Gas Bottles

An Overview

Why Use Gas Bottles?

A standard hydro-pneumatic accumulator can provide approximately 25 to 30% of its fluid capacity in usable volume (e.g., approx. 38 gallons of capacity in a piston-type to obtain 10 gallons of fluid volume; approx. 42 gallons of capacity in a bladder-type to obtain 10 gallons of fluid volume).

The size of the accumulator can be reduced, though, by providing additional gas volume to the accumulator in order to expel a greater percentage of usable fluid volume from the unit (e.g., with Piston-type, the addition of approx. 28 gallons of pressurized gas capacity will allow the reduction of the necessary accumulator volume to 14 gallons and still receive 10 gallons of usable fluid volume; with Bladder-type, the addition of approx. 31 gallons of pressurized gas capacity will allow the reduction of the necessary accumulator volume to 11 gallons and still receive 10 gallons of usable fluid volume) Note: above approximations based on 3000 PSI max pressure/2000 PSI min pressure.

Since gas bottles are simply pressure vessels utilized to store a quantity of pressurized gas (normally nitrogen) without an internal bladder or piston, the effective cost per gallon of volume is less than the accumulator itself, thereby making gas bottles a cost effective method of supplementing fluid volumes.

Gas Bottles

Forged Carbon Steel Shell

Forged steel shells without internal gas bladders are a cost-effective approach to providing additional gas volumes to selected systems.

Generally, these pressure vessels with hemispherical ends are readily available in the marketplace, and can sometime lead to a lower initial cost. Available only in a limited selection of sizes, though, multiple units may be “banked” (e.g., installed on a common manifold or header) to provide the required cumulative volumes.

Illustrations are representational and not necessarily indicative of how any particular model will be built.

Gas Bottles

Cylindrical Carbon Steel

Gas Bottles may be fabricated similar to piston-type accumulators (less the internal piston), providing a wide variety of available capacities and physical dimensions.

This allows for an extensive range of capacities, much larger than available with forged shells. The versatility in application provides the system designer the ability to eliminate banks of multiple smaller capacity shells with a minimum number of higher volume fabricated bottles. This is especially valuable in applications where space (e.g., physical dimensions) and weight are critical.

Illustrations are representational and not necessarily indicative of how any particular model will be built.