Blower for vehicle-drying installation

Claim 1

A vehicle-drying installation, comprising a structure straddling the path of a vehicle to be dried; an air blower on said structure including a generally cylindrical housing of rigid sheet material having an open intake end and a discharge end trasverse to the housing axis, the latter end being trained upon said path and having an outlet slot extending over a major part of the housing diameter on opposite sides of a first axial plane; fan means disposed in said housing adjacent said intake end for generating an axial air flow, said fan means being provided with blade means rotatable in a transverse plane with a sweep radius at least equal to the length of said slot; and a liner of soundabsorbing open-celled polymeric material fitted into said housing and increasing progressively in thickness from the region of said fan means to the vicinity of said discharge end, said liner forming the sole boundary of an air channel which extends from the region of said fan means to the vicinity of said discharge end and terminates at said outlet slot, said air channel narrowing progressively in a second axial plane perpendicular to said first axial plane to a width substantially equaling that of said slot.