Inside Aerotech’s Lansing, Michigan Test Laboratory, performance isn’t assumed it’s measured. When you manufacture ventilation equipment designed to protect animals and perform in demanding agricultural applications, airflow is more than a specification on a product sheet. It matters every day inside the facilities where our products operate.
That’s why, at our Lansing, Michigan Test Laboratory, we have Dorothy; Aerotech’s large-scale aerodynamic test chamber. And yes, the name has a story. Why “Dorothy”? Fans. Airflow. Wind. Testing. Only one name seemed appropriate. Dorothy was named with a nod to the famous tornado research device from the movie Twister. In the film, Dorothy was designed to measure what was happening inside one of nature’s most powerful airflow events, a tornado. There may also be a little Wizard of Oz connection in the name. After all, another Dorothy famously had an unforgettable encounter with a tornado. Either way, the name fits. Our Dorothy may not chase tornadoes across the Midwest, but she is built to help our engineers understand something incredibly important: how air moves, how a fan’s propeller performs, and how efficient a fan system may be.
Big Fans Require Serious Testing
Dorothy is a large-scale aerodynamic test chamber capable of testing fans up to 75 inches in diameter with air flows exceeding 60,000 CFM. That capability is very important as agricultural ventilation systems evolve, and larger fans become an integral part of modern dairy, poultry, swine, and other agricultural facilities. Inside Dorothy, our engineering team can evaluate fan performance under controlled conditions and collect data that helps us understand how a fan performs across different operating points. Dorothy provides the opportunity to validate computer models or theoretical performance while confirming real-world characteristics such as airflow, pressure, power consumption, efficiency, and overall fan performance. Because when you’re moving hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of air through a livestock facility, small differences can have a very big impact.
Built With BESS Testing in Mind
The Bioenvironmental and Structural Systems (BESS) Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has long been recognized throughout agriculture for independent agricultural fan performance testing. Dorothy allows Aerotech to conduct the same AMCA (Air Movement and Control Association n International, Inc) / ANSI/ ISO testing standards at our Lansing facility. We continually complete correlation exercises with BESS Laboratory to ascertain test confidence. That gives our engineering and product teams an incredibly valuable resource.
“Before a product reaches the field or when we’re evaluating opportunities to improve an existing product our engineers can test, measure, analyze, adjust, and test again” states Michael Hicks Lab Manager. “It’s one more way we can validate engineering design with measurable performance”.
From the Lab to the Farm
The numbers generated inside Dorothy ultimately have a much bigger purpose. They help us create better environments for producers and their animals. In a dairy barn, airflow can play a critical role in cow cooling and heat-stress management.
In poultry production, ventilation helps manage temperature, humidity, air quality, and litter conditions. In swine facilities, properly designed ventilation contributes to environmental consistency and animal comfort. The exhaust fan, inlet, and circulation fan may be the pieces of equipment you can see, but what we’re really engineering is the environment it creates. That’s why understanding exactly how our products perform matters.
Testing. Learning. Improving.
Having Dorothy located alongside our team in Lansing gives Aerotech engineers the ability to continually evaluate new ideas, product improvements, and emerging technologies. A prototype doesn’t simply have to look promising. We test it. A design change doesn’t have to theoretically improve performance. We measure it. And a new generation of larger, more efficient ventilation equipment doesn’t have to rely exclusively on assumptions made during development. We put it through Dorothy. This ability to continually test, learn, refine, and validate is fundamentally the most important part of Aerotech’s approach to product development and launch.
The Science Behind Better Air
For decades, Aerotech has worked alongside producers, builders, integrators, researchers, and ventilation experts to help create better-controlled agricultural environments. Dorothy represents another piece of that commitment. She’s big. She’s impressive. And much like her Hollywood namesake, she’s fascinated by what happens when the air really starts moving. But behind the memorable name is serious engineering.
Because at Aerotech, we don’t just build fans. We study the air they move. We measure their performance. And we use the learning to engineer better environments.
Welcome to Dorothy, where Airflow Meets Science in Lansing, Michigan.
Cooling
Fans
Inlets
Aerotech Vortex 36-55 Belt Drive
Aerotech Vortex 74
