Under Pressure…More Than a Great Song by Queen

Well, this post is going to blow! More specifically it will blow at between 200psi and 500psi; for those of you unfamiliar, PSI stands for Pounds per Square Inch and is a measurement of pressure exerted, in this case by a gas.?So why should you care??For most of you, I am hoping to share something new, how this equipment impacts each of our lives daily; for the few of us who work in the industry, I am hoping to provide some specific insight and education on how Leavitt Machinery can up your game.

What is a High Pressure Compressor?

So let's begin with the basics, for those of you who have no idea what a Mobile High Pressure Air Compressor looks like, pictured directly below is an Atlas Copco XRVS1550 and below that is the Atlas Copco XRVS 1000.

Now, on the XRVS the 1550 stands for 1550CFM or 1550 Cubic Feet per Minute and on the XRVS 1000 the 1000 stands for 1000 CFM or Cubic Feet per Minute.?But Michael a minute ago you were talking about PSI and now you are talking about CFM; did you have one too many glasses of wine before writing this article??I can assure you I did not, Compressors have two basic parameters when it comes to delivering air; the amount air (CFM) and the pressure the air is delivered with (PSI); generally speaking, if we increase the amount of air we deliver, we decrease the pressure of that air and vice versa.?

How Does This Effect My Life?

?If you live in a Sky Scrapper, Use Natural Gas or have driven on a road cut through the mountains or the Canadian Shield, then your life has been affected by High Pressure Air Compressors.?One of the most common applications for High Pressure Compressed air is drilling operations.?

Above is a Section of I90 in Washington State being widened through the mountains

When building a road through rocky terrain the contractor must first create a flat roadbed.??The process involves several steps, the first of which is to drill small holes to place explosives into.?Next, the explosives are poured into the holes and the charges are laid.?Once everyone has safely cleared the blast area, the charges are detonated and the earth-moving equipment returns to remove the debris.?This process is repeated until the contractor has a level roadbed that they can begin building on.??One the coolest aspects of this, in my opinion, is that all the blasted rock is typically recycled on-site and goes into building the actual road.?

Baystate Blasting out of Massachusetts turning Blast Byproduct into 4” aggregate onsite

If you live or work in a Sky Scrapper, have driven across a large bridge, or work in a building that is in a swampy area, you have also likely benefitted from High Pressure Air Compressors.?All of the above structures are built on what is referred to as a Deep Foundation.?This does not mean that the foundation of the building has been dug down to 100’ or 200’ or whatever depth the Engineer has specified; that would be cost-prohibitive.??

The Marina Torch Sky Scrapper – Dubia, UAE

The foundation will be excavated deep enough to accommodate mechanical rooms, parking garage, storage etc.,?beneath these piles (think long tubes of concrete, steel beams or a combination of both) are driven into the ground.??

One of the most popular methods is to drill deep boreholes into the earth using a drilling rig and compressed air and then fill those boreholes with a mixture of concrete and reinforcing steel.?This same process is often used to anchor bridge supports to the bottom of the lake, ocean or river they are spanning as well as providing a stable foundation for buildings being built in swampy or unstable soil.?

Downtown Chicago – A City Built on a Swamp

From the late 19th Century to the late 20th Century, New York and Chicago battled for Supremacy of dominating the Skyline with tall buildings.?Chicago as we know it today, was in large part built on swampland.?Much of the building science today, as it relates to deep foundation construction; was developed to support Chicago’s push upwards.?

Who Are the Players??

High Pressure Compressed Air is a specialized market, in North America, there are really only two serious competitors in this space.?That is not to take away from other manufacturers who also make a High-Pressure Compressor, however, if you get out and speak to drillers, two names will come up time and time again Doosan and Atlas Copco.

Before we bring on a new product line, we go through an extensive vetting process called an NPI or New Product Introduction Process.?This process involves key decision-makers from our Warranty Department, Service Department, Parts Department, and our Internal Customer Support Department.?If at any time during the process of analyzing the support we will receive from a manufacturer; a red flag is raised, we do not proceed.

There were many key factors in our decision to move forward with Atlas Copco, firstly Atlas Copco has been in the compressed Air business for over 110 years; dating back to 1904.?Secondly, Atlas Copco has the best warranty in the industry by 200%.?Customers who follow the prescribed maintenance schedule and use OEM parts are entitled to a 3 year or 3000 hour warranty on the entire machine and 10 years or?10 000 hours on the air compressor components.???In addition, Atlas Copco is a truly global company with over 40 000 employees and a presence in 180 countries around the globe (pssst there are only 195 countries in the world), they have unsurpassed after-sales support.

Why Leavitt Machinery?

Traditionally Compressed air has been the realm of Rental Houses and Independent Dealers, this is fine if you only use a compressor on an infrequent basis or always work in the same location; however, most drillers and blasters cover large geographic and need access to reliable parts and service to maximize uptime.

When Atlas Copco and Leavitt Machinery partnered up, we made some significant investments in parts as well as training personnel.?In addition to having service at over 48 locations across North America, we also have our parts department involved in every customer order.?They take time to ensure we have the proper preventative maintenance kits in stock at the closest branch to the client’s worksite as well as the recommended spare parts to ensure maximum uptime.?Whether you are building a road through the mountains or installing a deep foundation in the downtown core; we are there to support your machinery.

If you would like to learn more about how Leavitt Machinery can assist you with your next High Pressure Compressor, feel free to reach out to me directly or click on the link below to learn more.?

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Michael Alexander | Product Manager

Dedicated to Safety – “Alert today, Alive tomorrow”

mobile: 403.803.5006 |