At a time when most trucking suppliers are feeling the pain of the industry downturn, business at American Cooling Systems is booming.

Founded in 1997, the Grand Rapids-based company has come from nowhere to command a significant portion of the engine fan market for new Class 8 trucks. Overall business has grown at a phenomenal rate of over 20% per month for the past 29 months and if future product plans are any indication, the business could grow a lot more yet.
Company president Larry Link, a former fleet owner, truck dealer, and machinist, holds 23 U.S. patents, mostly in trucking. Until recently, he had licensed most of them off, including the roller bushing marketed by Horton, Inc.
But he decided to take his latest patents on cooling system technology and market them through his own company. With stricter 2002 diesel engine emissions looming and engine makers looking for ways to improve cooling capacity, his timing couldn’t have been better.
Link got the attention of engine and truck OEMs with new fan technology which he says provides better airflow, lower horsepower draw, and less noise than competing products. ACS fans feature a patented form of balancing which does not require trimming of the fan tips. The company has also developed a way to control shrinkage of the polymer fans after they come out of molds. Link says both these innovations allow tighter fan-to-shroud clearances, improving fan performance.
Link said the company’s latest 11-blade fan for engines rated 450 hp and above had an air-to-boil rating 4 degrees F better than competing fans.
ACS currently ships over 10,000 fans a month including 11 different models ranging from 16 inches to 38 inches in diameter. Another three models are expected to be added by year end.
But the company’s biggest potential may be a new variable speed fan clutch under development. Link describes it as a “sailing post squirrel cage” clutch which uses electromagnetic resistance to control the speed of the fan.
“It’s the first fully computerized automatic fan clutch,” he said. The clutch receives square wave signals from the engine ECM and the fan speed is adjusted according to the engine’s heat level.
A smaller generator in the clutch provides the electrical power needed for the electromagnets. “The only power we draw comes from the engine ECM,” Link said.
The concept is not new, but suppliers could not develop it because of a problem called the “push-pull” or “cogging” effect with electromagnets. Link says he has managed to nullify this in his design by “shading” it.
ACS hopes to begin running prototypes of the new fan clutch in test trucks within five months. It plans to begin production in a year, just before the new 2002 emissions kick in.