types of compressors
By Published On: January 22, 2025Views: 60

There are mainly 6 types of compressors, each type of compressor have their own characteristics in working principles, applications, pros and cons. Kotech Compressor will introduce the key features and working principles of these types of compressors.

Types of Compressors

What is an Air Compressor?

What is the Use of an Air Compressor?

‌An air compressor is a device that converts mechanical energy into gas pressure energy, and is mainly used to compress air to provide power or transport gas.

Air compressors play a wide range of roles in industry and life, such as driving machinery and pneumatic tools, controlling instruments and automation devices, and gas pipeline transportation.

Importance and Applications of Air Compressor

Air compressors are widely used in manufacturing, automobile repair, construction sites, medical equipment, food and beverage industry, and pharmaceutical industry.

For example, in manufacturing industry, air compressors are used to control and operate equipment, cool down, and transmit, mix, and spray gases and liquids;

In the field of car detailing, air compressors not only provide power for various pneumatic tools, but are also widely used in cleaning, painting, grinding, and wheel repair, which significantly improves the efficiency and effect of maintenance.

In construction industry, air compressors are used to operate drilling equipment, spraying equipment, and cleaning equipment.

In the medical industry, air compressors provide sterile air for important departments such as operating rooms and ICUs to ensure the safety of patients.

When conducting physical and chemical experiments in laboratories, compressed air is often used as a reaction medium or power source to help the experiments proceed smoothly. ‌

In the food and beverage industry, air compressors play an important role in ensuring food safety and hygiene, improving production efficiency, ensuring product quality, saving energy and reducing costs, and reducing maintenance and maintenance.

In the pharmaceutical industry, air compressors provide clean and efficient compressed air for each link in the drug production process. Oil-free and clean air can effectively avoid contamination by microorganisms or oil, ensuring the safety of drugs.

Working Principle and Types of Compressors

Different Types of Compressors

There are many types of air compressors. According to the working principle, types of compressor can be divided into two basic types: positive displacement compressors and dynamic compressors. Positive displacement compressors compress gas by changing the working volume, while dynamic compressors increase pressure by increasing the speed of gas molecules.

Positive displacement compressors include reciprocating compressors and rotary compressors; turbine compressors mainly include centrifugal compressors and axial flow compressors. Based on the lubrication method, air compressors can be divided in to oil lubricated air compressors and oil free air compressors.

According to the exhaust pressure, exhaust volume and cooling method, air compressors can be further classified into low-pressure air blowers, low-pressure air compressors, medium-pressure air compressors, high-pressure air compressors and ultra-high-pressure air compressors.

Positive Displacement Air Compressor

Positive displacement air compressors use variable working volumes to complete the gas compression and delivery process. The air pressure is increased by reducing the volume of the compression chamber to complete the air compression function.

Positive displacement air compressors have three types of compressors according to different compression methods, namely reciprocating (piston) compressors, scroll compressors, and rotary compressors.

In recent years, rotary compressors have developed rapidly, especially in terms of high efficiency, miniaturization, and lightweight. Commonly used rotary compressors include rotary screw air compressors and rotary vane compressors.

Piston Air Compressor

Piston compressors are the most commonly used positive displacement compressors, and piston air compressors have a variety of structural forms. There are two types of compressors according to the configuration of the air compressor tank: horizontal and vertical compressors.Piston compressors are cheap and easy to maintain, suitable for low-requirement occasions.

The piston air compressor working principle is as follows:

Inhalation process: When the piston reciprocating in the cylinder moves to the right, the pressure in the left chamber of the cylinder is lower than the ambient pressure, then the suction valve opens, and the outside air is sucked into the cylinder.

Compression process: The crankshaft drives the piston to reciprocate in the cylinder, the volume of the compression chamber changes periodically, and the air is compressed.

Exhaust process: When the pressure in the cylinder is higher than the pressure in the output air pipeline, the exhaust valve opens, and the compressed air is sent to the exhaust pipe.

The reciprocating motion of the piston compressor is formed by the crank slider mechanism driven by the motor. The rotational motion of the crank is converted into the reciprocating motion of the piston.

Scroll Compressor

Compared with piston air compressors, scroll compressor can be reduced in size by 40%, reduced in weight by 15%, have a simple structure (only 5 parts are needed), run smoothly and reliably, have extremely low noise, and have a high environmental friendliness value.

KUW Series Silent Oil Free Scroll Air Compressor

The working process of a scroll compressor is as follows:

Inhalation process: When the scroll rotor runs along the track, two crescent-shaped air chambers are formed and sealed.

Compression process: When the air chamber gradually decreases and approaches the center of the scroll, the air is compressed.

Exhaust process: The air is further compressed and discharged through the discharge port in the center of the fixed scroll disk.

Rotary Screw Air Compressor

What is single stage air compressor

There is a pair of intermeshing spiral rotors inside the rotary screw air compressor. The rotors are driven to rotate by the motor, and the gas is compressed between the rotors.

There are two types of rotary screw air compressors: single screw compressors and twin screw compressors. Single screw compressors achieve gas compression through the interactive rotation of the star wheels.

The structural characteristics of the rotary screw air compressor give it many advantages, such as:

The number of parts of the rotary screw air compressor is only half of that of the piston air compressor, with fewer wearing parts and safe and reliable operation;

The screw air compressor has strong adaptability and has good performance in high and low temperature air ranges and heat pump applications;

The screw compressor has a compact structure, can be used in conditions with a large compression ratio, and has good gas output adjustment characteristics;

The screw compressor is easy to maintain and is an ideal host for ventilation and air conditioning projects.

Rotary Vane Compressor

The blades on the rotor of the rotary vane compressor divide the cylinder into several spaces. When the main shaft drives the rotor to rotate once, the volume of these spaces changes continuously, and the air in these spaces also changes in volume and temperature.

The rotary vane compressor does not have an intake valve because the blades can complete the task of inhaling and compressing air. If there are two blades, there are two exhaust processes for one rotation of the main shaft. The more blades, the smaller the exhaust fluctuation of the rotary vane compressor.

Because the size and weight of the rotary vane compressor can be very small, it is easy to arrange in a small engine compartment. In addition, it has the advantages of low noise and vibration and high volumetric efficiency, and has also been used in automobile compressors to a certain extent.

Turbine Compressors

Turbine compressor is also known as turbo compressor. The working principle of this type of air compressor is to continuously transfer angular momentum (centrifugal force) to the air through a rotating component (impeller), and then convert the momentum into pressure through a diffuser to achieve the purpose of compressing the gas.

There are two types of turbine compressor: centrifugal compressor and axial compressor.

KOA Series Centrifugal Compressors

Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are mainly composed of a rotor (impeller) and a stator (diffuser) to form a compressor stage. The gas is compressed under the centrifugal force of the impeller in a single stage and the boost effect of the diffuser.

Through the continuous rotation of the impeller, air is continuously sucked in and discharged, so centrifugal compressors are very suitable for applications that require continuous, large-flow compressed air.

However, the single stage pressure ratio of centrifugal compressors is relatively low, so centrifugal compressors have two types of compressors: single-stage centrifugal compressors and multi-stage centrifugal compressors. By increasing the number of impellers and compression stages, the final compressed air pressure is gradually increased.

Axial compressor

Axial compressor is also called diagonal compressor. The biggest difference between it and centrifugal compressor is that its compression stage is composed of axially arranged impellers and diffusers.

Axial compressor compresses gas through high-speed rotating impellers in these axially arranged stages. It is suitable for large flow and low pressure ratio occasions. The compression efficiency is high, but just like the centrifugal compressor, the pressure of a single-stage axial compressor is lower than that of a multi-stage axial compressor.

Explore Kotech Compressor

From compressor selection to installation to maintenance, no matter what types of compressor, Kotech Compressor can provide a complete guide with optimal advice and solutions for your project.

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