Industrial Ventilation Solutions

Industrial Fans and Blowers

The team at Fowlerex are professionally trained experts in the field of industrial air pollution control, industrial dust collection, industrial ventilation, and pneumatic conveying.

A key element in all these systems is an industrial blower or industrial fan. We have developed a range of industrial blowers and fans that suit all types of industries and applications. Our expertise allows us to select the best industrial blower or fan for your needs.

Through comprehensive consultation, Australian and international businesses can achieve significant savings, and efficiency for their operations through upgrading or servicing their extraction fans.

When purchasing one of our industrial fans, our clients can be sure they are investing in a product that will provide long-term value for money and years of reliable and consistent service. The vertical integration of our group means our industrial ventilation applications are made by recognised APC manufacturers in New Zealand and Australia.

If you only require an industrial blower or fan, our engineers can provide the expertise to assist your selection.

Fan Services

Customised hot water boiler system
Impeller balancing (dynamic and static)
Fan upgrades and refurbishments
Replacement part supplies
Impeller rebuilds and reverse engineering
Performance measurement and fan applications

At Fowlerex, we provide leading customer service and professionally manufactured and durable products to each of our clients, and are proud to be a trusted and sought-after name in industrial blowers. Our range of industrial fans cover a huge variety of uses. They include material handling, air handling, flue gas, and other non-air gases. They also include high temperature, standard temperature, and low (sub-zero) temperature industrial fans.

We can construct blowers from carbon steel or specialist steels.

Frequently asked questions

What type of fan does a dust or fume extraction system need?

Almost always a centrifugal fan, because ducted air-pollution-control systems are high-resistance duties and centrifugal designs develop the required pressure. Axial fans suit high-volume, low-resistance ventilation and cooling instead. Within the centrifugal family the blade form is chosen to the gas, not to the flow alone.

Backward-curved, radial or forward-curved — which blade form?

Airfoil and backward-curved blades are the most efficient and have a non-overloading power curve, which suits clean or lightly loaded gas where energy cost dominates. Radial-tipped and radial (paddle) blades give up efficiency for ruggedness, self-clearing behaviour and ease of lining and repair, which is what dust-laden and abrasive gas needs. Forward-curved blades move high flow at low pressure in a compact casing but have an overloading power curve and are not suitable for dust.

Should the fan sit before or after the collector?

After it, wherever the layout allows. A fan on the clean side passes filtered gas through the impeller, so there is far less erosion, no build-up, stable balance and a longer life. Dirty-side placement is sometimes unavoidable, and then blade form, wear protection and maintenance access have to carry the duty.

Why does a fan not deliver its published performance?

Usually system effect. Published curves assume a uniform inlet flow, and a sharp bend close to the inlet, insufficient straight duct or swirl in the wrong direction can cost a substantial share of that performance. No amount of impeller quality recovers it — the remedy is ductwork geometry, assessed at design stage rather than diagnosed at commissioning.

How does gas temperature affect fan selection?

A fan develops pressure in proportion to gas density, so hot, humid or high-altitude gas is less dense and the same impeller at the same speed produces less pressure. The mirror image also matters: a cold start-up on that same machine draws more power than the hot design case, which is a common cause of motor trips. Sizing on standard air instead of actual conditions is the most frequent reason a fan cannot make duty.

What are the fan laws?

At constant gas density, flow varies with speed, pressure with the square of speed and absorbed power with the cube of speed. That cube relationship is why speed control is the single largest energy lever on an extraction system, and why over-specifying a fan is paid for every hour it runs.

Variable-speed drive or damper control?

A variable-speed drive, in nearly every case. It follows the cube law, so reducing flow genuinely reduces power. Inlet vane control is moderately efficient. Outlet damper throttling is the least efficient option and commits the plant to wasting that energy for the life of the installation.

How much resistance margin should a fan have on a baghouse?

Enough to meet duty at dirty resistance, not clean. A fabric-filter system resistance is not a single number — it rises between cleaning cycles and drifts upward as media ages. A fan selected on clean-filter resistance meets its duty on day one and falls short for the rest of the bag life.

Is a spark-resistant fan explosion-proof?

No, and this is routinely misread in specifications. AMCA 99 spark-resistant construction Types A, B and C define increasing separation of potentially sparking components, which reduces the chance of an ignition source inside the fan. It is not an explosion-proof or ATEX equipment rating and does not by itself make a fan suitable for a classified zone. Motor and instrument certification for the zone is a separate requirement, and the collector explosion-protection strategy of venting, suppression and isolation is separate again.

Why do fans in dust duty fail?

Rarely by design. Dust builds up unevenly on the impeller, or erosion removes metal unevenly, the assembly goes progressively out of balance and the bearings take the consequence. That is why balance quality is specified and verified (ISO 21940) rather than assumed, why vibration limits belong on the datasheet (ISO 14694), and why vibration trending is the most useful single condition-monitoring measurement on a dust-duty fan — build-up and erosion show as a rising trend long before a bearing fails.

What standards are industrial fans tested and specified to?

Aerodynamic performance to AMCA 210 or ISO 5801; sound power to ISO 13347 or AMCA 300; drive arrangements to AMCA 99; balance quality to ISO 21940; vibration limits to ISO 14694. Worth asking on any fan quotation what the stated performance is actually based on — a witnessed test, a works test or a supplier certificate — because those are not equivalent.

Can you refurbish or replace the impeller on an existing fan?

Yes. Impeller re-tipping and rebuilds, wear-liner replacement, shaft and bearing renewal, trim balancing and replacement impellers matched to legacy machines are all routine work, including on fans we did not originally supply.