When an international company specialising in medical engineering and biotechnology needed an ATEX class vapour fan, they turned to Flakt Woods.

When an international company specialising in medical engineering and biotechnology needed an ATEX class vapour fan, they turned to the company with an undisputed reputation for manufacturing ATEX certified fans and blowers, Flakt Woods. Understanding the Norwegian customer requirements has helped Flakt Woods to engineer the perfect solution, a bespoke ExVel high pressure recompression blower, which was manufactured to comply with the EU ATEX 100a directive, that requires all non-electrical equipment for use in potentially explosive environments to conform with ATEX. Every aspect of the blower was taken into consideration to meet the demanding features of the directive; temperature, accumulation of static charge, component robustness and the limit values applying to the distances between moving and stationary parts were all calculated in order to comply.

Flakt Woods is ideally placed to manufacture custom made ATEX equipment, as it was the first European fan manufacturer to be accredited with ATEX certification for its range of fans.

The final product has volume flows of up to 1.5-95 m3/s, and pressures of up to 65000 Pa.

Using the most efficient fan technology, has led to a blower with an outstandingly low energy consumption, with a zero leakage shaft seal design.

Pre-engineered components have also saved both design and engineering costs for the customer.

Furthermore, to prevent sparking, a critical factor as far as the risk of explosion is concerned, all parts were earthed and an anti-arcing screen was built around the impeller, the shaft seal and the clutch.

Full machine documentation and a 50-point risk analysis was drawn up as part of certification.

The fan was ready for delivery in December 2006, just four months after the order was placed.

The know-how acquired during the project and the diverse application of the ExVel blower means that Flakt Woods has the capability to design and deliver ATEX certified high pressure blowers for a wide range of industrial processes.