineered specifi-
cally to meet the demand of Tier 4/Stage 3b engines.
The PressureMAX fans are designed to generate as
much as 20% greater static pressure than standard fans
while maintaining a narrow axial depth intended to allow
them to fit into space-constricted engine compartments.

Taking Tier 4 Fan

Technology To The Max
Multi-Wing’s new PressureMAX fan engineered to meet cooling challenges of low-emissions diesel engines

O
By Mike Brezonick
f the myriad challenges
brought about by the con-
tinuing implementation of
Tier 4 interim and final diesel engine
emissions regulations, none has been
more persistent and perplexing than
heat. The onset of tougher new emis-
sions standards inspired technologies
such as cooled exhaust gas recir-
culation systems, variable geometry
turbochargers and complex exhaust
aftertreatment systems, all of which
can contribute to net engine heat
rejection increases of between 10 and
40%, depending on the installation.
The most obvious answer — simply
adding more cooling capacity in the
form of larger or additional radia-
tors, charge-air coolers, etc. — is a
nonstarter in most cases for a variety
of reasons, including higher cost and
insufficient space in a machine or
vehicle to accommodate a wider or
taller cooling module.
So the typical solution has been to
pack more cooling within the same
area by stacking higher-capacity cool-
ing modules together, which brings
yet another obstacle — how to force
air through a more densely packed
maze of tubes and fins at flow rates
sufficient to ensure enough cooling
in even the worst ambient conditions.
That’s the challenge that Multi-
Wing International, the global spe-
cialist in fan technology for engines
and HVAC/refrigeration markets, was
determined to solve. After more than
two years in development, the com-
pany launched a line of engine cooling
fans with an entirely new blade profile
engineered specifically to meet the
demand of Tier 4/Stage 3b engines.
The PressureMAX fans, first unveiled
at ConExpo-Con/Agg in March, are
designed to generate as much as 20%
greater static pressure than standard
fans while maintaining a narrow axial
depth that makes it suitable for use
in the most space-constricted engine
compartments, the company said.
“The PressureMAX really evolved
through our research and development
in response to the needs of our off-high-
way diesel engine partners,” said Jesper
Bernhoft, Multi-Wing International Group
CEO. “Tier 4 emissions standards creat-
ed unique challenges for engine manu-
facturers and we recognized that a high-
pressure fan with virtually zero blade
deflection was the answer for engine
compartments that require a compact
cooling envelope.”
Along with being a specific solu-
tion for Tier 4, the development of
the PressureMAX design was also
a validation of Multi-Wing’s signifi-
cant investments in engineering and
research capability. Over the last sev-
eral years, the company has spent
heavily to acquire new hardware such
as rapid prototyping systems and wind
tunnel enhancements. Investments in
new software targeted computational
fluid dynamics (CFD) and advanced
flow diagnostics programs critical to
understanding key design variables
such as mean velocity, turbulence
intensity and the effect of contraction
ratios in the working section of the
fan blade.

46 DIESEL PROGRESS NORTH AMERICAN EDITION July 2011

 COOLING

Multi-Wing’s new
PressureMAX fans
will be offered in
5- to 16-blade con-
figurations in diam-
eters from 24.5 to
51 in.

“When we started this, we were looking to really find out

what Tier 4 was going to mean to us as a fan producer,”
said Bernhoft. “We quickly realized that this was going to
challenge us more than anything else ever had. Tier 3 was
really more about noise emissions and there were solu-
tions that were already in the market that were open to us. The ISL G natural gas engine delivers reliable power,
performance, and lower total fuel costs, while
“This time, we really had to start from scratch because it
meeting EPA 2010 emissions standards without the
became clear we weren’t going to be able to reach it with use of particulate filters or SCR. Factory built by
standard technology. We really had to stretch ourselves. Cummins, the ISL G is available as an option from
“We found out when we started working that this was only leading truck and bus manufacturers (CNG or LNG).
the beginning — there was much more to come for us, using Quiet, dependable, clean—the ISL G delivers.

these techniques. So Tier 4 is helping us move forward and

The Lee Company.qxp
cumminswestport.com2/14/08 10:57 AM Page 3
break some of the barriers that had confronted us.”
604-718-8100
The key aspect of PressureMAX is a blade design engi-
neered to deliver 20% more pressure than a standard air- see directlink @ www.dieselPROGRESS.com
foil fan at normal engine speeds. “The whole thing is about
getting more pressure,” said Toni Stannov, R&D engineer
INDUSTRIAL MICROHYDRAULICS

Precision Safety
CumminsWestport.indd 1 5/13/11 9:29:11 AM
at Multi-Wing International. “The radiator and intercooler
and other coolers are all stacked, meaning that you have
higher pressure in the cooling section. Of course, you also
have to look at better efficiency because that’s part of Tier
Screens
4 and how you reduce the emissions.
“We addressed that by looking into the details of how the
fan works, looking more closely to the aerodynamics. Fan
design has been very traditional for many years and this is
kind of breaking the rule in that it was looking more into the
fundamental aerodynamics.
“What we learned is that you can easily throw away
good energy without even noticing what’s going on. But
by means of very advanced flow measurement techniques
— we were using data sets based on 24 million samples
taken at a high data rate — we were able to go into detail Lee Self-Retaining Screens Protect
and look at every little section of the blade and see how it Components from Rogue Contamination
performed, how much energy is wasted, and in what way
s !LL 3TAINLESS 3TEEL )NSERT $ESIGN
is it wasted.”
s )NTEGRAL 2ETENTION 3YSTEM
Along with the high pressure, the PressureMAX blade
s    AND  MM $IA 3IZES
profile is also five to seven percent-points more efficient
s   -ICRONS !BSOLUTE
than typical airfoil blade designs, the company said, which
reduces parasitic loss and helps improve fuel economy. Make last-chance protection your first priority.
“One of the things we discovered when we got into
Innovation in Miniature The Lee Company
this process is that we had to address power consump-  0ETTIPAUG 2OAD
tion through entirely new designs,” said James J. Crowley 7ESTBROOK #4 
sorvillon@theleeco.com
continued on page 48 4EL   

see directlink @ www.dieselPROGRESS.com


Jr., president of Multi-Wing America
Inc., the North American subsidiary
based in Burton, Ohio. “Multi-Wing has
always been noted as a high-efficiency
design. Our fans have always been
known as probably the most efficient
engine cooling fans on the market.
“But when the R&D team began
the process of developing the
PressureMAX fan, they discov-
ered ways to improve the efficiency
above what we were achieving with
what were already market-leading
efficient designs.”
The PressureMAX profile also
reduces airflow turbulence across the
blade, resulting in a lower noise sig-
nature, the company said. Further,
Multi-Wing’s proprietary R&D process
produced a profile with virtually zero
cooling
blade deflection, resulting in a nar-
row axial depth to fit in tight engine
compartments.
“We were able to achieve almost
zero deflection because of the way the
blade was pre-bent using special tech-
niques to forecast how the blade would
behave,” said Stannov. “It’s a three-
step procedure using a very highly
advanced optimization tool to construct
the blade shape. Our optimization tech-
niques are so much more advanced
than before and we can now do blade
designs and then can pre-qualify them
by using CFD to see if there are any
hotspots or bad performance sections

DEER 2011
that we can improve. Then we can also
look at the performance curves to see
how well we succeeded. We have all
the tools to be a pretty advanced part-
Directions in engine-efficiency anD ner to our customers.”
emissions research conference Multi-Wing will offer PressureMAX
fan configurations using 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
October 3 - 6, 2011 n Detroit, MI 12 and 16 blades in diameters from
Marriott at the Renaissance Center 24.5 to 51 in. Pitch settings are adjust-
able between 25° and 50° and the
Join us for the 17th Directions in Engine-Efficency and Emissions glass-reinforced polyamide blades are
Research (DEER) Conference! symmetrically positioned on pressure
die-cast aluminum alloy hubs.
The DEER Conference, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, is
the “must attend” international conference for every major manufacturer “It’s our intention to scale this
and supplier to the gasoline and diesel engine industry. Attendees from design up and down so when it’s
around the world come to hear and share more than 70 technical papers complete, we’ll have a full range of
and view more than 80 posters on state-of-the-art of research and fan blades that would run from the
development on all types of advanced combustion engine technology. very smallest diameters up to the
very largest engine sizes,” Crowley
The DEER Conference will cover topics such as: said. “We have an application that
has been given to us for a 72 in.
High-Efficiency Engine Technologies
Emission Control Technologies diameter fan that’s outside of the cur-
Fuels and High-Performance Lubricants rent PressureMAX range. We have
Thermoelectrics for Vehicle Applications been looking to see if it would be pos-
And more cutting edge, cooperatively funded research and sible to do a scaled-up version of the
development projects PressureMAX. It’s quite challenging
because of the extremely high pres-
Sponsorship and exhibit opportunities available now! sure range — in the neighborhood of
4 in. of water — but sure enough, the
Fore more information, visit numbers came back and we can do
www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/resources/ it with the PressureMAX design. That
conferences/deer/index.html gives you an idea what’s possible with
this design.” dp

To Request More Information

On This Company Go To
DIRECTLINK
at www.dieselprogress.com

48 DIESEL PROGRESS NORTH AMERICAN EDITION July 2011

Deer2011.indd 1 6/23/11 2:38 PM