Have you built fans for tobacco processing before?
We do not claim a tobacco reference we have not earned, so we will be straight with you: this is an engineered-capability page. The underlying fan engineering — clean high-volume curing and ventilation air, fine-dust and fume extraction, spark-resistant and ATEX construction, hygienic cleanable build — is proven across our range in food, drying, dust-extraction and ventilation duty. We engineer it to a tobacco line's specific duty. Tell us your flow, temperature, humidity, dust load and area classification and we design to it.
Tobacco dust is fine and combustible. How do you handle the explosion risk?
We treat tobacco dust as a combustible dust and design to it. The wheel is a solid backward-curved plate type that sheds dust rather than trapping it in a hollow aerofoil blade, so deposits do not build and unbalance the rotor. Where the area is classified we build the fan spark-resistant to AMCA Type B or C construction and provide an ATEX Zone 22 self-declaration per 2014/34/EU (Category 3). We also fit inspection and cleanout doors so the wheel is cleaned down on schedule. The exact scope depends on your dust characteristics and area classification, so we size it to your job, not a default.
Our curing and redrying air is warm and humid. Will the fan corrode or clog?
Only if it is built wrong for that air. Curing and redrying air typically runs 40 to 90 °C at high humidity, and where the casing wall is cooler than the local dew point, moisture condenses, cakes hygroscopic tobacco dust into a hard deposit and corrodes plain steel. We insulate the casing to hold the wall above dew point, select corrosion-resistant metallurgy such as 304 or 316L on the surfaces that stay wet, and drain the casing low points so any condensate clears. Give us the air temperature, humidity and any excursion case and we engineer the material and insulation to it.
Can the fan meet a food-grade hygiene standard on the process air that touches the leaf?
Yes. On the process-air path that contacts the leaf we build smooth, cleanable internal surfaces with ground continuous welds, no internal ledges or dead pockets where dust and moisture collect, and a food-grade or stainless finish. Access doors are positioned so every wetted internal surface is reachable for washdown. Cleanability is designed in from the GA drawing, not bolted on afterwards, and we document the finish and material on the drawing you sign off.
Can you build a replacement to match our existing tobacco fan's duty and footprint?
Yes. We reverse-engineer to the existing duty point (flow, static pressure, air temperature, humidity, density and dust load), bearing centres, inlet and outlet orientation and foundation bolt pattern so the unit drops onto the existing base and ducting — whether it is a curing-air fan, a dust-extraction fan or a ventilation fan. Made to your installation, not a nearest-catalogue substitute. Send the old GA, the nameplate and a curve if you have one and we match it.
Do you performance-test the fans, and what about AMCA, CE, ATEX and quality certification?
Every fan is performance-tested in-house to the AMCA 210 / ISO 5801 method on our 200 HP VFD test rig, and dynamically balanced to ISO 21940 G6.3 as standard (G2.5 / G1.0 on application). To be precise: that in-house testing is to the AMCA 210 / ISO 5801 method, not AMCA-certified, and we are not an AMCA member; CE is self-declared per 2006/42/EC and 2014/35/EU, and ATEX Zone 2/22 is self-declared per 2014/34/EU (Category 3) where the area classification calls for it — those are self-declarations of conformity, not third-party certifications. Our only third-party certification is ISO 9001:2015.
