by Tony » Wed Apr 12, 2006 3:45 am
Larry, Anatolij,
I cannot help feeling that using many small motors is not the best way to do this, but it is really a matter of personal preference.
Vacuum cleaner motors come in various types, some already have two rotors fitted in series one behind the other, whereas others only have one rotor. The two stage units can develop much higher pressures, as you would expect.
The most compact system possible would probably be a centrifugal supercharger driven by a three phase motor. These can easily generate several pounds per square inch pressure, at many hundreds of CFM, vastly more air than would ever be needed, and possibly occupy only a couple of cubic feet.
Even a very large turbocharger compressor would probably work, but driving it to the very high Rpm required would be far from easy.
There is no real reason why the blower itself needs to be very small. Much easier to keep the diameter large and the Rpm low enough to be directly driven by a high power induction motor. An 18" or 24" rotor only needs to run up to 5,000 Rpm or less to generate perhaps fifty inches. A four inch rotor would need to go to perhaps 25,000 Rpm to 30,000 Rpm to achieve the same sort of pressures. That creates a lot more problems with bearings, balance, and belt speeds.
A 36 inch diameter rotor would run straight off the end of a 2,850 Rpm motor and provide fifty to fifty five inches of solid pressure at massive flow. The rotor for it could be home made too. That would be far easier than trying to drive something small at extremely high Rpm.
The blower does not really need to be fitted inside the flow bench, it can be on wheels and sit beside the bench and be connected with some large pipework. Or even be located behind a wall for silent operation.
I realise that is the exact opposite direction in which you want to go, but after switching from multiple vacuum cleaner motors to a single large blower, I would never go back.
Robert,
I just tried running my VSD on one phase only and struck a serious problem. Although it should in theory work, the microprocessor does not like seeing any missing incoming phases and shut down the unit. I fear this may be an insurmountable obstacle for most microprocessor controlled VSDs these days, and is something I had not considered. These units are very smart, and have very comprehensive inbuilt protection. That seems to have killed the idea, sorry.
Also known as the infamous "Warpspeed" on some other Forums.