Hollywood big fan of Jackson company
JACKSON TWP — It's not every day tornado-force winds blow about 150 miles an hour and turn everyday objects into deadly projectile missiles. But in the movies, of course, anything is possible.
For the 1996 action adventure "Twister," actors Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt survived a string of tornados that sent uprooted trees, cars, farm equipment and even a cow flying through the air.
From the safety and comfort of his recliner, Scot Pennell took in every second of the film's blustery special effects with the satisfaction that his engineers helped make it all happen.
Now the president of Air Turbine Propeller Co., Pennell was involved in the development and creation of the giant fans commissioned by Warner Bros. Pictures to create the twisters for the movie.
"It's fun to do those," Pennell said of the company's experiences in filmmaking.
Air Turbine fans were also contracted for the Twister indoor tornado ride at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla., and the scene in the movie "Child's Play 3" in which Chucky, a possessed child's doll, is finally killed by spinning fan blades.
Air Turbine engineers designed a fan for the movie "Face/Off," but the scene was left on the cutting room floor, Pennell said.
Another fan designed especially for use in a Mazda commercial also was scrapped, he said.
Air Turbine achieved glory after enormous fans with 48-inch-diameter blades propelled huge banners in the colors of the Olympic Rings toward the sky at Centennial Olympic Stadium in Atlanta for the 1996 Olympic Games opening ceremonies.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, a swanky restaurant in New York City commissioned an Air Turbine fan solely for decoration, rotating the blades about five times per minute.
"We're a niche market," Pennell said. "We're unique in what we do and how we do it."
Air Turbine started as Alloy Propeller, founded in Baltimore in 1950 by William F. Feazell.Feazell revolutionized the industry by shifting from cast aluminum to large steel fan blades for use in roof ventilators, evaporative condensers and cooling towers.The business moved to Jackson Township in 1952, and reinvented itself as the Air Turbine Propeller Co. in 1965.By 1979, employees were allowed to become owners, and the company is now completely employee-owned, Pennell said.Most of the 22 full-time employees have been with Air Turbine more than 20 years, he said.The company has long been a family business, employing many siblings, parents and children.The operation occupies 40,000 square feet on about two acres along Route 19.About half a million pounds of steel are fashioned into about 10,000 propellers each year, Pennell said. Annual sales hover around $2.5 million."Fans are probably in every machine you own, from your computer to the fridge to the air conditioner," he said.Custom sizes range from 8-inch diameter fans used in pizza ovens to 10-foot blades used in industrial cooling towers and air conditioners, he said.Propellers have an operating range from minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit in the aerospace industry to 1,000-degree ovens.The fans are components of other products, so Air Turbine caters to wholesale distributors, original equipment manufacturers and maintenance companies, including most of the fan manufacturers in the country, Pennell said.Many ski resorts in Michigan employ Air Turbine fans in artificial snow machines, he added.
Shipments of steel arrive in sheets from distributors, Pennell said.The metal is sheared down into jagged blades, or blanks, which are roughly shaped into the proper diameter. A machine puts a twist into the blank, called a pitch.There are three different degrees of pitch, depending on the size of the blade, and each must be precise to move air correctly when the fan is assembled.The blades are coated to prevent rust, then riveted to a hub, the center of the fan, which can be anything from a 4-inch square to a 36-inch circle, Pennell said.Fans then undergo tracking, a fine-tuning to avoid vibration when turning, and balancing to ensure even rotation.Smaller fans are spin balanced, similar to the way auto mechanics balance car tires, Pennell said. Larger fans are static balanced in a room that features a retractable roof and crane, if the fan diameter is larger than the height of the building.Air Turbine fans are made to last 20-plus years, Pennell said, "although if they last one day past the warranty, most people are happy."Completely assembled fans are cleaned, painted, if necessary, and crated in either wood or cardboard containers to be shipped.While most fans are sold domestically, about 5 percent are shipped to Egypt, Japan, Canada and Mexico.That 5 percent has provided Pennell a wealth of experience, however.Not long ago, Pennell recalled receiving an order from a company that wanted the fans shipped to Alexandria, Egypt.However, the order arrived safely in Alexandria, Va., while the company owner, waiting in Alexandria, Egypt, was less than thrilled.Air Turbine also does business with one Japanese company exclusively through e-mail or fax, never spoken dialogue, Pennell said."In this day and age, a lot of it is done over the Internet," even the auction site eBay, he said.
Air Turbine will continue to grow as the market grows, Pennell said.Fans keep shrinking to accommodate smaller applications, and the company continues to reinvent the manufacturing process to keep up, he said.However, not much has changed with the machines that actually shape the fans, he said.Most of the machines in the shop date back to the 1970s or earlier, and have been made the same way since the company was founded, though some aspects have improved.To make the process more efficient and cost effective for customers, Pennell said Air Turbine now uses computer software to determine the best application.Customers outline where, when and how the fan will be used, and the program considers factors such as air volume, pressure and horsepower to determine what type of fan would be best.Air Turbine also is investigating an industry-wide movement to lower energy consumption when a fan starts, and when it runs for long periods of time, he said.As a niche business in the industry, progress will not happen overnight, but the company remains committed to its goals, Pennell said."Fan engineering is not taught in any college, a lot of it is on the job," he said. "We're a problem solver in the industry."
