A blower is an equipment used to increase the velocity of air or gas when it passes through equipped impellers. The primary use of blowers includes exhausting, aspirating, cooling, ventilating, and conveying. They are also popularly known as centrifugal fans in several industries. Blowers are mainly designed for industries that require moderate pressure in conditions where pressure is more than the fan and less than the compressor. The fan in the blowers rotates and vacuums the air in the suction section. The trapped air is then pushed into the outlet side. For industrial applications, blowers are classified as centrifugal and positive displacement blowers. Similar to fans, blowers use blades in multiple designs such as backward-curved, forward curved, and radial. They can be single or multistage units. A blower finds utilisation in a broad range of industries such as water treatment plants, oil & gas, food processing, and cement, among many others. Thus, the blower market growth depends on the performance of its user-industries.

Centrifugal blower uses the centrifugal force generated by a rotating disk, with blades rotating at right angles to the disk. These blowers use a rotating impeller to move air first radially outwards by centrifugal action, and then tangentially away from the blade tips. The speed rises as the air reaches the ends of blades and is then transformed to pressure. Most fan manufacturers are designing fans that can produce high pressure, making them suitable for harsh operating conditions. The present-day blower can generate a substantial volume of air with a slight vibration in a confined space. Centrifugal blowers are commonly used in applications such as boiler fans, combustion blowers for furnaces, rolling mills, dust collectors, bag filters, suction blowers, and exhaust blowers. These factors are likely to drive the blower market in the coming years.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has turned into a global pandemic, growing at an unprecedented speed and scale. No industry was immune and industrial equipment was no exception. The blower market is grappling with the immediate impact of COVID-19, as both manufacturing and supply chain operations are being disrupted and consumer operations faced similar challenges. This had an exponential impact down the whole supplier network, knocking blower manufacturers with a lag, but at full force nonetheless. Additionally, the spread of coronavirus has introduced new challenges that needed to be addressed quickly, including worker absence, restricted site access and collaboration, and travel limitations. The government implemented lockdown across the world resulted in heavy distress for end-use industries to procure goods and services. However, as the lockdown is being lifted in several regions, industries started their production at full capacity. However, in some countries, COVID 19 issues are still strong and market restoration are expected to take a while.

The pandemic has made a severe impact on the demand for blowers, as major nations limited or shut down their manufacturing and industrial trades. The end-use industries faced several economic challenges, which limited their expenditure on blowers. Industries and key leading businesses are planning their next plans with reference to ongoing pandemic restrictions and safety of their stakeholders. Moreover, many are focusing on mitigating the risk of any future disruption for their and customers’ business. As pandemic is nearing its end in most countries, end-use industries are expected to increase the production to flatten the demand curve. With the rapid pace of vaccination in most countries, the markets are opening with safety regulations, which are likely to drive the demand for the global blower market during the forecast period.

In industrial operations and facilities, air movement is a significant part of the process. Air handling fans maintain operations and ambient air in the vicinity. New designs to build centrifugal fans specifically for industrial clean air handling applications are attracting new industries toward the global blower market. Moreover, currently, several industrial processes rely on high-temperature process heat. Operations such as heat-treatment, stress relieving, industrial furnaces, and ovens use convection to circulate heated air within the chamber. These process airstreams require specially designed centrifugal fans. Fans not properly designed for this purpose will catastrophically fail when used at temperatures above their design. This provides better future opportunities for blower manufacturers. Furthermore, blowers are increasingly being used for sewage aeration, pneumatic conveying, gas boosting, filter flushing, and all kinds of petrochemical industrial applications. This provides new opportunities for the global blower market in the upcoming future.

For several industrial applications, manufacturers are designing multi-purpose motors that can meet a wide range of technical needs with a consolidated number of models. One of the popular models is the open drip-proof (ODP) motor configuration. In addition, many manufacturers are focusing to offer more capable Totally Enclosed (TE) multi-purpose motors to save cost and time in various industrial settings. Both ODP and TE, multi-purpose motors can be customised to cover a wide range of applications, leading to efficiencies in design, procurement, and maintenance. Innovations and development in technology are primarily driving the global blower market during the forecast period. Furthermore, blowers produce more powerful direct airflow as compared to fans and ensure a constant flow of air at higher pressure. This feature is very important for conveying material in dust collector systems, drying & cooling, circulation and ventilation of air, and combustion air for burners, which is driving the demand for blowers globally.

The food & beverage industry is one of the important end users for the blower market. In addition, the increasing growth of the industry, owing to the rise in consumption of packed food, is fuelling the global demand. Additionally, industrial air blowers can convey air in both vacuum and pressured atmospheres, which is ideal for use in mining application. The rising demand from the mining industry is driving the global blower market. The global blower market is expected to exceed the value of $ 2 billion by 2031, expanding at a CAGR of approximately 5% during the forecast period.

Some of the key players operating in the global blower market are Atlas Copco, Shandong Zhangqiu Blower Co Ltd, Ingersoll Rand Inc, Everest Blowers Pvt Ltd, Aerzener Maschinenfabrik GmbH, Xylem Inc, etc.

Key manufacturers of blowers are focusing on product innovation and development. Companies are concentrating on expanding their geographical reach to stay competitive in the market and to cater to a large customer base. Furthermore, several manufacturers are planning to acquire small-scale companies or work in collaboration with them to have a competitive share in the global market. For example, in February 2021, Ingersoll Rand Inc acquired Tuthill Vacuum and Blower Systems to strengthen its product portfolio and key application engineering and technical support capabilities.

The growing number of industries in the Asia Pacific is contributing to dominance of the region on the global blower market. Furthermore, the increasing demand for blowers for cooling, exhausting, ventilating, aspirating, conveying, and many other applications is driving the blower market in Europe. Moreover, the water treatment plant sector dominates the worldwide blower market in terms of volume and value. However, high maintenance and operating costs can restrain the blower market growth. Nevertheless, industrialisation in developing countries is likely to propel the blower market.