What Is a High-Pressure Compressor?
A high-pressure compressor is a device that takes in air, compresses it, and stores it in a built-in air tank. The compressed air is then released through piping or an air hose and can be used as a power source for air tools.
A regular air compressor is a similar device, but there is a significant difference in the pressure of the compressed air it can produce compared to a high-pressure compressor. While most ordinary air compressors have a maximum pressure of about 1.4 MPa in the tank, most high-pressure compressors have a maximum pressure of about 4.5 MPa.
Uses of High-Pressure Compressors
Air tools that use compressed air as a power source are divided into two types: normal-pressure and high-pressure. The device used to produce the compressed air required to use the air tool for high pressure is a high-pressure compressor.
High-pressure compressors are often used in construction. These include nailers, screwdrivers, and tackers. Other examples include air impact drivers and air dusters.
Principles of High-Pressure Compressors
Like atmospheric pressure compressors, high-pressure compressors use a cylinder and piston to create compressed air through compression, discharge, and suction. However, to achieve higher pressures than atmospheric compressors, high-pressure compressors are usually designed to compress air once through the “compress,” “discharge,” and “suction” processes and then compress it again through the same process. A compressor that compresses air to maximum pressure in a single process is called a single-stage compressor. In contrast, a compressor that compresses air once and then compresses it again to reach the maximum pressure is called a two-stage compressor.
Two-stage compressors are the most common type of high-pressure compressor because compressing a gas raises its temperature while expanding it lowers its temperature. Most compressors have a compression ratio of about 20:1, but when the air compressed by the piston and cylinder is sent to the air tank, the air pressure drops because the volume is more significant than in the cylinder. Even when the compressor runs at full capacity, the pressure in the tank only rises to about 1.4 Mpa.
Therefore, the air is compressed once (first stage) and then compressed again (second stage) to achieve a high in-tank pressure of 4.5 MPa.
In addition to achieving higher pressure, this two-stage system also has the advantage of higher work efficiency because it can produce higher-pressure compressed air in a shorter time compared to achieving the same pressure with a single-stage procedure.