Reciprocating air compressor :
A reciprocating air compressor The mechanism involves piston, cylinder. connecting rod, crank and crankshaft through which power is supplied.
The inlet valve and delivery valve are used to supply and to deliver air from cylinder.
The valves are designed to give automatic action of opening and closing to pressure difference active across it.
For rapid closing light spring pressure is required.
The left valve to give the required airflow should be as small as possible.
The rotary motion supplied at the main shaft is converted into reciprocating motion of the piston in the cylinder, which operates machine to take-in air at low pressure and compress it upto higher pressure.
Construction :
During the download motion of piston, the pressure inside the cylinder falls below the atmospheric pressure and the inlet valve is opened due to pressure difference.
The air is taken into the cylinder until the piston reaches bottom dead centre position.
At the end of delivery stroke, small volume of high pressure air is left in the clearance space.
The high pressure air left in the clearance space expands as the piston starts moving download and the pressure of the air falls until it is just below the atmospheric pressure.
The inlet valve opens as the pressure inside the cylinder falls below atmospheric pressure and the air from outside is taken in and the cycle is repeated.
The suction, compression and delivery of the air takes place within two strokes of the piston or one revolution of the crank.
