Air compressor sizing

by Chris
(Arkansas)

I am building an air system using pneumatic actuators, I can't find any information about how much CFM I need. I know that I need to match the psi, but none of the actuators tell me how much CFM they require.
Thank you for your time.

__________________
Bill says...

Chris, you if you are sizing your compressor for a specific application, in this case running your air cylinders, you need to know a bunch of information about each of them.

I built a spreadsheet to help you figure out the flow requirements of a single air actuator. You would need to do the calculation for each cylinder, and then add up the totals to figure out how many CFM you needed. You can find that "air use calculator" from the home page.

Then, since you get 3-4 CFM of compressed air at 90 PSI for each HP of electric motor size you have, that will help you figure it out.

You also need to read the page on sizing your compressor to make sure you understand pressure loss in the lines and so on.

Cheers,

Bill