Before we dive into HOW to balance an industrial fan, we should start with WHY. The answer is that the better we balance the wheel in a two-plane balance setup in the shop, the better it’s going to be when we put it into the complete fan assembly, run it up to full speed and trim balance it. And of course, ultimately, fan balance is essential to fan performance, safety, and maintenance.
Balance quality grades are among the more than 20,000 standards published by the International Standards Organization (ISO). These standards serve as generally accepted specifications for products, services, and systems, to ensure quality, safety, and efficiency.
The fan performance curve shows the pressure and flow rate that the fan will produce for any system connected to it. The actual fan performance is dependent upon the detailed design of each system. System designers calculate process air requirements, and the fan application engineer selects fans to meet those requirements, which are graphically represented by a fan curve.
With less than a month to go in the year, we can’t wait any longer to report the good news about our on-time delivery averages for 2019. It’s our first full year designing, building and shipping centrifugal fans and blowers with on-time delivery to industrial and OEM customers as our number one manufacturing metric. The results are making us as happy as Christmas morning.
All companies and jobs are not created equal. When you own the company, when you trust your colleagues, when you know your customers, you may start feeling right at home. The family culture at AirPro Fan and Blower Company is a win for our employee/owners, our customers and beyond.
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.
Over our years designing, developing and delivering custom centrifugal fans and blowers for industrial applications, we have learned that no detail is too small in the specification process. This holds true when we talk about motor bearings too. There’s a specific nuance to consider when selecting motors for high horsepower belt-driven fans.
How do you determine the right motor speed for your industrial centrifugal fan? You’ll need to consider your fan’s drive arrangement and one more factor that frequently gets missed: frequency of the motor’s input power.
The Arrangement 7 fan is center-hung with the impeller mounted between two bearings and an integral inlet box to direct the air into the fan from above or from the side. This fan arrangement is optimal for use when your application requires large fan impellers and/or when you want to go the extra mile for increased fan life.
When designing and installing your industrial fan, it is essential to consider the full system and long term needs, including surrounding ductwork and fan maintenance.
Insulation surrounding industrial centrifugal fans serves dual purposes of thermal and sound protection. It also creates a sheath around the fan, requiring some accommodation for access when maintenance or repairs are needed. There are multiple fan insulation types to accommodate different applications.
Industrial fans have a special job to do when used in a dust collection application. They need to get the dust-laden air past the filters in the dust collector baghouse. The system pressure varies based on how “dirty” the filters are, and you can adjust the fan speed accordingly. Properly adjusting the speed can reduce your overall power consumption, but that depends on whether or not you place the pressure gauge in the right spot.
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.
