Air Blower: Types and How to Buy for Industrial Applications
Air blowers are crucial in industrial applications for moving air or gases, maintaining ventilation, and ensuring efficient process operations. Here’s an overview of the types of air blowers and key considerations for purchasing them for industrial use:
Types of Air Blowers
- Centrifugal Blowers
- Principle: Use a rotating impeller to increase the air’s velocity, which is then converted into pressure.
- Characteristics: High pressure, variable airflow, and efficiency.
- Applications: HVAC systems, dust collection, and industrial ventilation.
- Positive Displacement Blowers
- Principle: Move a fixed volume of air per revolution, providing consistent airflow regardless of pressure changes.
- Types:
- Roots Blowers: Two counter-rotating lobes; ideal for high volume and moderate pressure.
- Vane Blowers: Rotating vanes for precise flow control at low to medium pressures.
- Screw Blowers: Interlocking screws for smooth operation and energy efficiency.
- Applications: Pneumatic conveying, wastewater treatment, and aquaculture.
- Axial Flow Blowers
- Principle: Air flows parallel to the axis of the impeller, offering high airflow with lower pressure.
- Types:
- Tube Axial Fans: Compact and efficient, suited for confined spaces.
- Vane Axial Fans: Include guide vanes to enhance efficiency.
- Applications: Large-scale ventilation, cooling systems, and drying processes.
- Regenerative Blowers
- Principle: Utilize a rotating impeller to generate a continuous air flow, often with high efficiency and low noise.
- Types:
- Single-Stage: For moderate pressure and airflow.
- Multi-Stage: For higher pressure and airflow.
- Applications: Vacuum systems, aeration, and air handling.
How to Buy an Air Blower for Industrial Applications
- Determine Your Requirements
- Flow Rate and Pressure: Calculate the required airflow (CFM or m³/h) and pressure (inches of water gauge or pascals) for your specific application.
- Application Needs: Identify the type of application (e.g., ventilation, dust collection, cooling) and choose the blower type that matches these needs.
- Evaluate Blower Specifications
- Performance Data: Review performance curves and specifications to ensure the blower meets your operational requirements.
- Energy Efficiency: Consider energy consumption and efficiency ratings to reduce operational costs.
- Consider Environmental Factors
- Operating Conditions: Account for factors such as temperature, humidity, and the presence of corrosive or abrasive materials.
- Noise Levels: Choose a blower with acceptable noise levels, especially for environments where noise reduction is crucial.
- Check for Reliability and Durability
- Build Quality: Look for blowers made from high-quality materials and designed to withstand industrial conditions.
- Brand Reputation: Opt for reputable manufacturers known for reliability and quality.
- Review Maintenance and Support
- Maintenance Requirements: Assess the ease of maintenance and availability of spare parts.
- Warranty and Support: Ensure that the blower comes with a comprehensive warranty and access to customer support.
- Compare Costs
- Initial Cost: Evaluate the upfront cost of the blower.
- Total Cost of Ownership: Consider the total cost, including energy consumption, maintenance, and potential downtime.
- Consult with Experts
- Manufacturer or Supplier: Get advice from manufacturers or suppliers who can provide insights based on your specific requirements.
- Engineers or Consultants: Consult with industrial engineers or consultants for detailed recommendations.
By carefully assessing these factors, you can select the right air blower to optimize performance and efficiency for your industrial application. If you have more specific needs or questions, feel free to ask!
Energy costs can add up to 85% of the life cycle cost of an air blower. That’s why we develop the most energy-efficient and innovative technologies, helping you save money and reduce environmental impact. Atlas Copco’s air blowers are designed to optimize reliability and efficiency of your low-pressure applications. Our broad range of technologies ensures we have all the right products to meet your requirements.
industrial air blowers
Why are air blowers needed in industrial applications?
Air blowers are used in industrial processes that need controlled gas flow for the work of ventilation, aeration, particulate transport, combustion, cooling, drying, exhaust etc.
Air blower machines in UAE and Oman are usually found in places where there is metal being manufactured, power being generated, cement being produced, mining, petrochemicals being produced, food processing, cryogenics and so on. Air blowers are a lot like air compressors and are widely used in industrial manufacturing activity except the pressure generated is typically under 1barg.
Most industrial air blower designs use an air compression / air pumping element to produce gas flow. The pressure at the outlet side of the air blower is higher than the pressure at the inlet side. The air blower also can be used to move gases or air from hot to cooler places, cool to hotter places or simply re-directs unwanted gas away or to specific areas for safe handling.
The common measurement for air blower capacity is cubic feet per minute (cfm) or cubic meters per minute (m3/min).
Types of air blowers used in industries of UAE and Oman
Air blowers come in two types: dynamic namely integrally geared or multi stage centrifugal air blowers and positive displacement namely trilobe or screw air blowers.
Centrifugal air blowers use fan-like blades, also known as impellers, rotating at high speeds to increase the velocity of the gas coming in from the inlet side. The unit comes in single stage and multi-stage variants and the fan blades themselves can be oriented in several ways – radial, forward curved and backward curved. In many modern Air blowers the impeller speed can be adjusted by variable speed drive technology and dampeners to change the flow rate of the gas.
Positive displacement air blowers have a similar operating principle to positive displacement compressors. These types of air blowers draw gas from an inlet into a chamber and then squeeze that gas out through the outlet by means of a rotating element like a rotary vane or rotary screw system. The idea is that the chamber increases in volume to make room for the gas and then decreases in volume to force the discharge or simply pump the air from inlet to discharge like a tri-lobe blower.
The centrifugal type produces variances in flow rate based on the pressure of the gas at the inlet end. The positive displacement type tends to maintain a more constant output flow regardless of changes in gas pressure.
How to buy an air blower for your industrial unit
screw air blower machine
ZS range screw blower
When purchasing an air blower in UAE and Oman for your facility it’s important you assess your exact needs first. If you aren’t sure what your requirements are then the best thing to do would be to get in touch with our team in UAE and Oman and we can have an expert sent over to inspect your site and advise you. Our experts will identify the maximum operating pressure you need, the correct flow capacity, the design specifications and the industrial air blower type.
We believe you should also consider the benefits of purchasing an air blower with the lowest energy consumption to reduce operating prices and carbon footprint even if the investment is slightly higher. All the air blowers produced by Atlas Copco generate 100% oil-free air that is used in all kinds of industries where air quality is paramount for the end product and production process. In these critical environments, contamination by even the smallest quantities of oil can result in costly production downtime and product spoilage.
Atlas Copco has a comprehensive range of 100% oil-free air rotary lobe blowers, centrifugal air blowers, and rotary screw air blowers. And they come with our trademark VSD+ variable speed drive technology.
Our new generation ZS 4 series for example is one of the most energy efficient blower solutions on the market, helping you save up to 11% on energy costs compared to the previous generation of Atlas Copco screw blowers.
We have combined our trusted screw technology with the latest innovations to create a new generation of variable speed driven (VSD) oil-free screw blowers that deliver up to 32% more flow compared to the current ZS VSD models.
All our industrial air blower machines comes with the Elektronikon® unit controller which is specially designed to increase energy-efficiency by lowering energy consumption, reduced maintenance time and increasing productivity. You can also minimize on-site supervision time through our SMARTLINK service that helps you monitor your features from a distance via mobile or internet.
Browse these brochures and then click on the button below to contact us to make an inquiry today.
Oil-free rotary screw blower ZS (VSD+)
Oil-free centrifugal blower ZB VSD+
Oil-free multistage centrifugal blower and exhauster ZM
Oil-free lobe blowers ZL (VSD)