Revcor, Inc.

Michael F Buckley

Richard R Shelby

Craig R Hall

Stephen A Adamski

Dominic Phillip Menoni

Eric S Cole

In one aspect, a fan assembly is provided that can be manufactured while producing a significantly reduced amount of scrap material. More specifically, the fan assembly utilizes a hub ring and one or more hub strips to support a plurality of blades rather than a solid center disc or end disc used by some prior approaches. In another aspect, a method is provided that includes bending a member into an annular configuration and joining end portions of the member together to rigidly fix the member in the annular configuration. The rigid annular member may be used as an end ring, a hub ring, an orifice, or other component, while producing significantly less scrap material than traditional approaches.

Method of manufacturing a fan assembly

A method including bending an elongate portion of a flat strip of metallic material into a ring about an axis extending parallel to a thickness of the elongate portion of the strip of metallic material. The method includes fixing end portions of the ring together to form a flat ring, the flat ring having opposite flat side surfaces, a radially inner surface, a radially outer surface, a pair of radially inner edges, and a pair of radially outer edges, wherein the pair of radially inner edges connect the radially inner surface and the opposite flat side surfaces and the pair of radially outer edges connect the radially outer surface and the opposite flat side surfaces. The method includes connecting a plurality of curved blades to the flat ring and connecting a hub support to the curved blades at a position spaced from the flat ring along the curved blades.

In one aspect, a fan assembly is provided that includes a plurality of elongated metallic fan blades, a first metallic end ring, a second metallic end ring, and a metallic hub support connected to the fan blades intermediate the first and second end rings. The fan blades include straight inlet edges radially inward from first and second radially inner edges of the first and second metallic end rings so that inlet portions of the blades extend radially inward from the first and second metallic end rings. In another aspect, a fan assembly is provided that includes a hub support having a hub strip and a hub ring. The hub strip has an elongate configuration with an attachment portion connected to the hub ring at one end of the hub strip and another attachment portion connected to the hub ring at an opposite end of the hub strip.

Growing community of inventors

Rockford, IL, United States of America

Michael F Buckley