A reciprocating compressor works by moving a piston in a cylinder via a connecting rod and crankshaft. If only one side of the piston is used for compression, it is described as single-acting. If both sides of the piston, top and underside are employed during the up and down stroke, it is defined as double-acting.
Reavell compressors are designed to efficiently compress gases to high pressures which are typically in the range of 40 to 400 bar.
Reavell high pressure compressors compress the gas in stages, increasing the pressure incrementally with each stage until the gas is compressed to the desired higher pressure. This multi-stage operation with inter-stage cooling/separators improves efficiency, component loading, and operating temperatures.
For an equivalent output pressure, loading on a single-stage unit can be about 100 times greater than loading on the 1st stage of a 4-stage compressor. There can also be an ~1100°C difference in temperature rise with a single-stage unit – over 40 times higher than the temperature rise across a 4-stage unit. It should also be noted the efficient inter-stage and final cooling system of our piston compressors improve ring and valve performance and operating life.
With a water-based multi-stage cooling system that cools between compression stages and utilizes moisture separators to remove water or oil held as an aerosol at each stage, our high pressure piston compressors offer improved component life.
These benefits can also be found on air cooled models, which cool the gas in a similar manner, albeit with a mechanism that relies on use of a fan/flywheel assembly which is used to force cooling air over coil shaped inter stage pipe coolers.