Belt Driven Vs Direct Drive Fan

Direct driven fans mount the motor to the fan shaft in order to directly transmit energy.

Belt driven vs direct drive fan.

Belt drive fans have two additional bearings. As energy costs increase it has become desirable to transition to a more efficient means of driving fan systems. More often than not the maintenance cost of this kind of fan is also comparatively lower. Unlike belt driven fans there s less energy loss because there s a reduced amount of friction as the fan operates.

4 direct drive fan. Note that for shaft driven direct drive fans arr. There s also no belt residue and these fans cost less to maintain generally speaking because belts don t wear down and break. Since there is at least a 3 percent drive loss for a belt drive fan and no v belt drive loss for a direct drive fan the direct drive fan by default will be more efficient.

Direct drive fans should be designed for acceptable bearing life. On a direct drive fan as implied by the name the fan propeller is connected directly to the shaft of the motor. Where on a belt drive fan the fan motor shaft has a pulley connected by a belt to a second pulley. 7 8 etc the flexible drive coupling loss is immeasurable and ignored so its drive efficiency follows that of an arr.

This is because of the fact that the amount of friction is greatly reduced in case of this fan when the fan is operating. The second pulley is connected to a shaft that drives the fan propeller. Direct drive or belt drive. Deciding between a direct drive fan and a belt drive fan is fairly straightforward once you know all of your other variables like fan size application space fan speed needs and likely wear and tear in your application.

Direct drive fans have no power transmission loss since the propeller is directly connected to the motor shaft. In the former the motor connects to the fan wheel with nothing in between. Greater efficiency is the biggest pro of direct drive fan configurations. In the later there is a belt sometimes more than one connecting the motor to move the fan.

The two bearings on direct drive fan motors which are 7 horsepower and larger are typically regreaseable. Unlike the belt driven fans in case of a direct drive fan there is lesser energy loss.