Outside Sales and Manufacturer's Representatives¶
This path is for you if you work with customers in the field and need to match a job to the right Twin City Fan product line, then explain why. It teaches the fan families and application lines, how air moves through each impeller type, how to read a fan curve and an operating point, and how to discuss drive, construction and accessory options and the trade-offs between candidate fans.
The path leans on the product-family, performance and selection chapters and only skims the detailed hardware chapters. Follow the checklist in order, and spend your sim time on the family sorter and product-line matcher: matching a described job to a product is the closest thing in the book to a customer conversation.
Your Path at a Glance¶
| Target concepts | 15 |
| Concepts on the path (targets plus all their prerequisites) | 192 of 581 |
| Chapters | 11 read, 11 skim, 5 skip |
| Reading time | about 11 h 48 min |
| MicroSims and diagrams to try | 6 (about 1 h 10 min) |
| Quiz questions | 148 (about 2 h 28 min) |
| Total | about 15 h 26 min |
Reading time assumes 200 words per minute, a pace for technical prose with worked examples and tables, applied to each chapter's word count (whole chapter for read, the listed sections plus Key Takeaways for skim). Sim time comes from each sim's stated duration; quizzes are counted at 1 minute per question.
Reading Checklist¶
Work down the table in order. Read means the whole chapter; skim means only the sections listed, then the chapter's Key Takeaways; skip chapters are not needed for this path. Sections in bold teach one of this path's target concepts, so read them closely. A section marked (opening) is the text under that heading before its first subsection.
MicroSims and Diagrams to Try¶
These sims sit in the sections that teach this path's target concepts. Run each one until you can get the challenge right without the hints.
| Sim | Kind | Chapter | Practices | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airflow Path Explorer | MicroSim | 4. Mixed Flow Fans | Fan Family | 10 min |
| Fan Family Sorter | MicroSim | 4. Putting It Together: Sorting Real Product Lines | Fan Family, Laboratory Fume Exhaust Fan, Power Roof Ventilator | 10 min |
| Plug Fan Arrangement Picker | MicroSim | 6. Plug Fans: The Impeller Goes In, the Drive Stays Out | Plug Fan | 10 min |
| Industrial Product Line Matcher | MicroSim | 6. Matching the Job to the Product Line | Plug Fan | 15 min |
| Operating Point Finder | MicroSim | 10. System Resistance, the System Curve and the Operating Point (opening) | Operating Point | 10 min |
| Capstone Specification Builder | MicroSim | 27. Capstone: Writing Your Fan Specification | Construction Selection, Drive Selection, Impeller Selection | 15 min |
Also useful (in chapters you read, practicing prerequisite concepts): Anatomy of a Fan Duty Statement (Ch. 1); Density Ratio by Temperature and Altitude (Ch. 2); Airstream Condition Sorter (Ch. 2); Follow the Airflow Through a Centrifugal Fan (Ch. 3); Exploded View of a Belt-Driven Centrifugal Fan (Ch. 3); Fan Power and Efficiency Calculator (Ch. 10); Density Correction Calculator (Ch. 10); Performance Table Reader (Ch. 26).
Quizzes¶
Take the full quiz for every chapter you read. For skimmed chapters, answer only the questions that test concepts on this path.
| Chapter | Questions |
|---|---|
| 1. Air, Pressure and the Fan | All 10 questions |
| 2. Airstreams, Total Pressure and Standard Air | All 10 questions |
| 3. Basic Fan Anatomy | All 10 questions |
| 4. Centrifugal, Axial and Mixed Flow Fans | All 10 questions |
| 5. Roof, Wall and Specialty Exhaust Fans | 2, 3, 6, 10 |
| 6. Industrial Fans and Application Product Lines | All 10 questions |
| 8. Centrifugal and Axial Impeller Types | 3, 4, 10 |
| 9. Impeller Construction and Material Handling | 1, 7, 8, 10 |
| 10. Fan Performance, Curves and Ratings | All 12 questions |
| 11. Drives and Standard Fan Arrangements | 1, 4, 6, 7, 8 |
| 12. Discharge Positions and Rotation | 3 |
| 14. Fan Motors and Enclosures | All 10 questions |
| 15. Motor Ratings, Speed Control and Positioners | 1, 5, 6, 9, 10 |
| 16. Bearings, Shafts and Shaft Seals | 9 |
| 17. Bearing Details, Lubrication and Pedestals | 9, 10 |
| 18. Inlets, Outlets and Flow Control | 2, 4, 8, 9 |
| 20. Construction Classes, Materials and Spark Resistance | All 10 questions |
| 21. High Temperature, Leak-Tight and RTO Construction | 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 |
| 25. Fan Laws, System Effect and Sound | All 10 questions |
| 26. Reading Catalogs and Performance Tables | All 10 questions |
| 27. Fan Selection and Writing the Specification | All 10 questions |
Target Concepts¶
These are the concepts that define the job outcome for this path. Everything else on the path is a prerequisite of one of them in the learning graph.
| Concept | Taught in | Why it is on this path |
|---|---|---|
| Fan Family | Ch. 4: Fan Families | Remember: list the major fan families. |
| Commercial Duty Fan | Ch. 4: Commercial and Industrial Duty | Topic 1: commercial versus industrial duty. |
| Industrial Duty Fan | Ch. 4: Commercial and Industrial Duty | Topic 1: commercial versus industrial duty. |
| Power Roof Ventilator | Ch. 4: Power Roof Ventilators | Topic 1 and Remember: name an example product line (roof ventilators and exhausters) for each family. |
| Laboratory Fume Exhaust Fan | Ch. 4: Laboratory Fume Exhaust Fans | Topic 1: the application-specific lines in the current catalogs (laboratory fume exhaust). |
| Plug Fan | Ch. 6: Plug Fans: The Impeller Goes In, the Drive Stays Out | Remember: plenum and plug fans are a major family, the usual air-handler product. |
| Impeller Airflow Path | Ch. 9: Impeller Airflow Path | Understand: explain how air moves through a centrifugal impeller compared with an axial or mixed-flow impeller. |
| Operating Point | Ch. 10: System Resistance, the System Curve and the Operating Point (opening) | Understand: interpret a fan curve and explain why a fan operates where its curve crosses the system curve. |
| Fan Family Selection | Ch. 26: Fan Family Selection | Evaluate: judge which fan family best suits an application, given airflow, pressure, temperature, airstream contents, space and noise limits. |
| Impeller Selection | Ch. 27: Impeller Selection | Analyze: compare impeller types on efficiency, pressure capability, dust tolerance and noise. |
| Drive Selection | Ch. 27: Drive Selection | Evaluate: recommend direct drive or belt drive for an application and defend the choice. |
| Construction Selection | Ch. 27: Construction Selection | Evaluate: whether an application needs special construction (spark resistant, high temperature, leak tight, high moisture) and which type. |
| Product Options | Ch. 26: Product Options | Remember: list common fan accessories; options are part of every customer conversation. |
| Application Requirements | Ch. 27: Application Requirements (opening) | Create: build a selection checklist a sales engineer can use to gather every value needed for a fan order. |
| Selection Trade-Offs | Ch. 27: Selection Trade-Offs | Create: compare two or three candidate fans for one duty point, with performance, construction and accessory trade-offs. |
When You Finish¶
Put the whole path to work with the Fan Selection Workflow, a twelve-step selection flowchart that checks which step uses each piece of job information, then walk a real inquiry through those steps before your next customer call. If you write or review specifications with consulting engineers, continue with the Specifying, Consulting and Application Engineers path for the fan laws, system effect and specification writing.