Greenheck - Overhead (HVLS) Fan Durability Testing

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Greenheck. Building Value in Air. One of the common questions that we get is: Are overhead fans safe to use in an athletic environment like a school gym or a sports facility? Let's find out.
Whether it’s a basketball, a baseball or a football, you can be sure that your overhead fan will continue to operate safely after accidental contact. That's because all of our fans undergo rigorous performance testing to ensure safe and reliable operation for years to come. Let's take a look at just a few of the tests that we use during the product development process. I'm standing next to Greenheck’s fatigue testing machine.
You can think of this test like bending a paperclip back and forth repeatedly to determine how many times you can bend it before it breaks. During this test, Greenheck engineers applied significantly higher strain than you would see during normal operation to both the fan and its connection point on the fan hub. And the results were that the blades were able to run for over 4.4 million cycles without failure.
But Greenheck didn't stop there. Our engineers put all of our overhead fan blades through severe impact testing using an IZOD impact test machine. During this test, a 50-pound hammer impacts the fan blades with over 180 foot-pounds of force. That's about eight times the force of a professional baseball player’s swing.
And as you can see, there's barely a scratch on the fan blade. But we didn't stop there either. Laboratory tests were conducted to simulate sports equipment, striking the fan blades, like a baseball or a basketball. We used a mechanical throwing machine at speeds up to 82 miles per hour, which is roughly the equivalent of a college baseball pitcher’s fastball.
Unlike other manufacturers, Greenheck doesn't stop at good enough when it comes to the safety and the durability of our award winning overhead fans. Every fan model is subjected to exhaustive testing to ensure the safest possible operation, the best possible life expectancy and, of course, performance. That's Elevated Engineering.™