Compressor Plant

the equipment required for producing compressed air or other gas. Compressor plants may be of the stationary or mobile types.

Stationary compressor plants use single-stage or multistage air compression. The main parts of a stationary compressor plant using single-stage air compression are the filter, compressor, motor, and air duct. In addition, compressor plants also include valves and dampers, measuring instruments (pressure gauges, thermometers, and so on), safety and check valves, and automatic signaling and control devices. Compressor plants with multistage compression have intermediate air coolers. The main units of a compressor plant have a circulation system in which lubricant is supplied by a gear pump through an oil filter and cooler. One or more stationary compressor plants, together with the building in which they are installed, constitute a compressor station.

Mobile compressor units are usually mounted on a trailer or truck chassis. They consist of a compressor (usually of the air-cooled reciprocating type), an internal-combustion engine, and an air intake with a filter and a small tank (receiver), to which several rubberized hoses are connected for supplying the compressed air to equipment that requires it, such as pneumatic tools.

Electric motors, internal-combustion engines (including gas turbines), and steam turbines are used to drive the compressors of compressor plants.

Compressor plants are used in blast-furnace plants, steel foundries, machine-building plants, construction sites, natural-gas pipelines, and enterprises in the mining, petroleum-refining, and chemical industries.