AirPro News

How System Requirements & System Effect Can Fail the Fan

When the operation or efficiency of a fan is off, people often jump to the conclusion that the fan isn’t working. We get it. The fan is an easy and obvious target. It’s big, with moving mechanical components. It needs power and makes noise. It blows a lot of hot air. But don’t be too quick to judge this essential component of your system. Often, the problem is not the fan, but rather the fan’s design capability doesn’t match the system requirements, or there’s a negative system effect.

Industrial Fan Silencer for Fan Noise Reduction

You’re probably not going to be looking for a lot of “peace and quiet” on the shop floor, but you and your employees and colleagues are working there for hours at a time. You might even need to have a conversation, or just hear yourself think. Industrial fans can add to the noise level, but fortunately, you can accomplish fan noise reduction by way of an industrial fan silencer.

Fan Vibration Isolation Considerations

Fans and vibration don’t get along very well! High vibration levels can shorten fan life and even cause catastrophic failure. Fan installation setup is a key factor to protect the fan from excessive vibration. Your fan should be installed on a foundation or structure designed to either handle the vibration itself or use vibration isolation devices.

Motor Speeds for Belt Drive Fans

We often get questions from our customers about how to determine the best synchronous speeds for belt-driven industrial fans. The answer depends on the fan’s operating speed and motor horsepower.

VFD or Damper?

Industrial fan installation and applications are full of choices, big and small, immediate and long-term. One of the small choices that can make a big difference in the long term is whether to use a Damper or a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) to control the capacity of your industrial fan. While some may choose both options depending on their applications, many fan users make an “either-or” decision.

Fan Storage Recommendations

How often are you ready to install an industrial component like a centrifugal fan the moment it arrives at your facility? Unless it’s an emergency replacement, the answer is probably “not that often.” That means you need to think about proper fan storage to ensure your fan is ready for operation when you are ready to install it, whether that is a week or months after it arrives.

Fan Foundation Recommendations

You’ve calculated all your specifications and worked to get just the right fan for your industrial application. You’re taking care to set up for maximized performance and safety, with minimized maintenance and cost. Make sure you mount your fan on the right foundation for optimal support & operation.

Critical Information for Proper Fan Selection

You want the best fan? There’s no way of knowing what that is until we know what you actually need for your specific application. The choices could seem endless until you put four critical pieces of information together. Armed with the right specs, an application engineer can identify a short list of options, and fan selection becomes very clear to us from there.

What is Fan Static Pressure and Why Does It Matter?

When you’re defining the specifications for your industrial fan application, one of the measurements you’ll need is fan static pressure, calculated as the difference between the pressure required at the discharge of the fan and the pressure at the inlet of the fan plus velocity pressure.
(fan static pressure = fan discharge pressure – fan inlet pressure + velocity pressure)

Don’t Install your Industrial Fan in a Vacuum: Know your Inlet Air Density

If the conditions surrounding your application are standard, then you might not need to worry about calculating the inlet air density before selecting your fan. That being said, you need to do some extra calculations with non-standard conditions, as they can have a big impact on your fan sizing and design.