[Shop-talk] quiet compressor

[Paul Parkanzky]

We went through similar here at work.  We bought an oil-less pancake
compressor to provide air to laboratory instruments when the house air was
shut down over the weekend (GC FIDs, in case we're trying to do the same
thing).  A Tee with a couple of one-way valves was plumbed into the supply
line for the lab.  When the house air was shut off the pancake would pick up
the slack.  It was pretty slick and seemed like an elegant solution.

Unfortunately, even when it was put out of the way in a crate lined with
sound-deadening foam it was ridiculously noisy and caused a bit of a revolt.
The final solution was to stop shutting down the house air over weekends.

Many people have recommended cylinders.  That's fine if your consumption is
very low, but if you require a constant supply of air, then you have to get
a manifold to auto-switch between cylinders and people have to be assigned
to tend to them.  You also have to deal with ordering/storing/handling
cylinders all the time, which can be a pain in that sort of environment.  I
lobby for generating our consumable gasses on-site when possible.
Unfortunately, we still have to order quite a few Helium cylinders and we
run into crunches when the right people don't notice the supply getting low.

-Paul P. 

-----Original Message-----
From: shop-talk-bounces at autox.team.net
[mailto:shop-talk-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Mark Miller
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 4:28 AM
To: shop-talk at autox.team.net
Subject: [Shop-talk] quiet compressor

Hi.  I need a compressor for work that will be used in an office/lab type
environment.  Quiet is what I'm looking for, not a lot of air.  I was
thinking of getting a small pancake type and sticking it in a crate with a
bunch of sound insulating material, but would rather find an inherently
quiet unit.

Thanks in advance, o' list of near infinite knowledge!!

Mark Miller