American Fan Company was founded in July 1969, for the initial purpose of furnishing cast aluminum blowers to the US OEM Marketplace. The company thrived, expanded the product offering and moved to larger facilities six times during it's first ten years in business. In 1979, AFC moved to the current location on Symmes Road in Fairfield, Ohio. Throughout it's history, American Fan Company has lead the industry in innovation, adding digital controlled machines in the 1980's and became the first US-based fan company to go 100% CAD.

In 1986, Woods Air Movement of Colchester, UK acquired AFC. By 1987 AFC was producing the Woods line of Axial Fans for the US market. The company's facilities grew again and soon included an airflow laboratory and a second manufacturing facility. In 1994, AFC became the first US fan company to receive ISO-certification and today maintains  certification to ISO 9001, and is NQA-1 compliant enabling us to provide fans to the nuclear industry.

Since 2002 American Fan Company has been an operating unit of FlaktWoods, the largest fan and air handling company in the world.