Friday, December 9, 2011

Air Compressor Lubricants

By Aubrey Wood


Lubrication is quite required within the gears, piston and valves of air compressors to ensure that they can operate smoothly and reduce the effects of harsh friction. Typical lubrication improves an air compressor's life and functioning. All oiled compressors call for lubrication and oil-free ones need to have them only for some gears and parts outside the cylinders. The lubricant oil gets mixed up with the passing air flow and compressed air filters are employed to separate them out.

Generally synthetic oils, petrochemical refinery produced mineral oils as well as a few organic oils are used as lubricants. 3 forms of synthetic oil are really frequent as air-line lubricants; these are Fluorosilicones, Di-ester based and Phosphate ester based oils. Mineral oil based lubricants are categorized based on viscosity index (VI) as defined by Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). You can find five groups (Group I- group IV) having separate VI, different quantity of saturates and amount of sulphur.

Producers incorporate numerous additives to enhance lubricating high quality decrease oxidation of finish item lubricant when applied in compressors. Choice of these additives is really critical and varies in different VI levels. Use of naturally obtained oils as lubricant is much less than the other two groups and these are primarily triglyceride esters obtained from plant and animal sources.

These had been liquid lubricants for oiled air compressor. Oil-free compressors don't need to have oil-lubrication as they include a PFTE or Teflon non-stick coating which acts as permanent solid lubricant and withstand high temperatures as 350C. However at quite high pressure ceramic or alloy metal coating is used as solid lubricant. Oiled compressors come with adequate lubrication from the factory but all through lifetime they need to have lubricants at regular intervals.

The lubricant dispensing unit is an air-line lubricator and is installed in the finish of FRL arrangement (Filter/Regulator/Lubricator) in the line of an air compressor. The air passing through this line will carry oil with it for the cylinder. This really is filtered later. The lubricator has 4 parts-an adjusting screw housed on lubricator head which is principal portion (by means of the head air flow is pressurized and lubricator oil is fractioned into finest droplets), lubricator bowl containing oil as well as a drain.

Air compressor lubricant oils have some particular properties. They ought to be non-detergent oil, totally free from impurities, must not create sludge, really should be non-inflammable, non-reacting, stable at high temperature and pressure, and their viscosity ought to be suitable as needed by the specific application of air compressor. Continental Oil Company, Clark Oil and Chemical Organization, Texaco Inc., Century, Mobil, Shell, Duckhams, Esso, Castrol and Dow Corning are some renowned manufacturers of oil for air compressor lubricants.




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