We have often heard about oil-lubricated air compressors, but oilless air compressors feel like new technology. All above, to some extent, it feels unreal about how it will work, for how long, or is this portable enough like the oil-lubricated one.
Oilless air compressors are the new innovative addition to the family of air compressors targeting audiences living in small, compact spaces and so on. Meanwhile, we are aware that clean air is important in many businesses. Even the smallest drop of oil can harm industrial machinery or cause product deterioration.
Recently a huge audience is shifting to oilless air compressors, but currently, 90% of people are beginners, and so I was. My father being in this industry has been using an oilless for some time. Considering the hands-on experience, today, in this article, I am going to talk about how the oilless air compressor works. So, to have a good understanding keep reading:
How oilless air compressor works?
In an oilless air compressor, manufacturers don’t use any kind of oil for the lubrication or performance of the machine. The next question that arises is then what they use. In an oilless, Teflon is used as it is a permanent solution; that’s why oilless air compressors are considered more reliable and handy air compressors nowadays.
Also, that’s one of the most basic reasons behind their popularity. Meanwhile, they are more portable, featuring robust and compact construction, and at the same time, people confess that they are quite simple to use. I guess there is no reason left why one could not get an oil-free/oilless air compressor.
But getting into how they work is the real question here. Talking about that, they almost work on the same mechanism by lessening the pressure they draw in the air and then forcing it into the air tank where it is stored for further usage. Mainly, it does not require you to put any kind of oil in it for working or even for lubricating the components.
Using an oilless air compressor has its own set of benefits. That being said, it is also mentioned by some experts that water is also used instead of oil. As far as my own experience is concerned, I got the one with Teflon.
This was a general explanation, but to get a clear idea of how different types of air compressor works
without oil, follow us in the next section.
Different Types of Oilless Air Compressors and their Working
In an oilless air compressor, there are three different types of compressors that are often used by the audience and are equally loved by the audience, too, so that’s what we are going to talk about in this section. These include:
- Reciprocal piston air compressor
- Rotary scroll air compressor
- Rotary screw air compressor
- Rotary lobe air compressor
Reciprocal piston air compressor:
A reciprocal piston air compressor has a cylinder container with a piston located in it. The piston is the main component for generating the pressure in the air compressor. Now there are two types of reciprocating ones, a single and double one. Featuring an oilless air compressor chamber, there is no infusion of oil in it and in the pistons.
During the working of an oilless piston air compressor, all the components that are meant to come in contact with each other, as in oil lubricated, are prevented with water or Teflon coating inside and outside.
Rotary scroll air compressor:
The second one I have is the rotary scroll air compressor which includes two metal components in a spiral pattern within the compression chamber. Rotary scroll function on the basis of two unique intermeshing scroll where, both works in the opposite manner.
Because of these two scrolls, the machine doesn’t undergo any contact between surfaces or places, and due to this, the air compressor doesn’t need any kind of oil between these metal plates to work smoothly.
Rotary screw air compressor:
For rotary screw air compressors, positive displacement is used mainly. There is not much difference between the working of oil-based rotary screws and oilless other than one main factor that we will discuss below. The oil-based works on the compression chamber, while this one does not.
There are some advancements that are made in the oilless rotary screw air compressor, one that they use a little amount of oil outside the chamber for lubrication, but overall, Teflon is being used majorly. On the other hand, internal air coolers are also used in it once before and after the working of the compressor for cooling purposes.
Rotary lobe air compressor:
It is also the same as the rotary screw air compressors, but as the name suggests, it varies in having two different rotors that are equipped with lobes of their own, and these intermesh during the working of the compressor.
There is this interesting mechanism where air flows into the chamber, and then these lobes seal it all at once. It goes not have any contact between metal plates and hence does not need any oil for lubrication.
Final words:
An oilless air compressor has its own set of advantages and serves a lot. Oilless air compressors, often called oil-free air compressors, use different technologies to eliminate the need to use oil.
Above, I’ve talked about how the oilless air compressor works in great detail, so better read that for any confusion.
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