What is a medical air compressor?

What makes medical air compressors so special? Surprisingly, the gas produced by the compressor is directly used in the human oral cavity. They will inhale air and ingest all pollutants in compressed air. Of course, compressors and compressed air must meet the highest standards.

Oil in compressed air:

Oil in your mouth is not a good thing. If the air compressed by medical compressors contains oil, it will not only cause a nauseating odor in your mouth, but also be a high safety issue. In addition, the oil in the air will also promote the generation of dirt and the accumulation of bacteria in the air compression system.

In the past, dentists had no choice but to buy oil lubricated compressors and use filters to filter out the liquid and gaseous forms of oil in compressed air pipelines. However, you can never be 100% certain that the air filtered with a filter is oil-free. Moreover, filters will age, and you must replace them in a timely manner before they deteriorate.

Nowadays, a series of oil-free silent air compressors have emerged in the market. Oil free compressors have great advantages, as they are 100% oil free, so the possibility of oil free air compressor systems is almost zero. Since you can use an oil-free air compressor to generate clean compressed air, why should you first turn it into unclean air and then use a filter to clean it?

Moisture in compressed air:

In compressed air systems, the presence of moisture in the compressed air is a common problem, especially for medical air systems.

Of course, you won't taste the moisture in compressed air, nor will it be toxic. However, in compressed air systems, moisture increases the risk of bacterial growth. So, do you really want the air generated by your compressor to be water containing?

For this reason, medical air compressors should be equipped with air dryers. There are also many different types of air dryers, mainly cooling and desiccants. However, I would suggest an adsorption dryer (also known as a desiccant compressed air dryer)

The minimum dew point of a cooled compressed air dryer is 2 degrees, which means that when the dew point is below 2 degrees, condensation water will form inside the equipment and cannot function as a dryer. This dew point can be well applied to the processing of tools and grinding machines in the workshop, but it is not low enough for medical air compressors.

The desiccant compressed air dryer will create a much lower pressure dew point, as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius or lower. This means that the relative humidity in the compressed air system and the absolute amount of water in the compressed air (grams/m3) are also very low.

The likelihood of bacteria growing in such low relative humidity and completely dry storage tanks and piping systems is very low.

What other functions does a medical air compressor need?

In addition to generating clean air (oil-free, anhydrous), medical air compressors also have some other functions that are essential for dentists.

Because they are installed in clean environments such as clinics and offices (relative to industrial environments), compressors need to be quiet, small, and operate on standard 220/100 volt power sockets.