There are many reasons a plant chooses to make equipment changes during outage season, but one thing they tend to have in common is the focus of these changes: centrifugal fans. If you’re thinking about changing your centrifugal fan during outage season, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Increased Flow and Pressure Capacity
When you’re looking for an increase in production, you’re almost always going to need a boost in flow and pressure capacity from the process fans. And if you don’t want to install new fans, there are a couple of ways to accomplish this:
- Increase the speed of the existing fans
- Increase the diameter of the existing fans
Increasing Speed
For this method, the entire fan rotor and everything that comes with it (hubs, bearings, shaft, etc.) must be analyzed to see if they can accommodate the higher speed. If this evaluation isn’t done, you could find that your equipment can’t deal with the increased speed, which could prove fatal for your fan and its components.
Many fan designers can perform this kind of analysis with special software to figure out what the effects would be of added impeller weight on the fan rotor and its support system. This is called a critical shaft speed analysis, and it should be done anytime impeller changes are being considered.
Increasing Diameter
A simpler and more cost-effective solution is to increase the diameter of your existing fan. This requires adding extensions to the fan impeller’s blades and its adjacent components. Doing this decreases the natural frequency of the shaft/bearing/rotor support system, raises the inertia of the impeller, increases the horsepower demands, and increases the structural loading on the impeller.
Need Help? Contact ProcessBarron!
If you’re considering making changes to boost industrial fan efficiency during outage season, you need a professional to evaluate your system and offer guidance for a smooth process. ProcessBarron has years of experience partnering with industrial plants to keep them running efficiently. Contact us today for more information!