C-Fans were created specifically to provide more flow and pressure at lower noise levels with extreme life in harsh environments where rotary fans fail and to provide unique flexible form factors to facilitate new end-product platforms and architectures.
We can help facilitate customer innovations in a variety of industries by transforming unobtainable fan requirements into reality. Learn more about these industries here.
Appliances
OEMs are seeking fan longevity at both hot and cold temperatures and also new flexible fan form factors as they introduce ‘smarter’ and more innovative product lines. C-Fan features are well matched to keep pace with these evolving and rapidly changing requirements.
Outdoor Telecom
Telecom service providers must periodically upgrade their outdoor electronics enclosures with higher power electronics and the additional heat produced requires more cooling. But rotary fans cannot continue to provide the additional cooling without exceeding industry-imposed noise limits for these enclosures. C-Fans are designed specifically to deliver more air flow with lower noise while meeting telecom outdoor life requirements. The advantages of fan cooling have been unavailable to remote radio Units (RRUs) and other outdoor telecom components, due to the life and reliability limitations of rotary fans. Telecom Presentation
Automotive & EV Electronics
Hybrids and EVs continue to add more and more on-board electronics and battery cooling needs. Autonomous vehicle transportation will require extensive outdoor electronics infrastructure to communicate with AVs (stoplight status, speed limits, turning restrictions, etc.) Both on-board and outdoor infrastructure electronics require fan cooling in the hot harsh conditions characteristic of automotive and outdoor applications. EV charging stations now require cooling fans in order to deliver faster charging rates.
C-Fan features enable the life and reliability for on-board and infrastructure electronics and EV charging stations that reduce fan noise, increase system reliability and reduce operating costs.
High Power SSL
In high intensity LED lighting, heat dissipation ultimately limits the light intensity that can be produced by a given light fixture size. Fan cooling can dramatically reduce LED fixture size for a given light intensity, but poor fan reliability in hot harsh environments is a gating industry concern. Other high-power density SSL applications include the use of UV LEDs for air sterilization in office spaces and medical facilities, water purification, food processing, curing coatings in electronics and automotive manufacturing and curing inks in the printing industry. C-Fans provide the robust longevity and unconventional form factors required in these applications.
Renewable Energy
In order to meet future utility scale $/kWh targets, PV electric power installations must continue to increase reliability and reduce operating cost. Life targets for DC-AC inverters are 15-20 years, but a Sandia-DOE study showed that inverter cooling fans were failing on an average of 2.2 years from first installation. When the fan fails the inverter shuts down and fan replacement impacts both operating cost and reliability.
C-Fans can be designed for 15 years L10 or 20 Years L10 if required. Other renewable energy technologies such as concentrated solar power, hydrogen fuel cells, energy storage and wind turbines depend on outdoor power electronics like inverters and power converters, and all can benefit from the increased reliability and reduced operating cost of C-Fans.
PV Power Presentation
Outdoor Electronics and Battery Enclosures
Many of the outdoor electronics and battery enclosures used in traffic control, telecom, cable TV, autonomous vehicles and renewable energy, use fans to prevent heat-induced electronics failures in these environmentally sealed enclosures. Service providers need to fit higher power electronics in these enclosures which adds more heat. But rotary fans can’t provide the higher air flows needed without exceeding industry-imposed noise limits. C-Fans are designed to provide the additional cooling without exceeding the industry noise limits.
Military and Aerospace
Military electronics, such as handheld 2-way radios, require extremely robust thermal management solutions that must be submersible and easily cleaned of sand, water and misc debris. Rotary fans are poorly suited to these requirements due to their dead-ended volumes that trap liquids and contaminates and that cannot be cleaned in the field. Unlike rotary fans, C-Fans have a completely open architecture with no dead-ended volumes and can be easily cleaned and quickly restored to operation in the field. C-Fans can enable the well-known advantages of forced-air cooling for a wide range of military electronics products in these harsh outdoor environments.
