Christmas adverts, retail window displays and seasonal films are always complemented by a layer of white, freshly laid snow. As many of you will know, this snow isn’t real, and artificial snow and effects are big business. As the saying goes….there’s no business like show business…. Or in this case Snow Business.
Christmas adverts have become as much of a festive fixture as turkey, tinsel and turtle doves and the nations leading retailers now annually compete to produce the most tear jerking and heartfelt campaigns, all in the hope of getting conversations started, encourage online viral sharing and influence Christmas spending habits. Throughout the year we have and continue to work with companies that add an essential Christmas ingredient to many of these ads and displays by quite literally, making it snow!
Based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, Snow Business have been in business for over 30 years. They describe themselves as ‘World leaders in snow and winter effects’ and via a combination of innovative engineering and specialist sourcing, they can produce over 200 different types of snow. Using a variety of materials they can create, falling snow, snowflakes, icicles, frost and much, much more.
Now, you might think that there would be a limited demand for such a service but Snow Business is never short of clients, and very prestigious ones too. They have worked on Hollywood Films such as Fury, The Day After Tomorrow and Goldeneye. Their expertise has also helped to create installations and special effects at major events such as Glastonbury and the Ideal Home Show, as well as various high profile merchandising displays. We don’t want to spoil the illusion too much, but that snow you see on your favourite adverts, that was Snow Business, as was the white stuff that you saw falling on Monty the Penguin in a past John Lewis campaign.
If Snow Business can’t make your snow with their existing range of equipment and materials, then they’ll design and build something that can; this is where Axair came in. We supplied them with 38 forward curved double inlet centrifugal fans or inch blowers as they are often called. These were also used to create a number of unique snow blowers for use at the Ideal Home Show at Christmas for their beautiful snowy display. We can’t wait for the return of shows following a hiatus of Covid putting a halt on these fantastic and awe inspiring displays just in time for Christmas.
So how do these fans work? 
Direct driven, inch blowers are traditionally used with low-pressure industrial applications such as air curtains, air conditioning units and air handling units. We can supply a range of models with impeller sizes varying from 190 to 390mm. As you can imagine, their low pressure features make them ideal for retail displays where snow falls or is blown around.
Available with a single or three-phase power supply they can be speed controlled using a variable voltage controller. Every fan in our inch blower range is housed in galvanised sheet steel and are equipped with flexible arms and AV mounts, enabling the motor to be fixed in place to minimise operational vibration.
Crucially, many of our inch blowers are already compliant with ErP2015 and this was a particularly appealing to Snow Business who endeavour to develop eco-friendly products.
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