THE HISTORY OF SCROLL COMPRESSORS:
What is a Scroll compressor and how does it work?
A scroll compressor is a positive displacement machine that uses the compression action provided by two intermeshing scrolls - one fixed and the other orbiting. The orbiting scroll basically wobbles inside the fixed scroll, it doesn't rotate it just wobbles on a cam on crankshaft.
The rotating scrolls intermesh quite closely and some manufacturers mention that efficiency increases as the scrolls bed into each other, indicating an initial wear process.
Where did the Scroll compressor come from?
The principle of the scroll compressor was developed during the early 1900's and was patented for the first time in 1905. Although the theory for the scroll compressor indicated a machine potentially capable of reasonably good efficiencies, at that time the technology simply didn't exist to accurately manufacture the scrolls.
It was almost 65 years later that the concept was re-invented by a refrigeration industry keen to exploit the potentials of scroll technology.
Today, the main use is still within the refrigeration industry, because the small, quiet, and highly efficient design matches the requirement of small quiet refrigeration compressors.
Some scroll compressors that have been designed for use with refrigerant R134a, have similar characteristics that enable them to be used to compress air. However, cooling the scrolls in this particular application can present some technical problems. With the refrigerant application, the compressor has its scrolls cooled by the cold gas coming from the evaporator. This is of course absent in an air compressor and external cooling features must be applied.