airfoils, airflow, & Thermal Dissipation: The advanced Science Behind Big ass Fans

FEATURING:

Dealing with Heat

Ever heard of thermal stratification? If you’ve had a chocolate bar, or you’ve had a glass of wine it is a high probability that the product you consumed came from a facility that is completely familiar with temperature gradients and the thermal differential between the bottom shelf of storage and the top of shelf storage. The items on the top shelf in the storage facility were probably subject to higher temperatures than the items on the lower shelves. and when the wine was fermenting in barrels, many producers choose to rotate barrels in storage so that the average temperature that the barrel is exposed to is more consistent and wine quality is more predictable. a lot of energy is expended to keep the products rotated - what about solving the problem directly?

ah, we just hit on one of the sweet spots for Big a ss Fans. admittedly when I ventured down this path to understand the science behind a Big a ss Fan, I had no idea what to expect. I saw products for industrial and commercial applications with pretty significant wingspans. I knew a friend that actually purchased one for his home. Since this is an industrial focused magazine, I wondered whether our readers would be interested in Big a ss Fans - it took me 10 minutes of reading case studies to realize this isn’t a company that sells fans. It is a company that sells airflow solutions that solve thermal and occupant comfort problems.

Big a ss Fans is based in Lexington, Kentucky and employs 625+ people globally. My understanding is the original name was “The HVLS Fan Company” and the company started by cooling areas for dairy cows. The company now addresses airflow issues related to comfort or thermal challenges like the temperature differential issues described above in commercial, industrial, or residential settings. Everything from “it’s hot in here” to loss prevention on storage solutions are in the scope of applications that Big a ss Fans addresses.

We talked shop with andrew Koukis, who has been with Big a ss Fans for about 7 years in a variety of roles. His experience includes residential sales, industrial sales, inside sales, outside sales, and product management of BaF industrial fans and BaF residential fans. Currently he is the GM for the Industrial fan business, and brings to our discussion a view that comes from working with all the different groups within the Big a ss Fans’ organization, whether it be marketing and sales, or engineering and the operations team including manufacturing and logistics.

Generally we reserve Talking Shop for a 1:1 discussion, however in this case I wanted to also bring to our readers an understanding of the science and engineering that is being brought to bear when applications of the products are being designed to solve real world problems. David Rose is a 7.5 year veteran at the company, and uses his Mechanical Engineering background to solve problems for clients. He manages the applications engineering group and is responsible for developing and proving new applications for Big a ss Fans products. anytime someone calls with a non-mainstream problem, David’s group is called upon. David’s group includes 8 other MEs that design tests, unique applications, design guidance documentation, and perform simulation and analysis on their solutions (including computational fluid dynamics, heat balance energy modeling, thermal imaging, and thermal transfer analysis). He most recently took on the role of Product Manager for BaF’s industrial HVLS product lines.

Going To Market

TREY: I see that one important objective that you guys have is to positively impact the work environment. I also see that there are situations where in the industrial chain of product creation or a line in a factory where you can have specific solutions that may be required to modify or reduce the temperature as an item moves from one work center to the next, maybe because it has to be handled differently. I saw this example in your white papers with these tow hooks that were a case study where heat maps had been prepared and some thermal analysis performed. How do companies engage with you for these projects? What are the lines of business that you have? How are you organized in terms of going to market?

ANDREW: From a business perspective, organizationally we have 5 different segments. We have an Industrial segment that comprises about 70% of our revenue, and that business is focused on a direct to industrial consumer, or B2B model. We have an aftermarket group which is focused on providing aftermarket parts and customer service, that employs over 20 customer service representatives here in Lexington, Kentucky and are focused really on providing the best service in the world. Our net promoter score is 82 or above and if you look at our annual averages, this score is absolutely world class. People like amazon, apple, and Tesla are in the 50s and they are considered the best. When I say the men and women in our customer service team are the heart of our organization, I think everyone in the company would agree with that. Their technical aptitude is through the roof and they take care of the customer every single time. That could mean flying to some far off country, to fix 800 fans that were installed incorrectly, which is something we have done. We do that on our dime.

We have a New Construction business which is primarily focused on industrial and commercial spaces and works through some of the best industrial equipment partners in the world.

TREY: That’s probably what you would consider to be Design/Build services right? The customer is designing the climate systems for their environment, and you are identifying what kind of role the Big a ss Fans can play to make the environment more efficient, more energy efficient maybe, and more human efficient in terms of impact you can have on the workers in the facility. Right?

ANDREW: Exactly. and that is a new arm of our business. I would say probably 6-7 years ago it was something that we were not interested in at all, we were entirely just B2B. So, it is an expanding and new arm for us. It’s something that has been beneficial to us from a revenue perspective and also from an awareness perspective. We think everyone knows what a Big ass Fan is, but in reality there are plenty of people that don’t know the benefits of High Volume Low Speed fans in general, as a product category. another portion of our business, which is certainly not as well known but that we really take pride in, is our Residential business. We have about 80-90% of this business as B2C via third party channels or our direct ecommerce channel. We have 13 inside sales representatives, which allows any consumer to pick up the phone and call Big a ss Fans to order one Haiku for your home, or your interior designer to call and buy 10 Haikus for another place. It’s an important part of our business and something we have had in our portfolio since 2012 and it has continued to grow and expand with additional product lines. We are certainly under-penetrated in that market, but we also sell a residential fan that can approach $2,500 where most fans from the large home warehouse stores that most consumers have in their homes are $150 or $200. So we really created that upper market.

The final segment that we have is our International business. That is a growing market for us. Certainly awareness of HVLS fans and airflow in general, really the importance of worker comfort, productivity, and safety across 7 different continents, is wildly different abroad than here in North america. However, that is a business that is a core focus for us and we have offices in australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Canada, where they service their regions respectively.