Portable air/gas compressor

Abstract

A portable air / gas compressor capable of manufacturing compressed or pressurized air / gas. In at least one embodiment, compressors capable of producing clean, dry, compressed air / gas (e.g., either in naturally occurring atmospheric nitrogen / oxygen ratios or as purified nitrogen or in alternative ratios therebetween) employing atmospheric air as a starting material. In at least one additional embodiment, compressors which are compact, lightweight, portable and / or mechanically non-complex.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION DATA[0001]This application claims the benefit of priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60 / 780,236, entitled GAS COMPRESSOR and co-invented herewith and hereby incorporates such application, in its entirety, by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 6,932,128, entitled APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR USING A LIGHTWEIGHT PORTABLE AIR / GAS POWER SUPPLY and co-invented herewith, is further incorporated in its entirety by reference.FIELD OF INVENTION[0002]This invention relates to a portable air / gas compressor capable of compressing air / gas. In at least one embodiment, this invention relates to compressors capable of producing clean, dry, compressed air / gas (e.g., either in naturally occurring atmospheric nitrogen / oxygen ratios or as purified nitrogen or in alternative ratios therebetween) employing atmospheric air as a starting material. In at least one additional embodiment, this invention relates to compressors which are compact, lightweight, portable and / or mechanically n...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]Generally speaking, this invention fulfills the above-described needs in the art by providing: compressors, with or without filtration and / or cooling systems, which are compact, lightweight, portable and / or mechanically non-complex.

[0021]In certain preferred embodiments, during a push stroke of the piston, the counterweight assists in effecting a completion of the push stroke and during a pull stroke of the piston, the counterweight adds resistance to effecting a completion of the pull stroke.

[0022]In yet additional preferred embodiments, the position and location of the counterweight causes the counterweight, during directional motion of the flywheel, to alternately assist and resist push and pull strokes of the piston thereby to effect a generally consistent rotational velocity of the flywheel during compressor operation.

[0024]In at least one embodiment, it is an object to provide a compact and / or lightweight and / or portable and / or mechanically non-complex compressor which is capable of pressuring air / gas. In preferred embodiments of such compressors, such compressors are capable of filling an air storage reservoir to pressures of at least 500 psi, more preferably at least 1500 psi, still more preferably at least 3000 psi, and most preferably to pressures selected from between at least 0 and 5000 psi. In alternative preferred embodiments, such compressors are capable of filling an air storage reservoir to pressures selected from between 0 and 10,000 psi or more.

Problems solved by technology

In particular, the number of such tool types which are used has increased due to the various specialties and sub-specialties of carpentry and other construction techniques which continue to develop as modern buildings become more complex.

Nevertheless, conventional pneumatic or electrically operable tools suffer various disadvantages or drawbacks.

For example, pneumatic or electrically powered tools which are directly connected to a compressor via a hose or to an electrical outlet via a power cord are limited in their portability or mobility due to their attachment to their respective power sources (e.g., their portability is limited to the length of the hose or cord and / or they may be difficult or unsafe to carry up a ladder for example).

Moreover, the longer the cord or hose, the greater the overall weight as well as the chance that such hose or cord will become entangled or otherwise act as a safety hazard (e.g., as a tripping hazard).

Although battery operated tools address some of these disadvantages, such tools are burdened by their own drawbacks such as their increased weight and reliance on the finite charge of a battery (and, after battery depletion, one must wait for the battery to be recharged or have additional batteries available, for example).

In addition to the aforementioned problems related to portability and mobility of pneumatic tools such as discussed above, such tools' reliance on the use of conventional air compressors for providing pneumatic air “power” further compounds their drawbacks.

In this regard, known compressors are generally bulky and heavy and exhibit other related drawbacks.

More specifically, known air compressors are too large and unwieldy to safely use in many work environments (e.g., on a rooftop in a construction project).

Moreover, known compressors are noisy, complicated in mechanical structure and / or expensive to maintain or manufacture, or cannot safely pressurize air / gas past certain threshold “psi's”.

In this regard, such known air / gas compressor types are environmentally unsound as they either produce significant pollution or they rely on finite natural resources for fuel, or both.

Images