Patent ID: 11873820
Assignee: REGAL BELOIT AMERICA, INC.
Field: Engines, pumps, turbines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC F | IPC F

Claim 17:
18. A blower comprising:
a blower housing;
an impeller within the blower housing, the impeller being rotatable about an impeller axis, the impeller axis defining perpendicular axial and radial directions, the impeller having a backplate and impeller blades, the impeller blades being spaced from one another circumferentially about the impeller axis, the impeller blades extending axially forward from the backplate to a blade forward end of the respective impeller blade, the backplate including an axially rearward facing backplate back surface region, the impeller blades having radially outer ends that combine to define an impeller outer circumference, the impeller outer circumference having an impeller outer diameter;
the backplate back surface region having a first axial end and a second axial end, the second axial end being axially rearward of the first axial end, and the backplate back surface region converging radially inwardly as the backplate back surface region extends axially rearwardly from the first axial end toward the second axial end, the first axial end of the backplate back surface region having a first diameter and the second axial end of the backplate back surface region having a second diameter, the second diameter being not more than 75% of the first diameter and the first diameter being not less than 50% of the impeller outer diameter;
the blower housing having a scroll back wall axially rearward of the impeller and a scroll front wall axially forward of the impeller, the backplate back surface region being spaced axially forward from the scroll back wall by a generally uniform axial gap distance to form a generally uniform axial gap extending axially rearward from the backplate back surface region to the scroll back wall.