Anybody making a multistage electric O2 Booster or compressor?

[michael-fisch]

I'm on the lookout for a multistage electric O2 booster or compressor in order to pump O2 to 5000psi ~330Bar.
Normal boosters are working hard to get O2 from 100bar to 300bar, and there has to be an easier way to return the O2 supply bottles with less than 50 bar in them and still be able to get 300 bar in my RB O2 tanks without 3-4 intermediate steps with a single booster.
Any Ideas?

 

[rddvet]

Have you looked at masterline? They’re awesome. $10k new, but he gives a 20% discount to divers. Mine was $8800 all in. Mine is set to a max cut off of 4300psi, but it is adjustable. I think in the mining industry they push oxygen up to 6000psi, though masterline doesn’t really like divers pushing that number due to liability.

Though the initial cost is higher, long term a masterline beats the hell out of a Haskel. Service on the masterline is do it yourself in 20 minutes and the parts are $25.

 

[The Chairman]

@tbone1004 has a sweet one he made. Fairly quiet too.

 

[tbone1004]

@michael-fisch the booster @The Chairman referenced is a normal haskel AG30 that is self contained and only capable of 4500psi, not 5000. Not entirely sure I'd have the balls to boost O2 quite that high.

That said, I'm not aware of any electric boosters that will do it. Haskel certainly makes 2-stage boosters that will go that high though. That said, like @rddvet pointed out, while the service is super easy and DIY, the videos on how to do it are on youtube, the parts are not cheap and the long term costs of the masterline are much lower, and up front cost vs. a new O2 clean 2-stage Haskel is not that much different.

 

[The Chairman]

@michael-fisch the booster @The Chairman referenced is a normal haskel AG30 that is self contained and only capable of 4500psi, not 5000. Not entirely sure I'd have the balls to boost O2 quite that high.

Dude... pimp the pictures. It's sweet.

 

[michael-fisch]

I'm not sure that the Masterline or even a Stansted TC15C are designed to take low pressure O2 to more than 4500psi. My understanding is that they work great at tripleing whatever the input pressure is but don't work well delivering high pressure from nearly empty O2 supplies.
What I want to avoid is having to pump to 50Bar, and then having to pump from 30Bar to 90Bar, followed by pumping from 60Bar to 180bar and then still having to pump from 120 to 330Bar.
Thats why I'm looking for a multistage (like 4 stage) booster or compressor for O2 use.

Michael

 

[Wookie]

I'm not sure that the Masterline or even a Stansted TC15C are designed to take low pressure O2 to more than 4500psi. My understanding is that they work great at tripleing whatever the input pressure is but don't work well delivering high pressure from nearly empty O2 supplies.
What I want to avoid is having to pump to 50Bar, and then having to pump from 30Bar to 90Bar, followed by pumping from 60Bar to 180bar and then still having to pump from 120 to 330Bar.
Thats why I'm looking for a multistage (like 4 stage) booster or compressor for O2 use.

Michael

I used my Masterline down to 35 Bar for both helium and O2 all the time. With O2, I avoided boosting over 10:1 at all costs, and I did not boost over 200 Bar O2 regardless. I boosted He regularly to 300 Bar. Below about 50 Bar, it gets slow, but still chugs along. I used the last 35 bar to dry cylinders after cleaning.

 

[rddvet]

I'm not sure that the Masterline or even a Stansted TC15C are designed to take low pressure O2 to more than 4500psi. My understanding is that they work great at tripleing whatever the input pressure is but don't work well delivering high pressure from nearly empty O2 supplies.
What I want to avoid is having to pump to 50Bar, and then having to pump from 30Bar to 90Bar, followed by pumping from 60Bar to 180bar and then still having to pump from 120 to 330Bar.
Thats why I'm looking for a multistage (like 4 stage) booster or compressor for O2 use.

Michael

I would email masterline. It's a small company and the owner is very responsive and helpful. I have a sting of about 40 emails of just going back and forth discussing things way before I committed to buy. He's very helpful and loves to explain his product. I know the mining industry often needs high psi oxygen, so I think 5000 is achievable. I know for sure they sell a 4500 psi version. They will tell you that under 300psi supply pressure the booster becomes inefficient. That doesn't mean it starts to stall like a Haskel. It will still pump at 1psi, it's just a matter of how long it will take to boost it.

Out of curiosity, why do you want 5000 psi on oxygen? Most people aren't comfortable after 3500. I'm fine with 4000 and even close to 4500, but I try to avoid it.

I don't know of any 4 stage boosters or compressors specifically for 100%

 

[tbone1004]

@michael-fisch
so here's a couple of issues with multistage true compressors. You can't really equalize thru them like you can with a haskel. @iain/hsm can correct me if I'm wrong, but you can't take an O2 bottle and hook it up to the inlet of a Rix Microboost and let the 2000psi go thru the whole unit, it's just not designed to do that kind of work. Haskels are a little different, and the Haskel 15/30 will scavenge down to about 7bar and still spit out 300bar if you want it to. It takes a lot of drive gas to do it, but it would take a lot of electricity to overcome that level of compression.
You can get a 15/75 which would have an easier go over it, but require more total gas since the piston is smaller, but you only need 5bar of drive gas which makes the shop compressors quite a bit happier

 

[rddvet]

I used my Masterline down to 35 Bar for both helium and O2 all the time. With O2, I avoided boosting over 10:1 at all costs, and I did not boost over 200 Bar O2 regardless. I boosted He regularly to 300 Bar. Below about 50 Bar, it gets slow, but still chugs along. I used the last 35 bar to dry cylinders after cleaning.

Did you avoid the 10:1 just for the lack of efficiency?