When it comes to the food industry, our first concern is health and safety. With growing environmental awareness, oil-free air compressors have become a new favorite in the food industry.
Oil-Free Piston Air Compressor
Traditional oil-filled air compressors can achieve oil-free standards through post-treatment. However, these oil-free air compressors suffer from high noise levels, require frequent maintenance, experience significant air loss, and consume a lot of energy. They are therefore suitable for small businesses seeking low-cost start-ups.
Scroll Oil-Free Air Compressor
Scroll oil-free air compressors use a scroll disk that rotates in a small radius around the center of a stationary scroll disk, creating a working chamber that expands or contracts accordingly, thereby achieving gas intake, compression, and exhaust. Scroll air compressors are characterized by excellent quietness and affordability, but their relatively small exhaust volume makes them suitable for use in hospitals, research institutes, printing, and spray coating industries.
Centrifugal Oil-Free Air Compressor
A centrifuge uses a high-speed single impeller to apply work to a gas, increasing its pressure and velocity, converting the generated velocity potential energy into pressure potential energy. Centrifugal oil-free compressors are primarily high-flow models suitable for full-load operation and processes with minimal fluctuations in gas consumption. They are primarily used in high-gas-consuming industries such as bio-fermentation, petrochemicals, air separation, and refrigeration.
Dry Oil-Free Screw Air Compressors
Dry oil-free screw compressors utilize twin screws. The compression chamber contains no lubricant and discharges clean compressed air. The rotors are often coated with a special coating, and the two rotors are driven by synchronous gears, ensuring contact between the male and female rotors. Sealing relies on high-speed rotation and the expansion of the coating, so single-stage compression ratios cannot be very high and leakage is significant, typically requiring a second stage of compression. This type of oil-free compressor currently holds a significant market share, and while its technology is still being improved, procurement costs are high, energy consumption is high, and there is a risk of oil contamination in the compressed air during operation. These machines are commonly used in industries such as pharmaceuticals, food, and fine chemicals.
Water-Lubricated Oil-Free Compressors
Water-lubricated oil-free compressors use pure water as the cooling and sealing medium instead of lubricating oil. Most are single-screw compressors. Water-lubricated, oil-free compressors offer high cost-effectiveness, simple operation and maintenance, and low operating costs. Because pure water replaces lubricant, the compression chamber maintains an almost ideal isothermal compression state. However, water-lubricated screws have the disadvantage of requiring high water quality. Long-term use can easily lead to scaling, and the water temperature, which is typically maintained at around 50°C, promotes bacterial growth. Therefore, sterilizing filters are often added to post-processing equipment.
The advantages of oil-free compressors include lower noise, reduced maintenance, higher gas flow rates, and lower energy consumption. They also have a lower environmental impact. Using oil-free compressors reduces lubricant usage, thereby lowering production costs.