How to choose the right oil for an air compressor?

Definition of air compressor oil

Air compressor oil is a lubricating oil specifically used in air compressors, the main role is lubrication, cooling and sealing.

Characteristic

Air compressor oil has high viscosity, high temperature resistance, high pressure resistance, high antioxidant and other characteristics, and has good lubrication effect and sealing performance.

The Importance of Air Compressor Oil

1. Protection of compressor

Air compressor oil can protect the compressor’s internal parts and extend its service life.

2. Improve efficiency

Air compressor oil can improve compressor efficiency and reduce energy consumption.

3. Security guarantees

Air compressor oil can ensure the safe operation of the compressor and avoid accidents.

History and Development of Air Compressor Oil

1.Origin of origin

Air compressor oil originated in the early 20th century, with the development of industry and technological progress, its quality and performance have been continuously improved.

2. Development

In recent years, with the improvement of environmental awareness and the intensification of energy consumption, the development and application of air compressor oil has also attracted more and more attention, and new types of air compressor oil continue to emerge.

What is the role and main performance of air compressor oil?

Air compressor oil is mainly used for lubrication of compressor cylinder moving parts and exhaust valves, and plays an anti-rust, anti-corrosion, sealing and cooling role.

Because the air compressor has been in a high pressure, high temperature and condensate environment, the air compressor oil should have excellent high temperature oxidation stability, low carbon tendency, suitable viscosity and viscous temperature performance.

What are the five major brands of air compressor oil?

■ Shell

The world’s leading lubricant manufacturer with over 150 years of professional lubricant production experience, providing high-quality lubricants for industrial, vehicle and marine applications.

Shell air compressor oil product line is complete, covering all types and specifications, to meet the needs of different air compressor types and working conditions.

■ Mobil Corporation

Mobil air compressor oil uses advanced lubrication technology with excellent antioxidant, abrasion and corrosion resistance.Provide comprehensive air compressor maintenance and lubrication solutions to help customers reduce operating costs and improve equipment reliability.

■ The Great Wall

Sinopec’s well-known lubricants brand has a complete lubricants product line to provide high-quality lubricants for the industrial, vehicle and marine sectors. Great Wall air compressor oil adopts unique formulation and production technology, which has excellent anti-oxidation, anti-wear and anti-corrosion properties.

■ Canary

Camel Air Compressor Oil uses high-quality base oils and unique additive formulations with excellent antioxidant, abrasion and corrosion resistance.

■ Kotech

Kotech’s synthetic oil for compressors are also designed to be durable and reliable, ensuring that they can withstand the demands of heavy-duty industrial and commercial applications.（Check out kotech’s other high quality air compressor spare parts and accessories!）

For screw air compressors, there are currently three types of oils on the market: mineral, semi-synthetic and synthetic, with performance and life span increasing in that order.
The synthetic type includes two types: IV base oil synthetic and V base oil synthetic.

The following is an introduction to the screw air compressor on the air compressor oil requirements:

What oil to use in air compressor?

In the compressor oil, the proportion of base oil accounted for 90% or more, so the choice of base oil has become a fundamental issue related to the quality of compressor oil. The choice of base oil contains two meanings, one is to choose what type, the second is what performance requirements.

1. Choose what type – synthetic oil for compressor

Synthetic base oil has good oxidative stability, carbon tendency is small, in the performance of far more than mineral base oil, long service life, is the service life of mineral oil 5-10 times. Of course, the price of synthetic base oil is expensive, some even several times more than mineral oil.

2. What kind of performance requirements

Compressor oil used in the base oil requirements have the following performance requirements: base oil distillation should be narrow, the flash point should be appropriate to ensure the safety of use at the same time, to reduce the production of carbon and oil loss; thermal and oxygen stability should be good, to ensure good deposit control; enough viscosity and temperature properties to ensure the stability of the oil film; enough liquidity to reduce the start-stop and the extreme temperature of the wear and tear, but also to a certain extent can play a role in cooling the effect.

3. Appropriate viscosity

Rotary screw air compressor oil commonly used viscosity grades are three kinds of 32, 46, 68. as we all know, under the condition of power viscosity, the oil film thickness with the oil viscosity increase, but the friction will also be increased, the oil film thickness brought about by the lubrication protection and friction caused by an increase in the compressor power consumption and oil consumption increase has become a screw compressor lubrication of the contradictory point is located.

How to realise the double effect of lubrication protection and equipment energy consumption is the never-ending pursuit of air compressor oil technology experts.

In this proposition, recommending the right viscosity for users is one of them. Under the premise of ensuring lubrication, choosing the right viscosity has an important impact on reducing energy consumption and ensuring the reliable operation of compressors.

Air compressor oil change six tips

With the increasing application of air compressor, the more important the maintenance problem of air compressor is, however, there are some misunderstandings in the maintenance process, such as replacing oil, which seems simple and complicated.

The following will introduce some tips for replacing oil to the vast number of air compressor customers:

1. If we do not have much sludge in the air compressor when replacing the oil, we can load half of the new oil, run for 15 minutes to 1 hour, and then fill the new oil to return to normal operation.

If the oil sludge accumulates too much carbon, you can remove the oil sludge and carbon deposit manually, and then use a special cleaning agent to clean it, but after cleaning, you must dry the water, then add cleaning oil for 100 to 200 hours.Otherwise, it is likely to damage the performance of oil additives and may also lead to safety accidents.

2. Each time the air compressor oil needs to be replaced, the residual air compressor old oil.Do not use addition and filtration and reuse methods. Because although the surface looks at the color of the compressor oil does not change, the consumption of additives may have exceeded the limit.

3. Finally, customers should pay attention to different air compressor oil grades, different grades of air compressor oil should not be mixed.In addition, when changing oil should also be replaced at the same time oil filter, coarse filter filter oil components, gas separation fine filter, oil bypass filter, etc., check whether the air filter, temperature control alarm, check valve, filter.

4. It is recommended not to choose a fixed time when changing oil, because the influence of environment, machinery, equipment, and impurities can accelerate the aging of oil products.In order to prevent carbon deposition and tarring, attention should still be paid to observing the oiliness, viscosity, color, etc. Lubricants should not be judged by their colour alone during use (every 300 hours).

5. To develop the habit of recording the time of replacement of lubricating oil and other components, check the records, and implement the responsible person. Among them, screw air compressor oil is a special oil, which must be managed by a special person to prevent oil mixing accidents.

When the air compressor oil is used up, tighten the barrel cover and do not have an open cover tool nearby.If it is found that the evaporation loss of lubricating oil is large, it is necessary to first check whether the oil and gas separator is perforated.

6. Air compressor oil replacement indicators:

Air compressor type lubrication part replacement oil quality index annotation viscosity

Select Kotech Compressor Oil for Your Air Compressors

To keep your air compressor operating at maximum efficiency with minimal wear and tear, there’s nothing better than oil from Kotech Compressor. If you’re interested in investigating your options, learn more about our oil products for more information on which air compressor oil type is right for you, or browse the Air Compressor Selector: Find Your Perfect Solution on our site.