Farm Fans - A Tradition of Excellence

The pursuit of excellence at Farm Fans is not a new issue. This is a company made up of men and women who spurn mediocrity. They have produced products that have passed the test of time - products that have become the standard of the industry - products that have often been imitated by the industry, and products that have established excellence for the industry.

Farm Fans' passion for excellence has been shown in its continued development of new products and the durability of these products.

Like a family farm, Farm Fans is a family affair, deeply rooted in tradition. Loyal, dedicated employees, some of whom are second generation, are proud of producing the most energy efficient, automatic, and dependable equipment possible for the farmer.

In order to live up to its great reputation, Farm Fans products have been consistently good, if not great! Farm Fans has put the tradition of excellence in focus. It's the people who make it happen to develop, manufacture, and market a product in which they have pride. The instant that product rolls out the back door is the moment their pride and reputation are on the line. Their values have prevailed and their pursuit of excellence has been rewarded.

Farm Fans began its tradition of excellence as early as 1950 with the introduction of fans for forced air drying of grain, primarily ear corn in cribs, both wire and slatted. High pressure vane axial fans were developed for the early market of drying shelled corn in steel bins, using natural air. The series of cast aluminum air foil propellers developed by Farm Fans were designed for the non-overloading, high pressure and high efficiency characteristics necessary to force air through extreme depths of shelled corn, a requirement unheard of prior to this time. This requirement was the result of the introduction of field shelling equipment.

It became obvious early in this period that some artificial heat could be desirable to accelerate the drying process and insure continuous drying during wet and cold weather. Hence, the introduction of Farm Fans upstream heater Model GG.

The need for larger fans and the requirement of more heat became obvious as drying systems increased in size (larger diameter bins), and as dependence on shelled corn drying increased to meet this need, the down stream Model "DH" heater and fans up to 24" diameter with 7 HP motors were designed and manufactured by Farm Fans.

During the 1950's, the need by some farmers for a small amount of heat for drying brought about the development of the Electricon I, a flameless electric heater that used SH fans. Also, the low cost of electricity through TVA projects created the Electricon market.

At this time, it became obvious that the paramount problem in the operation of these new high capacity "in bin" drying systems was the tendency to overdry the grain on the bottom and, if the bin was loaded too rapidly, spoil the wet grain on top. During this period, Farm Fans pioneered the development of management systems to address these potential problems. Being aware of the little understood relationship between grain moisture content and relative humidity of the surrounding air (equilibrium relative humidity), Farm Fans introduced the revolutionary concept of the use of a humidistat to control the burner, thus controlling the relative humidity of the drying air and consequently the moisture content of the grain.

It was also obvious to Farm Fans that the farmer-operator needed more information on how to properly operate his drying system. Farm Fans published some of the most comprehensive grain drying instructions available to meet this need, such as wet grain filling instructions for various bin sizes, fan/heater size and initial grain moisture contents. "Modern Methods for Drying Grain in Bins" by Dr. Henry J. Barre, a long time Farm Fans Director, was an exclusive publication of Farm Fans and used as the bible of grain drying for many years. The unique "Dry-O-Mation" gage was designed and produced by Farm Fans at this time to assist the farmer in the operation of this particular system.

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