Centrifugal fans have been around since the sixteenth century when they were first used to ventilate mines. After falling out of use for almost 300 years, they reappeared in the early 1800’s in several industrial applications. As fan technology has evolved, industrial applications for centrifugal fans have been found in a wide variety of operations where they can improve productivity and efficiency.
Advantages of Centrifugal Fans
The wide usage of centrifugal fans for industrial applications is because they have several advantages over axial fans:
- High Temperatures. Regardless of whether the centrifugal fan is direct drive or belt driven, the motor and belt are completely out the air stream. This allows the fan to operate with air streams that have high temperatures without any special allowances for the motor and belt.
- High Pressures. The blades on a centrifugal fan wheel are more rigid than the blades of an axial fan propeller. This allows the centrifugal fan to handle significantly higher pressures than an axial fan.
- Non-overload Characteristic’s. When static pressure may vary such as in product conveying, a centrifugal fan will not overload the motor and stall.
- Customizable. In additional to being available in a variety of sizes and materials, centrifugal fans have multiple arrangements for motor mounting and outlet location.
Industrial Applications
The advantages of centrifugal fans are most advantageous for ducted air applications with the need for high temperature or high pressure or both. Here are a few examples:
- Providing suction or pressure for conveying products or waste materials.
- Combustion air for burners or water heaters.
- Forced cooling for motors and electrical equipment.
- Circulating air in ovens and dryers.
- Aeration of liquids.
- Product cooling, drying and cutting.
- Localized contaminated air extraction.
New & Replacement Fans and Parts
Eldridge offers a wide variety of high quality centrifugal fans from Industrial Air Products (IAP) and Continental Fan Manufacturing (CFM). Whether you need a new fan or want to replace an old one, we can help with sizing and configuring a centrifugal fan for your specific application. If your centrifugal fan is down and you need a replacement part, we have a complete line of parts to get it back in action.