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History: Fan (Machine)

A fan is a machine that uses rotating blades or vanes to create an air flow. The rotating blades are contained within a housing or case. Fans produce air flow with high volume and low pressure, as opposed to compressors which produce high pressure air. Common applications of fans include cooling engines and machinery, ventilation, drying, and providing airflow. The history of fans dates back thousands of years, with early versions including handheld punkah fans in India and large ceiling fans powered by servants. Modern electric fans are powered by motors.

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61 views2 pages

History: Fan (Machine)

A fan is a machine that uses rotating blades or vanes to create an air flow. The rotating blades are contained within a housing or case. Fans produce air flow with high volume and low pressure, as opposed to compressors which produce high pressure air. Common applications of fans include cooling engines and machinery, ventilation, drying, and providing airflow. The history of fans dates back thousands of years, with early versions including handheld punkah fans in India and large ceiling fans powered by servants. Modern electric fans are powered by motors.

Uploaded by

Dexter
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© © All Rights Reserved
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FAN (MACHINE)

A fan is a powered machine used to create a flow of air. A fan consists of a rotating arrangement of


vanes or blades, which act on the air. The rotating assembly of blades and hub is known as
an impeller, rotor, or runner. Usually, it is contained within some form of housing, or case.[1] This may
direct the airflow, or increase safety by preventing objects from contacting the fan blades. Most fans
are powered by electric motors, but other sources of power may be used, including hydraulic
motors, handcranks, and internal combustion engines.
Mechanically, a fan can be any revolving vane, or vanes used for producing currents of air. Fans
produce air flows with high volume and low pressure (although higher than ambient pressure), as
opposed to compressors which produce high pressures at a comparatively low volume. A
fan blade will often rotate when exposed to an air-fluid stream, and devices that take advantage of
this, such as anemometers and wind turbines, often have designs similar to that of a fan.
Further information: centrifugal compressor

Typical applications include climate control and personal thermal comfort (e.g., an electric table or


floor fan), vehicle engine cooling systems (e.g., in front of a radiator), machinery cooling systems
(e.g., inside computers and audio power amplifiers), ventilation, fume extraction, winnowing (e.g.,
separating chaff of cereal grains), removing dust (e.g. sucking as in a vacuum cleaner), drying
(usually in combination with a heat source) and providing draft for a fire.
While fans are often used to cool people, they do not cool air (electric fans may warm it slightly due
to the warming of their motors), but work by evaporative cooling of sweat and increased
heat convection into the surrounding air, due to the airflow from the fans. Thus, fans may become
ineffective at cooling the body if the surrounding air is near body temperature and contains high
humidity. A fan blade is generally made of wood, plastic, or metal.
Fans have several applications in the industries. Some fans directly cool the machine and process,
and may be indirectly used for cooling in the case of industrial heat exchangers.
These are critical machines and responsible for operating the entire plant, which may shut down
without the proper fan. In mine and tunnel, it also used as safety equipment.

History[edit]

Patent drawing for a Fan Moved by Mechanism, November 27, 1830

The punkah fan was used in India about 500 BCE. It was a handheld fan made from bamboo strips
or other plant fiber, that could be rotated or fanned to move air. During British rule, the word came to
be used by Anglo-Indians to mean a large swinging flat fan, fixed to the ceiling and pulled by a
servant called the punkawallah.
For purposes of air conditioning, the Han Dynasty craftsman and engineer Ding Huan (fl. 180 CE)
invented a manually operated rotary fan with seven wheels that measured 3 m (10 ft) in diameter; in
the 8th century, during the Tang Dynasty (618–907), the Chinese applied hydraulic power to rotate
the fan wheels for air conditioning, while the rotary fan became even more common during the Song
Dynasty (960–1279).[2][3]
In the 17th century, the experiments of scientists including Otto von Guericke, Robert
Hooke and Robert Boyle, established the basic principles of vacuum and airflow. The English
architect Sir Christopher Wren applied an early ventilation system in the Houses of Parliament that
used bellows to circulate air. Wren's design would be the catalyst for much later improvement and
innovation. The first rotary fan used in Europe was for mine ventilation during the 16th century, as
illustrated by Georg Agricola (1494–1555).[4]
John Theophilus Desaguliers, a British engineer, demonstrated the successful use of a fan system
to draw out stagnant air from coal mines in 1727 and soon afterward he installed a similar apparatus
in Parliament.[5] Good ventilation was particularly important in coal mines to reduce casualties from
asphyxiation. The civil engineer John Smeaton, and later John Buddle installed reciprocating air
pumps in the mines in the North of England. However, this arrangement was not as ideal as the
machinery was liable to breaking down.

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