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http://ww3.sinaimg.cn/large/ab47715egw1eyl18a9ovnj21kw11udo6.jpg Many customers have encountered problems with oil leakage in their air compressors. In the course of dealing with these issues, we found that most of the fault complaints were not caused by problems with the quality of the oil. So, apart from quality issues with the oil, what other reasons can cause oil leakage? 1. The design of the oil-gas separation tank is not standard. Some air compressor manufacturers employ an unreasonable design for the primary separation system in such tanks, resulting in poor primary separation performance. This leads to a high concentration of oil mist in the oil before it enters the separation process, excessive load on the separation system, insufficient processing capacity, and consequently high fuel consumption. 2、Excessive fuel addition: When the amount of fuel added exceeds the normal level, some of the oil is carried away by the air currents, resulting in high fuel consumption. 3. High gas consumption and operation under overloaded/low-pressure conditions. Operating under low pressure means that when a user employs an air compressor, the exhaust pressure does not reach the compressor’s rated operating pressure; however, it is still sufficient to meet the gas demand of some industrial users. For example, if an industrial user adds more equipment that requires gas, the gas consumption increases, and as a result, the compressor’s output cannot keep up with this demand. Suppose the compressor’s rated exhaust pressure is 8 kg/cm2, but in practice the pressure is only 5 kg/cm2 or even lower. In such cases, the compressor operates continuously under load, failing to reach its rated pressure level, which leads to increased fuel consumption. The reason for this is that, with constant exhaust volume, the flow rate of the oil-gas mixture increases as it passes through the oil separator, resulting in a high concentration of oil mist and increased load on the oil separator, ultimately leading to higher fuel consumption. 4. Clogged return oil pipeline: When the return oil pipeline (including the check valve on it and the return oil filter) is blocked by foreign objects, the engine oil that has separated and settled at the bottom of the oil cannot return to the engine head. The already settled oil droplets are then blown up by the air flow and carried away along with the air that has separated from the oil. These foreign objects are usually caused by solid impurities that fall during installation. 5. Damaged return oil check valve: If the return oil check valve is damaged and stops functioning as a one-way valve, turning instead into a two-way valve, the pressure inside the oil separator will force a large amount of oil to flow back into the oil separator through the return oil pipe. When the machine starts operating again, the oil inside the separator cannot be drawn back into the machine head in time, resulting in some of the oil escaping along with the separated air outside the air compressor (this situation is common in machines that do not have an oil circuit shut-off valve or a check valve at the exhaust outlet of the machine head). 6. Improper installation of the oil return pipe: When replacing, cleaning, or repairing the air compressor, the oil return pipe is not inserted far enough down to the bottom of the oil separator (it is better to be 1–2 mm away from the center of the oil separator’s bottom); as a result, the separated oil cannot return to the compressor head in time, and the accumulated oil ends up being carried away along with the compressed air. 7. Failure of the minimum pressure valve: If there are leaks at the sealing area of the minimum pressure valve, or if it opens prematurely (as the opening pressure varies depending on the manufacturer, typically ranging from 3.5 to 5.5 kg/cm2), the time required for the machine to establish pressure in the oil-gas tank during operation will increase. In such conditions, the concentration of gas-oil mist is high, the flow rate of the oil mist as it passes through is fast, the load on the oil separation system increases, and the separation efficiency declines, resulting in higher oil consumption.