Tower Tech, Inc. HVAC Cooling Towers

Our Vision
To be the most customer-driven cooling tower company in the world—the standard by which all other cooling tower companies are measured.

Our Mission
To build the most in-demand, highest quality cooling towers in the world while providing a safe, organized and rewarding workplace in which every Tower Tech associate can thrive.

In the late 1980s Tower Tech created a temporary cooling tower division in hopes that the pioneering effort would allow the company to compete in a market that was being choked by a lingering recession. In 1989, following a year of research and development, the first mobile cooling tower was finished at the company’s plant in Chickasha, Oklahoma. The patented design[1] met with resounding success and the fleet of mobile towers grew to a total of twelve by 1992, totaling 18,000 tons of mobile cooling capacity. In the event of an emergency, or if additional cooling capacity was required during the peak heat loads of the summer, mobile rental units could be put into service within hours.

While highly successful, the rental fleet’s primary use was for emergency tower replacement and for additional cooling needs at peak demand during summer months. In 1991, a decision to develop a packaged-tower line whose revenues would help offset the seasonal variation in revenues. Since there were dozens of cooling tower companies on the market, all of similar ‘conventional’ design, Tower Tech decided to develop a new generation of cooling tower that would be radically different and better than other manufacturers’ towers. Different alone was not sufficient impetus for a customer to justify the purchase of a manufacturer’s new tower line. It was imperative that the design significantly improves upon the hundred-year-old design philosophy that permeated the cooling tower industry.

Paralleling the development of the mobile tower, the new tower had to be packaged so that it could be delivered unescorted on a conventional semi trailer. In addition, it was decided that the new design should not require assembly by field personnel. These constraints forced the development of a new water distribution system to minimize the height of the tower. To this design objective was added a requirement to minimize the ability of the water distribution nozzle to clog. This was essential since a primary deficiency of conventional nozzles is their tendency to clog, especially in dirty-water applications and in applications where bacteriological growth is likely to form. Since cooling tower nozzles are designed for a primary flow rate, and performance drops off dramatically at off-design points, it was apparent that a design that would maintain hydraulically-uniform water distribution at varying flow rates would have exceptional market potential. The design that resulted, the Rotary Spray Nozzle, achieved a low water profile by employing a lateral spray pattern, provided essentially clog-free operation by incorporating a turbine into the nozzle, and maintained a spray pattern size and near constant pressure drop by use of an automatically-adjusting flow-sensitive orifice. The nozzle required less pressure head to since the turbine in the nozzle was a much more efficient device than the atomization approach used in a conventional fixed-orifice spray nozzle. Two patents that covered the design were submitted in 1991 and were awarded in 1992[2].

Another design shortcoming of ‘conventional’ cooling towers is their cold-water collection basins. These open basins tend to accumulate trash, are exposed to direct sunlight, and contain regions of stagnant water. In combination, these can lead to excessive sediment build-up and increase the need for algaecides and biocides. Further, a water free-fall rain zone above the basin that allows airflow into the tower is an integral part of conventional tower designs. This is an inefficient part of the cooling tower from a thermal perspective since the cooling achieved in ten feet of rain zone could be had in less than a foot of fill media. Further, the pump energy required to lift the hot water above this rain zone is used extremely inefficiently.

Tower Tech’s enclosed, elevated-basin design is called a Flow-Thru Basin. This design feature eliminates most of the problems associated with conventional basins and removes the inefficient free-fall rain zone. Pump energy requirements were reduced, basin maintenance was virtually eliminated, and there was a reduction in algaecide use since the basin water was not exposed to sunlight. In addition, the Flow-Thru Basin significantly reduced the amount of dirt and trash that is typically blown into an open basin. The self-cleaning nature of the Tower Tech Flow-Thru Basin eliminated the build-up of sludge, common in stagnant regions of most towers. Bacteria, such as Legionella, can remain protected from chemical attack under this sludge.

The Flow-Thru Basin on the Tower Tech design was made possible by the invention of a system of water collection channels above the fans. These channels move the water laterally from the bottom of the fill to the enclosed basin while still allowing air into the fill. Patents for the Water Collection System were filed in 1994 and awarded in 1996.[3] The installation of the Water Collection System creates a dry region under the tower. This allowed for the removal of the fan from the moist, hot air stream on the top of the tower. Placement of the tower mechanical equipment at ground level increased the longevity and maintainability of the equipment.

To add flexibility to the modular design, a number of small fans were used instead of a few large fans. This made motor replacement less expensive and the increased number of fans typically doubled the number of fan set points, allowing fan power to more closely match the changing heat load. The performance of the new modular design was optimized by the installation of relatively small motors that were installed vertically (shaft down), and fans were direct-drive, which obviated the need for gear reducers, driveshafts, couplings, or pulleys.

The original modular tower’s walls and structural members were manufactured of hand-laid fiberglass components. Fiberglass was employed to eliminate the possibility of corrosion that is typically encountered on galvanized towers. The first hand-laid fiberglass tower was built in 1992. From 1992 to early 1994, more than 130 hand-laid fiberglass towers were produced and either rented or sold. Most of the development work and tool costs associated with the tower were financed by the sale of the mobile tower fleet in 1992.

While successful, the hand-laid tower proved too costly to manufacture. Extensive manpower was required to construct the tower and the reliance on man-made parts also made it difficult to maintain consistent tolerances. Also, the added cost of hand-laid fiberglass priced the tower on the high end of the market. To counter this fundamental drawback, the decision was made to change from a hand-laid fiberglass tower to a pultrusion fiberglass design.

An initial public offering of the company’s stock was made in 1993 to finance the redesign of the modular tower. A rotational mold and several pultrusion, injection and fiberglass fan stack molds were designed and built. The plastic parts were made of corrosion-resistant ABS, glass-reinforced nylon, and polyethylene. At the time, the fiberglass parts were the largest pultruded profiles in the world and Tower Tech was awarded the Composite Structures Association Excellence in Innovation award in 1995. A patent for the pultruded, elevated basin was filed for in late 1993 and awarded in 1996.[4] The first pultruded fiberglass tower was sold in 1994.

Much of the success of the fiberglass tower can be attributed to the company’s decision to have the Cooling Technology Institute (CTI) certify thermal performance in 1993. An annual retest by CTI has maintained the certification continuously since 1993. Of the more than 200 cooling tower companies in the world, only a dozen participate in CTI’s certification program as of this date.

The majority of the package towers sold by the cooling tower industry have traditionally been installed in the commercial (comfort cooling) segment of the market, because it was thought that the size of the packaged tower did not lend itself readily to large industrial and utility applications. In 1994, in order to penetrate the industrial and utility segments of the cooling tower market, Tower Tech initiated the development of a modular concrete cooling tower. The concrete tower design was modeled after the fiberglass tower. Concrete columns and walls were pre-cast and hoisted into position to define the perimeter of each cell. Concrete troughs were added to each wall to channel the collector water out of the cells to a ground-level basin at the end of a row of cells. The Water Collection System rested on the concrete troughs but, due to their expanse, was also supported from above from the concrete header system. The header water distribution system was made of concrete-encased pipes, which offered good fire protection and also support the weight of the Water Collection System, fill media and drift eliminators. The tower mechanical equipment was installed on a lintel, which was mounted on pedestals resting on the tower foundation. This arrangement provided the same access and ease of maintenance that is available on factory assembled modular towers. Method patents on the concrete tower design were filed in 1994 and awarded in 1996.[5] Tower Tech received the Tilt-Up Concrete Association’s Achievement Award in 1995 for the innovative design. The first tower was sold in 1995. In 1998, the TTCT design was converted to a pre-cast design to improve quality and rapidity of erection. Nearly 100 concrete modular towers were constructed by 2000.

By 1998, Tower Tech’s phenomenal pioneering success in the temporary cooling tower industry had attracted dozens of competitors, and yet Tower Tech’s fleet of temporary towers offered more temporary cooling capacity than all the other companies combined. In December 1998, Tower Tech had a fleet of more than 150 modular cooling towers dedicated to temporary projects. After completing a temporary project that required 80 large modules that year, Tower Tech sold its temporary cooling tower division to Aggreko, Inc., a Europe-based renter of industrial equipment. Tower Tech signed a five-year non-competition agreement in connection with that transaction.

Tower Tech’s non-competition agreement expired in December 2003 and Tower Tech has re-entered the temporary cooling tower business. It now rents and leases its modular towers to cooling tower end users worldwide.

The company began offering cooling tower accessories in 1996 to provide customers with detailed information and accessories related to the entire cooling tower system. The unique nature of the Tower Tech design allows for more operating scenarios than are available with a conventional tower; the Tower Tech design is optimized to fit the specific operating requirements of each customer, and to yield the highest energy efficiency. This often requires that the accessory equipment be designed as part of the total system package. Tower Tech offers electrical control panels, pumps, and variable frequency drives.

In 1996, it became apparent that in order to continue to maintain the market demands for both the factory assembled cooling towers and field-erected concrete cooling towers, Tower Tech needed to expand its facilities to manufacture and assemble its cooling tower products. Construction for a new state-of-the-art manufacturing complex began in 1997 and was completed in June of 1998. This new facility was equipped with two extrusion lines, two injection molding lines, and more than a dozen assembly workstations. The facility produced some of the largest extruded profiles in the world. The manufacturing facility became fully operational in late 1998 and began producing an all redesigned factory assembled modular cooling tower called the TTEF Series.

TTEF walls and structural members were PVC plastic, rather than fiberglass. Approximately 156 TTEF units were produced from 1998 to January 2002. Some early TTEF towers experienced problems related to improper selection of sealants and caulks and improper structural supports. At this writing, most TTEF problems have been remedied. However, Tower Tech’s rapid infrastructure build-up and its problems related to early TTEF towers resulted in erosion of customer confidence and debt accumulation that the company could not service. Tower Tech’s chief executive officer resigned in September 2000.

In September 2000, Tower Tech’s board of directors elected Mr. Robert C. Brink as chief executive officer. Brink, who led the company’s rapid sales build-up from 1995, remained convinced that Tower Tech technology still existed among customers who insist on having only the finest mechanical equipment with the lowest lifecycle costs. Brink concentrated on improving and then reintroducing the heavy-duty fiberglass line of modular cooling towers that had been so successful from 1994 to 1998.

Tower Tech’s board of directors gave Brink the authority to attempt to restructure the company’s debt and, if necessary, to reorganize the company.

Brink solicited the advice and assistance of many customers, and a permanent customer advisory board was formed in order to provide a direct channel for customers to give direct feedback to senior management in the areas of product design, materials of construction, quality assurance, and business matters.

The advice and assistance of creditors and shareholders was also sought. After learning of Brink’s ambition to discontinue production of PVC plastic towers and reintroduce the highly successful fiberglass modular cooling tower, the company’s longtime investor group agreed to fund operations on a continuing basis, including through and after reorganization, if necessary. In December 2000 the company filed a voluntary petition with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, seeking permission to reorganize.

On February 1, 2002, Tower Tech emerged from Chapter 11 and was funded anew by its investor group. Management credits the success and rapidity of the reorganization process to the overwhelming support of the company’s loyal customers, creditors, shareholders, and associates.

During the year-long reorganization process, Tower Tech adopted Philip Crosby Associates' Zero Defects quality assurance process, improved upon its product designs, abandoned non-essential assets, outsourced the manufacture of most component parts, adopted lean enterprise methods, and discontinued the production of its field-erected line of concrete cooling towers. In January 2002, according to plan, Tower Tech discontinued production of TTEF PVC plastic towers and reintroduced its acclaimed modular cooling towers constructed of pultruded fiberglass. Today Tower Tech manufactures its popular TTXL and TTXE Series Modular Cooling Tower lines, both of which are improved versions of the heavy-duty FRP cooling tower design introduced by the company in the mid-1990s. The thermal performance of Tower Tech cooling towers has been continuously certified by the Cooling Technology Institute since 1993.

Company management focuses on continuous improvement of products, processes and people. (Company associates attend Lean and Six Sigma workshops, pursue Six Sigma Green Belts and Black Belts, take college courses and receive college degrees, and are encouraged to pursue myriad other avenues of professional growth.)

The company has enjoyed operational profitability for several years. In March 2008, it moved its headquarters and U.S. plant operations to larger facilities in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA.

In the course of two decades Tower Tech has grown from a small wooden cooling tower constructor to a medium-sized manufacturer that's well known for offering innovative cooling towers that are easy to install and have ultra-low operating costs, excellent maintenance and safety characteristics, unmatched redundancy, and long service life. Tower Tech has a niche market in the comfort cooling, process, and power generation segments of the cooling tower market, and its revolutionary tower design has not been overlooked by foreign cooling tower manufacturers: numerous offshore partnerships, licensees and manufacturers' representatives have been established around the world.

To date, Tower Tech and its international partners have sold more than 2,700 factory assembled modular cooling towers valued at more than $160 million.

[2] Patent #’s 5,143,657 and 5,152,458

[3] Patent # 5,487,531

[4] Patent # 5,487,849

[5] Patent # 5,545,356