Metal Finish Options for Your Fan

Whether your industrial fan or blower reflects your brand colors, stands out, or blends into the system, there’s one thing you always want to shine: quality. Here’s what to look for in selecting the right metal treatment and finish options.

Outside-In: Types of Exterior Fan Coatings

What you put on the exterior of your fan may be functional and aesthetic, and it is almost always protective. The main reason for applying industrial coatings to the fan is to protect it from corrosion and make the materials more resistant to moisture, heat, and other elements.

Our application engineers will work with you to pick the best coating system for your application. There are three primary aspects to consider when coating your fan.

  • Surface Preparation
  • Coating Type
  • Finish Appearance

Surface Preparation

Fabricated components are often dirty from the welding process, and it’s critical to clean & prepare the metal surfaces as indicated by your coating requirements. We most commonly wipe down all surfaces with a chemical cleaner to remove any oil, grease, and contamination. This step is completed immediately before any coating is applied to ensure dust and foreign objects are not trapped between the metal and coating.

Many applications require rough metal surface areas for the best coating adherence, and abrasive blasting is necessary to remove contaminants and roughen up the metal.  Depending on the type of metal, we use either silica sand or glass beads as the blast media. Sandblasting is required before applying various epoxy, polyurethane, and powder coat finishes. Glass bead blasting may also be used for the same finishes, but it’s most often used as a final finish option for stainless steel components.

Fan Coating Types

Our standard coating system requires metal preparation with chemical cleaning (SSPC-SP1, 2, or 3), a primer coat, and an industrial enamel topcoat. This coating is durable and appropriate for many industrial applications with air temperatures under 250F.

High-temperature, corrosive, abrasive, food-grade, and other custom applications often require specialized protection. Epoxy, polyurethane, or powder coating options may be advised. Additional custom coatings may be necessary such as Teflon, rubber, and ceramic.

Finish Appearance – Color

While the surface prep and best coating type depends on your application, the color is completely up to you. We will use a charcoal gray color by default, but we can custom match any color when you provide us with an RAL number or other color code. You can also send us a paint chip to match.

Finish Appearance – Gloss

“Gloss” is not a certain fan color or type of coating – it is the level of shine achieved in the final topcoat. We opt for a glossy finish as opposed to flat or satin because we want to make a statement on the quality of our craftsmanship. Gloss finishes reveal any welding and construction defects and trigger our quality control processes if the construction quality does not reach our standards.

Not everyone delivers industrial fans with a gloss finish. In fact, many equipment manufacturers use a duller finish to cover welding and construction defects. True to form, AirPro chooses to use gloss and not shy away from transparency. This puts our quality in the spotlight and keeps the urgency on our manufacturing to get it right every time.

Related Content

Here are several related posts and pages that might be of interest as you think about your application.

We welcome comments and questions via our LinkedIn Page, and you can always Contact Us or Request a Quote for more details.