The Development History of Centrifugal Blower and Axial Flow Fan

The Development History of Centrifugal Blower and Axial Flow Fan 

As early as the Shang dynasty (c.1600-c.1046 B.C.) and Western Zhou Dynasty (c11th century-771 B.C.), Chinese people had invented air bellows with forced air features, for smeltery and foundry. 

 air bellows

Firstly, Chinese people used cow or horse leather to make leather bag. They connected duct or pipe to the leather bag,and forcing air by breathing the bag. Then, in the Warring States Times, these leather bags were installed in parallel or in series to reach better ventilation effect. 

Propeller windmill also was created and used in ancient China, and it was the ancestor of axial flow fan.
In southern China, people invented grain milling wind car, and they are still in using today. They can be said the ancestor of modern centrifugal blower fan and compressor.

grain milling wind car

1862, Guido Bell from England invented centrifugal blower. The impeller, casing were concentric circular,the casing was made from brick, while wooden impeller was backward straight blade. The efficiency just reached 40%, and they were mainly applied in mine ventilation at that time. 

1880,for mine ventilation, some engineers designed centrifugal blower fan with volute casing and backward curved blade. The centrifugal fan construction was improved step by step. 

Chinese ancient centrifugal fan

1892, French invented crossflow fan. 

1898, Irish invented forward West Luo Ke type centrifugal fan, then it was widely used by other country. 

In the 19th century, axial flow fan was used as forced draft fan for metallurgical industry. But the pressure was just 100~300pa, and the efficiency only reached 15~25%. The technology did not get fast development until after 1940s. 

1935, German used axial flow fan to force air and induce air for boilers firstly.

1948, Danes created adjustable blade axial flow fan during the operation. Then all kinds axial flow fan had great development. 

old centrifugal fan