The Managing Director of German fan manufacturer Pollrich GmbH speaks about the company’s history and development, fan expertise and future trends.
Global Cement (GC): Please could you introduce Pollrich GmbH?
Axel Jahn (AJ): Pollrich was founded by Paul Pollrich in Mönchengladbach, North-Rhine Westphalia, in 1906. He was fascinated by air flow technologies and brought a pioneering methodical approach to fan development. In the early 1900s the area around Mönchengladbach was home to many textile and wood producers, so the first applications were dust collection and evaporation. 114 years later the company continues with a strong focus exclusively on fans for industrial applications, predominantly heavy-duty centrifugal fans.
Today Pollrich retains its main facilities, R&D, sales, service and manufacturing functions in Mönchengladbach. We also have a second manufacturing facility in Siegen, around 130km to the east. Our headquarters is located there. The Siegen site was controlled by Rotamill until the two companies merged in 2016 and Pollrich took on the companies’ combined fan production facilities. It now controls two laser cutting machines and four fan balancing machines across the two sites. There is a total of 220 employees, half of whom are in the workshops. We have licenced partners in Brazil and sales offices or partners in the US, Turkey, Spain, China and many other locations.
GC: How important are cement makers to Pollrich?
AJ: The cement sector has always been important to Pollrich. It represents ~20% of new fan sales and contributes to our spare parts business. The more installations we have in a given sector, the more replacements and spare parts we will supply to it. At present our cement earnings are growing steadily. We also supply paper producers - our largest client base - as well as steel makers and power generators.
GC: What is the most challenging area of a cement plant for fans?
AJ: There are two. First is the raw mill fan. These fans experience caking of raw meal on the blades, which causes imbalances as lumps of material fly off. To mitigate this as much as possible, Pollrich has developed an in-depth understanding of the relationships between various material characteristics and the blade geometry needed to minimise caking. Experience is crucial as, even with modern tools, it is nearly impossible to predict caking behaviour.
The other main challenge is the clinker cooler fan, where the problem is abrasion. This can be mitigated with carbide coatings. Care has to be taken to ensure that the carbide particles are the correct size in order to avoid pitting of the surface, which will lead to more serious wear and defects.
GC: What happens when an order is placed?
AJ: We will receive a specification that states, among other things, gas temperature, air flow rates and dust load, with as many other dust characteristics as possible. This determines the initial designs, coating requirements and the highest possible impeller speed, as wear effects rise exponentially with speed. This process leads to a fan that is not too small (which would be cheap but wear rapidly due to its high impeller speed) and not too big and cumbersome. Once we have designed the fan, including inlet and outlet configurations, manufacturing takes 12 - 14 weeks.
For installation and commissioning Pollrich is very proud to have a team of 12 field engineers who travel permanently. It is the largest and most experienced field team in the industrial fan sector. If issues arise, they are able to laser-align couplings, dynamically balance the fan, analyse bearings and otherwise ensure that everything is ready for commissioning.
GC: How do the technical demands of the cement sector compare to other sectors Pollrich supplies?
AJ: Every sector is convinced that it presents ‘unique’ challenges for the fan manufacturer but they have remarkably similar issues. Fans in plywood plants have to deal with abrasive wood dust and sand that is similar to clinker dust. In the food industry coffee powder sticks to blades just like raw meal. We can, of course, transfer our knowledge across different sectors.
GC: How are cement sector needs changing?
AJ: Stopping a fan means stopping the cement plant, so there is a strong tendency towards longer-lasting wear coatings. 30 years ago coatings typically lasted 3 - 4 months. Now it’s more like 12 -18 months.
Another trend in the cement sector has been the use of larger and larger fans. When I joined Pollrich, an impeller diameter of 2.8m was considered huge! Now we have impellers of 3.5m in use in the cement sector and up to 4.0m in other applications. Cement fans are also speeding up, but not as rapidly as in other sectors. The maximum tip speed, i.e. the speed at the end of the blade, when I joined the company was around 140m/s. Now we can get up to 220m/s, close to a sonic boom! This creates engineering challenges in terms of vibrations and bearing design, lubrication systems and so on. However, our cement clients are still working at 140 - 150m/s. They are conservative because the fan is so important to their process. Reliability is prized over performance.
GC: Where are most cement sector orders coming from at the moment?
AJ: The Far East, particularly Vietnam and Malaysia, has been our busiest region in the recent past and I would expect that to continue, the coronavirus notwithstanding. The Middle East is also strong, as it is one of the few regions that continues to bring new capacity online. We have recent references in Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Morocco and Algeria. I am sure that we will be able to add Syria, Libya and Yemen to this list if and when their respective political situations improve. Of course, unusual political events, wars, trade disputes and so on have the potential to disrupt business pretty much anywhere in the world at the moment.
GC: Where is the next big region for Pollrich?
AJ: Aside from those countries that I just mentioned, we are looking to merge with an Indian fan maker. The main shareholder of that company is due to retire in the coming years and there is a great opportunity for Pollrich to increase its shareholding. The Indian plant is a greenfield facility that is only two years old.
Elsewhere, Russia is a market for the future, both for new installations but also the many upgrades the country requires. However, access to Russia is currently difficult due to restrictions imposed by the World Bank. There is also good intrinsic demand in Turkey, but the Lira has now depreciated to such an extent that European suppliers are very expensive.
GC: What’s next for Pollrich?
AJ: We are developing our service offering to include a comprehensive consultancy approach to fan upgrades, regardless of the supplier. This would be able to handle all kinds of situations, for example assisting the owner of an old fan where the original supplier no longer exists, as might be the case in former Soviet countries. Possible remedies might include replacing the rotating parts, improving the fan or making a copy of the worn out original. We can also handle excessive wear and coating issues and offer general advice on best practice.
There is also ongoing consolidation in the fan sector, which I expect to continue, especially if there is a global recession, perhaps even due to the coronavirus. As it is debt-free, Pollrich is well positioned to acquire other parties during a downturn.
GC: We understand that you will step down as Pollrich’s MD at the end of 2020. What’s next for you?
AJ: I will become an executive consultant at the company for a minimum of two years. This will encompass projects like the merger with the Indian firm, improvements to the sales force and other activities away from our day-to-day fan activities.
GC: What has been your biggest achievement as MD of Pollrich?
AJ: I would say that this is the successful (albeit still ongoing) conversion from paper drawings in the late 1980s to first 2D Computer Aided Design (CAD) and now 3D CAD. There are a lot of advantages that come from this approach, including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), although even this is not foolproof when handling dusty fans.
Nowadays everything has to be ‘smart,’ and we found that our clients almost ‘expected’ a ‘smart fan.’ To meet this expectation, we have developed our FANGUARD® system, which can be implemented on any fan. FANGUARD provides full real-time data and predictive maintenance information to bring even the very oldest cement sector fans into the
21st Century.
GC: Axel Jahn, thank you very much for your time.
AJ: You are very welcome indeed!