A blower includes a housing including a proximal opening and a distal opening that are co-axially aligned, a stator component provided to the housing, an impeller positioned between the proximal opening of the housing and the stator component, and a motor adapted to drive the impeller. The impeller includes a plurality of impeller blades. The stator component includes a plurality of air directing grooves along its exterior surface. The leading edge of the air directing grooves extend tangentially outwards from the outer tips of the impeller blades and are configured to collect the air exiting the impeller blades and direct it from a generally tangential direction to a generally radial direction by dividing the air from the impeller and directing the air along a curved path towards the distal opening so that airflow becomes substantially laminar.