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Manufacturing

Compressors for Manufacturing

Most people give little thought to the important role of mechanical air compressors for manufacturing, residential, industrial, and agricultural applications in a modern society. For thousands of years, the human lungs functioned as a form of air compressors, which people used to stoke fires, but the carbon dioxide in human breath made it difficult to actually sustain fires. Plus, the practice of metallurgy — the melting down of metal such as copper and gold — required higher temperatures.

The need to develop a stronger method to produce compressed air rose dramatically and around 1,500 B.C., the invention of the bellows, a handheld device that consisted of a flexible bag, which generates a concentrated blast of air, made it possible to achieve higher temperature fires. The handheld bellow later gave way to a foot-controlled device.

German physicist Otto Von Guericke introduced a vacuum pump in 1650, which suctioned the gas from tight compartments and create air-free spaces. In 1762, professional engineer John Smeaton introduced a water wheel-driven blowing cylinder that gradually replaced the bellows. Around 1776, John Wilkinson invented the “blasting machine,” which became the first real archetype for modern-day mechanical air compressors.

By the 1800s, air compressors became more popular as more people began to take advantage of the ability to transmit energy. In 1888, Austrian engineer Viktor Popp invented the first mechanical air compression in Paris. In only three years, the capabilities of Popp’s compressor plant increased from 1,500 kilowatt (kW) to 18,000 kW. Applications for air compressors expanded from traditional metal working to the mining and fabrication of metals and ventilation for underground mining operations.

Over the years, companies involved in manufacturing air compressors have incorporated other features such as electricity and pneumatic energy into the devices. The use of air compressors to facilitate the movement of large volumes of air through the 8-mile long tunnel constructed for the Italy-France rail system (1857) highlighted the numerous possibilities for the use of air compressors in the industrialized world.

In contemporary society, compressed air has found a place in nearly all fields of industry and commerce, including:

  • Primary product industries (suppliers of semi-finished raw materials to manufacturers)
  • Heavy goods manufacturers
  • Consumer goods processing and packaging
  • Transportation
  • Construction
  • Aerospace
  • Automotive
  • Cement production