Key Growth Trends in the U.S. Compressor Industry

Air and gas compressors are used in nearly every industry. Medical practices, food processing, oil and gas refining, transportation and even the arts all use compressed air. This widespread use plus several other factors have helped this industry become extremely robust.

For the foreseeable future, this industry will continue to grow with sales and job creation remaining high. We will look at these factors along with the uses for compressors and recent innovations in the field.

Compressors Explained

Compressors work on the simple principle of increasing the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. There are many variants of compressors, each with a particular set of characteristics that makes them preferred for different applications.

Related: Top 11 Air and Gas Compression Suppliers in the U.S. 

Compressors that displace air by mechanical means are considered positive displacement, and they include reciprocating, rotary screw and diaphragm types. Compressors that utilize the inertia of a gas are classified as dynamic, and they include axial, centrifugal and mixed flow. Finally, compressors that contain the gas or vapor within a closed system are called hermetic.

 New Technologies

Basic compressor technology is more than 360 years old, but that does not mean that there is no room for innovation. The adoption of new technologies and IoT integration is set to keep this industry on the cutting edge. New motor controls, such as variable-speed drives (VSD) that match motor speed to demand, increase compressor life.

Related: Is it Time to Consider an Oil-Free Air Compressor?

In one instance, a major manufacturer was able to save nearly $140,000 by simply upgrading their compressor control system. Other advances include remote management and fault detection of compressors, leading to lower maintenance costs and minimized downtime.

Additionally, novel design changes are tested in computer simulations utilizing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to observe how air and gases will behave.

Industrial Uses

We mentioned that compressors have widespread use in nearly every industry. Some of the applications include:

• Natural gas processing

• Petroleum refining

• Air conditioning systems

• Pneumatic brake systems

• Plastic bottle blow molding

• Pneumatic tools

• Spraying crops

• Refrigeration

• Pressure washing/abrading

• Painting

• Welding

• Coating application on pharmaceuticals

• Reactor control rod operation

• Oxygen for hospital patients

• Scuba diving

• Aircraft cabin pressurization

• Engine turbo/supercharging

• Dry cleaner laundry press

Global Effects

The vast array of industries that utilize compressors combined with last year's Chinese tariffs has had a surge effect on domestic manufacturing. While initial reactions feared large price increases from shifting to local sources for materials such as aluminum and steel, the tariffs have actually helped increase manufacturing across the board.

As manufacturing increases, the demand for compressors rises as well. Given that a single plant may use dozens of compressors during normal operations, this has had an amplification effect on the compressor industry. The end result has been extremely rapid growth in a very short time.

Industry Statistics

In the last year, compressor industry sales spiked by 15.48% for a total of $20.18 billion. Jobs increased by 4.78 percent for a total of 29,850 individuals spread across 615 companies in the field. Eighty-two percent (82%) of these companies are private, and 70% engage in domestic distribution. In keeping with the movement to use domestic materials, only 11% import their raw materials.

The overwhelming majority of compressor companies are located in the South with 43% residing in this region. Another 25% are based in the Midwest, while the remainder is split nearly even between the Northeast and West with roughly 15.5% each.

With the continuing fast growth of the compressor industry, you can stay up to date with IndustryNet. A free industrial marketplace with over 400,000 manufacturers from every industry, IndustryNet is your go-to source for information on potential suppliers and industry trends.