Interesting air line setups

[Karl Brogger]

A friend of mine is a mechanical engineer and works for a energy consulting company in San Francisco. He was talking to me about setting up pnuematic lines in a factory and one of the ways that the company was able to use a smaller compressor was having essentially none of the air lines dead end. Instead of having a tree where a main line goes out, and has branches coming off it, most of the line returned back to the tank. When you have a draw on a line, it doesn't have such an effect farther down. Granted this was a big system, as in multiple 300hp compressors, but I'd assume it works on a scaled down version as well.

Thought it was a neat idea, and something that I'll probably be implementing when I build a new shop. That is if work ever picks up again.

[David G Baker]

Karl,
Interesting concept, I will have to keep that in mind when I do my compressor setup.

[Robert Reece]

This is like my Dad's setup where he used an old water heater tank out behind his building to increase the size of his tank. Essentially running one big loop is just expanding the size of the tank. It's a good idea because it gives you a nice buffer.

[Karl Brogger]

This is like my Dad's setup where he used an old water heater tank out behind his building to increase the size of his tank. Essentially running one big loop is just expanding the size of the tank. It's a good idea because it gives you a nice buffer.

Yes, its giving the system more volume, but that's not really the point. Its so the difference in pressure can come from more than just one direction, and to not use up pressure that something down the line needs.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Sounds like a "loop" to me. This is standard practice in machine shops, garages, and factories.

[Steve Kohn]

A friend of mine used to design factories and workshops. When I put my air system into the shop he strongly recommended a loop. At first I didn't have the $$$ to do so but installed the system so that the system could easily be modified. A year later I added the piping needed to make the loop complete. It made a huge difference.

[johnny means]

A friend of mine used to design factories and workshops. When I put my air system into the shop he strongly recommended a loop. At first I didn't have the $$$ to do so but installed the system so that the system could easily be modified. A year later I added the piping needed to make the loop complete. It made a huge difference.

What difference did you seeN