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PAPST Fans Help the Bensons and Hedges Jordan Grand Prix Team to Success as Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher Triumph in Belgian Grand Prix

PAPST's standard 6 inch cooling fans helped the Benson and Hedges Jordan team to stay cool in Spa some weeks ago during one of the most exciting races in recent years. The two Jordan Mugen-Honda cars, driven by Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher, and cooled by PAPST fans, produced a historic one-two finish and maiden victory for the Jordan team.

The PAPST fans have already made appearances with Hill and Schumacher at the Brazil, Argentina, San Marino, Barcelona and Monaco events this year, but this was their first major win.

The Jordans racing cars are cooled by two standard PAPST 6-inch AC fans fitted to a special pod that blows cool air into the engine compartment while the cars are on the starting grid. The fans are exactly the same 7400 series AC models already widely used by equipment designers for cooling a wide variety of electronic equipment and racks. However, PAPST's UK team based in Andover recommended them to the Benson and Hedges Jordan team for the challenge of cooling the extremely powerful 670 bhp Mugen-Honda Formula One engines while the cars are on the starting grid because of their extremely high airflow and ruggedness.

"The heat and vibration of Formula One racing especially on the starting grid makes this one of the most demanding applications possible for cooling fans" said PAPST's MD Brian Putland "While most users don’t expect our fans to operate in the kind of heat, vibration and abuse of Formula One, it will be a comfort for them to know that they are capable of withstanding all that Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher can throw at them."

To save weight, Formula One racing cars are not fitted with cooling fans and without the assistance of the external fans, the engines would simply overheat before the race even began. In exceptionally hot conditions, the race team even use the fans to blow air across dry ice for extra cooling. The Jordan team selected PAPST's six inch AC fans as the most simple and 'bullet-proof' way to prevent its highly sophisticated and expensive engines from overheating on the grid. They found PAPST's solution provided not only the high airflow and cooling to cope with the massive heat output of these engines but also the high reliability to ensure they operated correctly whenever required.

Last year, the Benson and Hedges Jordan team came fifth in the Formula One World Championship.

PAPST is the UK and European number one in equipment cooling fans with the widest range of both AC and DC models as well as intelligent VARIOFAN and thermal management systems. Headquartered in the Black Forest in Germany, the company pioneered external rotor motors, electronic commutation and more recently intelligent temperature controlled fans with thermal management. The UK operation of PAPST plc is located in a modern facility in Andover which provides manufacturing, sales and technical support services including the use of sophisticated test facilities which customers can make use of to test fan performance, noise etc. under a variety of operating conditions.