How An Air Compressor Works

Whats the basic principle of an air compressor

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Atmospheric Air is compressed in an air compressor, so that its volume decreases and the pressure increases.

There are mainly two types of air compressors,

1- Reciprocating type Air Compressors

2- Rotary type Air Compressors

Reciprocating air compressors

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Pistons are used for compressing the air in a Reciprocating Air Compressor and compressed air is stored in air reservoir tank.

Reciprocating Compressors can be Single Stage, Tow Stage and Three Stage, depending on the number of stages of the compression.

• In single stage compressor only one piston is used to compress the air. Whereas two pistons are used to compress the air in Tow Stage Compressors. And multi-stage compressors have the use of three or more pistons.
• Two stage compressors air is used to compress a bit more than single stage compressors. In the two stage compressors, the air passes through the primary stage, it is sent in the secondary stage input.
• Where there is excessive pressure required, multi-stage compressors are used. And with each stage, the use of inter-cooler and after cooler is also used so that the final temperature is maintained.

Screw type Air Compressors

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• These can be of two types, the screw and the vane type.
• In this, the pressure increase in each stage is limited to 7 times.
• It requires a high speed drive.

Here are two spinning helical or screw rotors used to compress the air.

When both screws roam each other, compress the air and send that compressed air onto the air storage tank.

Air compressor working:

An air compressor has two important parts, one is its compressing system and the other is its power source.

• Pistons, rotating screws or even vanes can be used for compression, it imposes on what type of compressor you choose, according to your requirements.
• For power, we can use an electric motor or use a diesel engine or any other energy source.
• Mechanism used in compression which can be pistons or screws, compresses atmospheric air with the help of a source of energy. The basic working of an air compressor is to compress the atmospheric air, which we can use later according to our needs.

In this process, atmospheric air is pulled through an inlet valve, more and more air is pulled mechanically by a piston or screw in a limited space. Because the amount of atmospheric air taken in the receiver tank increases, the volume of the air present in the receiver tank starts decreasing and the pressure increases. In simple worlds, when we reduce the volume of atmospheric air and increase the pressure, then free air compressed.