Industrial Fans - Champion Fan®

The origins of Champion Fan® date from a day in 1874 when Henry B. Keiper, then a 16 year old driving a furniture wagon, watched a blacksmith shoe one of his horses. Keiper realized that a rotary blower would relieve the blacksmith from pumping the bellows to fan the fire in the forge.

To meet this need, Keiper designed what he called a "gumball rotary forge," which utilized a rubber ball in the mechanism to permit the machine to operate by its own velocity when momentum had been gained.

Champion Blower & Forge Co. was founded in Lancaster, PA in 1875 by Keiper. Along with blacksmith forges and rotary blowers, Champion Blower & Forge Co. manufactured tire benders and tire shrinkers. In the early 1900's the company started manufacturing centrifugal fans, drill presses, and power hacksaws.Over the years it expanded its products to include a variety of fans and blowers, as well as additional machine tools. During the mid 1950's, the company went through another boom when its blowers were in great demand for fallout shelters. The demand, however, passed with the nuclear scare at the time.

Keiper, who died in 1920, was succeeded as president by his son-in-law, Charles B. Long. The Long family owned and operated the company until the late 1960's. It was sold in 1969 and the headquarters was relocated to Roselle, IL. It was again sold in 1978 and ceased operation in 1986 due to economic hardship. At this time its assets were purchased by Mike Wolf, Mike Orseno, and Wayne Hildebrand. In 1987 our new company began operation as Champion Fan Corporation. We are now proud to be part of the CVM Companies family. Our new facility at 125 Tubeway Drive in Carol Stream, IL, was opened in January, 2008.

In regard to Champion's orientation in the overall fan market, with the broad market becoming more and more segmented in recent years, we have focused on the industrial side, rather than the HVAC market, and on custom type applications.

While we make most conventional fan types, our strength is in custom features involving higher pressure capability, special materials and gauges, fabrications to quality standards and/or weld specifications, all made in a variety of arrangements. Custom drawings that include complete engineering details are provided on a per order basis. We consider our drawings our best sales tool when used in conjunction with general catalog descriptions.

Areas such as the air pollution industry, petrochemical industry, chemical industry, sludge ID fans for waste treatment plants, various types of fans for ventilating automotive paint systems, and boiler FD and ID fans are where we have done the majority of our business.

Notwithstanding, our mission, as we advance into the 21st century, is to identify market patterns and to adjust to any new opportunities that are presented.

About Champion Fan®