Innovative design reaps its rewards for Daniels Fans

摘要

This short presentation shows how the introduction of a number of innovative design features have ensured that Daniels Fans' product range has made substantial inroads into world markets. Daniels Fans, Limited, are leading suppliers of highly-innovative high-temperature industrial fans. The firm was set up in 1977 by Neville Daniels, with the objective of designing and manufacturing high-temperature fans for UK heat-treatment furnace builders serving the steel and aluminium industries. In the aluminium sector, such furnaces are employed for coil annealing, foil annealing, homogenising and slab reheating. However, with the rapid decline of the company's UK customer base in the 1990's, it was obvious that the organisation had to sell abroad if it was to survive. The challenge was to recognise the special needs of the world market and to rapidly develop a product range which would satisfy these requirements. Whilst the furnace manufacturers wanted reliable high-performance fans that were easy to install, and which offered low maintenance costs, these had to be made available at competitive world prices.