Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick
Air tool vanes are a plastic composite. They are cooled by the expansion of the compressed air and you have to add lubricating oil periodically or they will seize up. The tools also run at very high rpms, so some sort of gearbox would probably be needed.
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I agree with you, I'm likely mistaken about the vanes being graphite, that would be to brittle. They did look like and feel vary similar though.
If heat is going to be a problem then you may need to fab some vanes for this idea to work.
Here is some diagrams of closed systems, I'm sure you have seen these before. The Rankine cycle and the vapor compression cycle just to show the similarity in the components.
Basically you need a condenser and a pump to make it a closed loop system.
With a closed loop system you may be able to use a refrigerant which would be good because I think they usually have lubricant in the solution.