Single Acting Reciprocating Air Compressor

Single Acting Reciprocating Air Compressor Points : Single Acting Reciprocating Air Compressor A single stage reciprocating air compressor, in its simplest form, consists of a cylinder, piston, inlet and outlet valves. From the geometry of the compressor, we find that when the piston moves down wards, (or in other wards, during outward or suction stroke), the pressure inside the cylinder falls bellow the atmospheric pressure.
Due to this pressure difference, the inlet value (IV) gets opened and air is sucked into the cylinder; at inlet pressure until the piston completes the outward stroke. Now when the piston moves upwards ( or in other wards, during inward or delivery stroke) the pressure inside the cylinder goes on increasing till it reaches the discharge pressure. At this stage, the discharge valve (D.VO gets opened and air is delivered to the container. At the end of delivery stroke, a small quantity of air, at high pressure, is left in the clearance space. As the piston stalls its suction strike, the air contained in the clearance space expands till its pressure falls below the atmospheric pressure. At this stage, the inlet valve gets opened as a result of which fresh air is sucked into the cylinder, and the cycle is repeated.
It may be noted that in a single stage reciprocating air compressor, the suction, compression and delivery of air take place in two strokes of the piston or one revolution of the crankshaft.