Increase speed and CFM on older air compressor?
by jim
I have a old air compressor the tank says Kargard co on it (it is in excellent shape no rust). Bill answers... Hey Jim, nice to hear from New Jersey. The rule of thumb for compressors over 10HP is that for every 1 HP of motor power, you will get about 4 CFM of compressed air at 90 PSI. Usually the compressor pump is sized for the motor, so that the motor, running at full HP, is pumping out of the compressor head as much compressed air as it can manage at that speed and HP. If you upsize the motor HP, and don't change the cylinder size, and if the new motor runs at the same RPM as the old, then I don't think you'll get any more compressed air. You're moving into the area of engineering here, Jim, and an engineer I'm not. But it seems to me that if you had a bigger motor, and you change the main sheave (pulley) size to a larger one, and you'd have the power to do that with a higher HP motor, then the piston inside the head would be moving faster, then you'd get more compressed air output. On the other hand, you might destroy your pump if the components in the compressor pump couldn't handle the change. So, proceed at your own risk. If any other readers out there have some ideas for Jim, why not chip in? By the way, I like the way you've got your air hose running up from the discharge from the tank. I couldn't tell from the photo...but do you have an air filter at the discharge, hopefully one with a drain? Cheers, Bill
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