What is the maximum gas temperature your hot-gas fans handle?
Continuous duty up to 600 °C across the envelope — the Master Facts ceiling — and short transient or startup pulses up to about 750 °C. Above 600 °C continuous we engineer to spec with refractory lining and stepped-up metallurgy. The fan is built for your stated continuous temperature and your transient excursion case, not a generic rating, so tell us both.
What materials do you use at 400, 500 and 600 °C?
We quote the wheel and the casing on two separate ladders because the rotating wheel is creep-limited and tops out below the oxidation-limited casing. Roughly: carbon steel / IS 2062 to ~250 °C; low-alloy Cr-Mo or 16Mo3 for highly stressed wheels to ~500 °C; austenitic 304H / 321 / 347 to ~650 °C; 309 / 310 / 310S to ~870 °C; Inconel above ~1050 °C. The casing follows carbon steel to ~482-510 °C, then Cr-Mo or austenitic, then 310S, then refractory lining. We size the exact grades to your gas temperature and composition.
How do you keep the bearings from overheating?
Three measures by temperature. Above ~120 °C the bearings move outside the airstream (Arrangement 1 / 2 / 8 / 9). Above 200 °C we recommend a water-cooled bearing housing. From ~482 °C an air-cooled shaft and heat slinger carry heat away from the bearing end, switching to a water-cooled shaft above ~1010 °C. A shaft cooling disc is standard above 350 °C. The target is to hold the bearing housing below the lubricant rating in continuous service.
How do you handle thermal expansion at temperature?
We size for the real growth. A 1 m shaft elongates about 7 mm from cold to 600 °C and a 2 m casing grows about 14 mm. Fabric or metal expansion joints at the fan inlet and outlet absorb that movement, anchor bolts are arranged so the casing grows axially without cracking the grout, and access doors and ducting connections are detailed to take the growth. Foundation drawings ship with the GA package.
When do I need a refractory-lined fan, and what does it add?
Refractory lining is available from 600 °C and standard above 700 °C, on builds where metallic casing alone cannot hold the temperature. It is a static casing lining only — it cannot be applied to a rotating wheel, so above ~870 °C we specify the wheel metallurgy and the casing refractory as two separate lines on the offer. Refractory adds offer and build time and needs a pre-startup heat-up schedule, typically 50 °C per hour, to avoid thermal-shock cracking.
Is a hot-gas fan ATEX-classified?
Generally no. Hot-gas operation is usually above the auto-ignition temperature of most combustible dusts, so the dust either burns out upstream or never forms an explosive atmosphere, and the fan is typically not ATEX-classified. The exception is if the gas itself is a flammable vapour at risk of explosion, in which case we reclassify the duty and route it differently. We will tell you on enquiry.
Do you performance-test a hot-gas fan before dispatch?
Yes. Every fan is performance-tested in-house to the AMCA 210 / ISO 5801 method on our 200 HP VFD test rig. Because the rig runs cold air, the test is a cold-air equivalent and hot-gas operation is extrapolated by fan-law correction for hot density — air at 300 °C is roughly half the density of 20 °C air. The fan is dynamically balanced to ISO 21940 G6.3 as standard (G2.5 / G1.0 on application), with ISO 10816 vibration checked at FAT cold and again at hot commissioning. Tests are customer-witnessed on request.
What is the lead time for a 600 °C refractory-lined fan?
Standard hot-gas duty runs about 14-20 weeks order-to-dispatch: offer 5-7 working days, design and GA 3-4 weeks from PO, manufacture, balance and paint 10-14 weeks, then cold performance test and FAT 1-2 weeks. A refractory-lined 600 °C+ build runs about 19-25 weeks, with the offer at 10-14 working days and refractory work added through manufacture. Site refractory commissioning and the initial firing add 1-2 weeks at site, customer-led with our engineering support.