Spark-Resistant Fan Construction for Fan Safety

Spark-resistant fan construction is essential in many industrial fan and blower applications. These include applications where the fan is handling explosive materials or where the fan is installed in hazardous environments. For example, dust collection applications commonly require some level of spark resistant construction due to the explosive nature of dust.

Adding vibration monitoring can lead to extended bearing life, and ensure your bearings reach their L10 potential. Vibration velocity measures in inches per second (IPS) how the equipment in question is being fatigued from vibration, ultimately influencing its longevity. The standard IOM (Installation, Operations, and Maintenance) manual recommends keeping vibrations under .124 inches per second for industrial fans operating in the installed state.

How to Increase L10 Life through Fan Bearing Maintenance

Fan bearing maintenance helps increase longevity and potential to reach the fan bearing’s full L10 life. Stated as a number of hours, L10 life indicates the life expectancy with 90% confidence that the bearings will meet the expectation. The higher your L10 life, the longer your bearings should last, provided you maintain your bearings.

Squirrel Cage Blower Wheel with Forward Curved Blades

What some may call a squirrel cage blower wheel is also what we call a forward-curved centrifugal fan. Either way, it gets its name based on the many small blades that make up this fan wheel causing it to look like a squirrel cage or hamster wheel! The result is a blower that moves higher volumes of air and gasses at low pressures for various industrial operations.

The self-cleaning radial tipped fan is a versatile component for moving high volumes of any kind of air through the industrial system. Although it works well with clean air, we often specify heavy-duty radial tipped blades in applications that include saturated gasses or abrasive particles. Considered self-cleaning, the radial tipped blades resist material build up.

See a Demo: High-Efficiency Backward Curved Fan

There are several wheel designs for industrial centrifugal blowers or fans with unique blade profiles: forward, backward, radial inclined, curved, tipped… sometimes it helps to get a visual. Here, we’re taking a close look at the high-efficiency backward curved fan.