Compressors

Diving Compressors

Compressors are crucial for commercial diving applications, providing a reliable supply of breathing air to divers. This category includes high-pressure compressors and low-pressure compressors. Both types of compressors ensure that divers have a continuous and safe air supply.

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Frequently Asked Questions

High-pressure (HP) and low-pressure (LP) compressors serve distinctly different roles in commercial diving. High-pressure compressors typically generate air at pressures exceeding 3000 psi (200 bar or more). They are strictly used for filling scuba cylinders, high-pressure storage banks, and diver bailout bottles. Conversely, low-pressure compressors operate at much lower pressures, usually between 10 and 15 bar, but deliver a significantly higher volume of air. These LP systems are used for surface-supplied diving, pushing a continuous, regulated flow of air directly down the diver’s umbilical.

Standard industrial workshop compressors are completely unsuitable for diving because they do not purify the air. Breathing air compressors are equipped with advanced, multi-stage filtration systems and chemical scrubbers. These stages meticulously remove moisture, oil vapour, and deadly contaminants like carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons from the ambient air. In a pressurised underwater environment, even microscopic levels of toxic gases become highly concentrated and lethal. Therefore, breathing air compressors must meet incredibly strict international air purity standards.

CFM is the measurement of the volume of air the compressor can deliver over time. In commercial diving, the required CFM is not static. It increases drastically based on the diver’s working depth and their respiratory rate. As a diver descends, the ambient water pressure compresses the breathing gas, meaning they consume a larger volume of surface air with every breath. Selecting a compressor with a high CFM rating ensures that even under heavy physical exertion at maximum depth, the diver receives a continuous, unrestricted flow of air without “over-breathing” the system.

No, standard ambient air compressors are designed solely to compress and purify normal atmospheric air. Many deep commercial operations, such as saturation diving, require mixed gases like Heliox (a blend of helium and oxygen) to prevent nitrogen narcosis and oxygen toxicity. Handling mixed gases requires highly specialised, oxygen-clean gas boosters, mixing panels, and entirely separate compression infrastructure. Running high concentrations of oxygen through a standard air compressor introduces a catastrophic risk of combustion.

Because they are classified as primary life-support equipment, commercial breathing air compressors are subject to rigorous, scheduled maintenance routines. Dive technicians must perform frequent oil changes, belt tension checks, and filter replacements based strictly on run-hours. Additionally, the output air must undergo mandatory periodic laboratory testing, often quarterly or biannually, depending on regional health and safety guidelines such as those set by the HSE or IMCA. These tests legally certify that the delivered air remains completely free of toxic impurities.