Blowers Types and Terms

Industrial Blower Types

• Air blowers blow or pump air through openings in a system. Applications include pools, Jacuzzis, and spas, fish tanks and aquaculture applications.
  
• Axial flow fans are used for ventilation purposes. In axial flow fans, air maintains parallel movement within the fan, and maintains linear movement during emergence from the fan.
• Blower Fans are industrial blowers that also use a metal fan for cooling and drying applications.
• Centrifugal fans and blowers are more useful in air pollution control than axial flow fans are. In centrifugal blowers, air maintains perpendicular movement in relation to the fan shaft while in the fan system, and emerges rotationally from the fan outlet.
  
• Corrosive duty fans are specially designed for use in corrosive environments or any application that involves chemical or gas movement. Fiberglass is often used in this type of construction.
  
• Crossflow blowers, or tangential blowers, release air after two cycles of circulation within the blower. Crossflow blowers are found in applications involving large areas requiring low pressure and high levels of airflow.
  
• Displacement blowers are used in applications that transfer large amounts of air for use in compression situations such as in the automobile industry.
  
• Electric blowers require an electric motor for operation. Electric blowers cover a number of products, ranging from hair dryers used in beauty salons to leaf and lawn blowers.
  
• Exhaust fans are ventilation systems used to reduce or eliminate odors, smoke, moisture or stale air from an area by removing the offensive air and replacing it with fresh air. Exhaust fans are common in kitchens, restaurants and bathrooms.
  
• Gas blowers are used to control gas flow and gas pressure. Gas blowers process methane, natural gas and other gases in gas well and chemical applications.
• High velocity fans provide high levels of air movement.
• Industrial fans are made from different materials than residential or consumer fans and are used in industrial settings.
• Low pressure blowers are used in applications where oil free air and almost silent operation are desired. These blowers tend to be small and use a small amount of energy to function.
  
• Power blowers are used in greenhouse and lawn and garden applications, involving movement of air over a large area or heavy-duty air movement.
  
• Regenerative blowers are used in the paper, photography and recreational industries for applications including ink and film drying and pool and spa aeration. During operation, air enters the blower and moves centrifugally out of the blower through the rotational force of the blower blades; however, during this process of rotation some of the air drops past the blade and moves through the cycle again, which is why the blower is known as a regenerative blower.
  
• Turbine blowers generically refer to any type of blower that is built in a turbine style, consisting of rotating blades, which create the air flow that is then blown.
  
• Vacuum blowers are called such because they essentially derive their blowing power via a vacuum which can either inhale or exhale a vast amount of air. When vacuum blowers exhale, they technically are not vacuums.

Industrial Blower Terms

Air Changes - The amount of time, expressed in minutes, that is takes for a fan system to replace air in an area.

Air Distribution - The delivery of outdoor or conditioned air to various spaces in a building, usually by mechanical means.

Air Velocity - The rate and direction of air movement.

CFM - Abbreviation for cubic feet per minute; a measurement of the amount of air a fan or blower moves through ventilation and circulation during operation.

Circulation - The process of a fan moving air around within a specific area.
 
Cross Ventilation - Air that enters on one side of a room and leaves on a different side of the same room.
 
Damper - The mechanism responsible for the regulation of airflow in a fan system; dampers consist of inlet dampers, which regulate airflow into the system, and outlet dampers, which control air movement out of the system.
 
Fan Blade - The fan component extending from the hub that rotates, cutting into the air and producing air movement. Fan blades may stick straight out in a radial position, curve forward in the direction of fan wheel rotation or curve backward.
 
Fan Drive - The fan mechanism responsible for controlling the movement of the fan wheel, including fan wheel speed.
 
Fan Wheel - Fan component consisting of a hub and blades, which rotate about the wheel in order to produce air movement.
 
Hub - The point on an industrial fan wheel from which the fan blades extend.
 
Multizone - A building or part of a building that comprises a number of zones or cells.
 
Static Pressure - The amount of resistance in a circulation or ventilation system that a fan must surmount to ensure proper air movement.
 
Total Pressure - The total amount of pressure, measured in Pascals, that an industrial fan or blower produces, including both the static pressure and the velocity pressure.
 
Velocity - The rapidity of air movement in a ventilation system, measured in feet per minute (fpm).
 
Velocity Pressure - The amount of pressure in a circulation or ventilation system resulting from air movement.
 
Ventilation - The fan process in which air is moved into, out of and between different areas. Ventilation is used to replace old, stale, odiferous or contaminated air with fresher, cleaner air.