Comments on: What’s the best setting for shop air pressure?

By: Jim Burley

Jim Burley — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 21:57:45 +0000

Having been retired for a lot of years I believe that OSHA still has limits for shop air. If you want to operate a piece of your own design I suggest that you see an engineer.
I was one for design of specific components for aircraft and designing our hydraulic/pneumatic test lab. But not any more. I’ll leave you with the safety agency and your research.
“ Good luck” has no place with high pressure shop air nor does an unqualified “I Think . . . ..”

By: Concercerned supervisor from BC

Concercerned supervisor from BC — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:54:56 +0000

I had a new safety officer on site who said we needed to have regulators on all lines set at 90psi.. Is this regulated by WorksafeBC? Some of our hand held equipment works better with a higher psi setting.

By: Stewart Books

Stewart Books — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 13:45:32 +0000

Very interesting question. I’m sure 86 was the ideal pressure at the last plant of that supervisor and the pressure here may well have been moved back up in the past month. Turning down the pressure may be counter productive on the cost end depending on the operating characteristics of the individual compressor. Some compressors operate more efficiently at higher pressures and in this case to achieve the lowest compressor operating costs it may be advisable to operate at the higher pressure. That being said, every leak will leak more at higher pressure. Every function will be most efficient with a properly sized regulator providing just the right amount of air (minimum pressure) to perform the action or a electronic valve that stops the air flow when the final position is reached. Besides leaks, continuing to pump air into stalled actuators is one of the biggest non value added consumers of plant compressed air.