“ We haven't lost a thing since the day we turned the fans on, and we've more than doubled sales. Everything's been perfect. But if we didn't have the fans, we'd have an amazing amount of wet steel — a disaster.
A new acquisition presented John Kulek, warehouse manager for kitchen and bath distributor Aaron & Company in New Brunswick, N.J., with the possibility of an expensive problem in his non-conditioned, warehouse full of S. Franklin & Son steel. Kulek needed a condensation fix fast, or risked attack by white rust and massive product loss.
“Before acquiring S. Franklin & Son, we handled very little sheet metal of our own,” said Kulek. “My employees were moving fans on wheels across the steel to keep it from sweating. We were going big time, storing at least 150 skids at a time and wanted a permanent solution to the condensation problem.”
In a structure without HVAC, uneven overnight to daytime temperatures in the fall and spring proved disastrous for temperature regulation, condensation control and comfort at Aaron & Co.
Two 16-ft. (4.8-m) diameter Powerfoil®X fans, installed a day before the warehouse received its first steel order.
Increasing the speed of warm air across cold metal with large diameter, low speed fans can speed heat transfer by approximately 2.5 times, warming steel before rust-causing condensation can form. “We haven’t lost a thing since the day we turned the fans on, and we’ve more than doubled S. Franklin & Son’s sales,” Kulek said. “Everything’s been perfect. But if we didn’t have fans, we’d have an amazing amount of wet steel — a disaster.”
