Local Industry Impact with CFW

29 Sep 2015
CFW Fan Optimisation
29 Sep 2015

CFW Industries (Pty) Ltd, established in 1966, is a world leading industrial fan manufacturer in Southern Africa, with a modern research and development laboratory for fan testing to international standards. They rely mostly on unskilled labour from the surrounding communities, and process efficiency improvements can contribute significantly to sustainable employment in a very competitive market.

At CFW it is recognised that fan design prototyping may be significantly enhanced by the addition of computer based virtual wind-tunnel or computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and has therefore teamed up with the Industrial CFD group at the University of Cape Town.

CFD is today accepted as a key strategic tool in many industries. This is due to:

  • It being unparalleled in flow field related insights.
  • Reduction of development time and cost.
  • Assistance in a very competitive environment with emerging suppliers from China.
  • It allows engineers to play the “what if” game prior to the building the first fan.

Specifically, a robust and accurate CFD tool, namely Elemental which has been developed by the Industrial CFD group, has the potential to:

  • Reduce design time and expensive experimental design cost.
  • Improve flow field insights.
  • Result in more efficient and cost effective products.
  • Assist in international competitiveness.
  • Ensure sustainable job creation.
  • Reduced product performance related risks.
  • Provide the base for future modelling and predictions.