FAN MOTOR/IMPELLER MOUNTING SYSTEM

A centrifugal air blower has a housing with an inlet side wall through which a circular air inlet is formed. A cylindrical electric drive motor coaxially extends through the inlet opening and is drivingly coupled to a centrifugal impeller rotatably disposed within the housing. The motor is supported on the inlet side wall by a mounting system including a plurality of metal mounting rods each having an inner end, an outer end, and an elongated intermediate portion. The inner rod ends are welded to circumferentially spaced locations of a belly band structure coaxially clamped to the drive motor, and the outer rod ends are connected to resilient support assemblies arranged in a circumferentially spaced array on the outer side of the housing inlet side wall around the blower inlet opening. To provide the mounting system with a high degree of stiffness with respect to mounting system loads directed transversely to the motor drive axis, while at the same time providing the mounting system with a high degree of torsional flexibility, each of the intermediate rod portions is positioned to longitudinally extend adjacent and generally parallel to a line extending from the outer end portion of the rod to the center of gravity of the combined mass of the drive motor and impeller.