Moving Businesses Forward with Reversible Fans

It began with Clarence Isert: a local farmer/ inventor, who working in an open cab dozer in the extremes of Alberta weather with his radiator continuously plugging, decided that a variable pitch fan would solve many problems. After building several prototypes, Clarence developed a workable design for a Cat D6D.

Clarence and a group of local investors joined forces and formed Flexxaire Manufacturing.

Flexxaire signed a contract signed with Caterpillar Inc. This event really was a turning point in Flexxaire’s history as it was the first OEM to offer a factory-installed Flexxaire fan.

The fan product evolved in 1996 with the introduction of the Mark III processor-based digital fan control system.

The company moved to its current location where a full manufacturing facility was built.

Flexxaire introduced a new model of the Flexxaire fan, named the FX fan. The FX fan was the first commercial hydraulically actuated variable pitch fan.

A new product line was unveiled—AX pneumatic fan series, actuated by an air supply and could mount directly on to a customer’s existing fan drive

The AX “hybrid” fan series was introduced—same overall design as the AX pneumatic but now the fan could be actuated hydraulically.

The current owners purchased Flexxaire Manufacturing Inc. and the name was changed to Flexxaire Inc.

Flexxaire introduced a pitch sensor for our fan. This resulted in unprecedented control of the pitch and therefore the airflow generated by the Flexxaire fan.

Construction for our wind tunnel was complete. Allowing our team to test engineering designs like new blade concepts of hub upgrades on site.

Flexxaire opened a branch office in Switzerland and kept expanding our European business outreach.

The wind tunnel was given a new and more permanent home. We use this high-quality tool to conduct back-to-back performance testing to ensure we meet or exceed the performance of the fans we replace.

The Flexxaire control kit received official certification and was ready for market. This brought the production of the control component in house, allowing for more opportunity for R&D and improvements for our customers.

The FlexxPerformance blade was patented, the first reversible blade without a counterweight. With a larger diameter range, this blade can be used in a wider range of applications.

Flexxaire opened their new production building which doubled their manufacturing footprint. The innovative new facility features a fully roboticized production line and high-tech quality assurance. The building features a bold design and solar panels to diversify the company’s carbon footprint.