An ongoing program to reduce the package size and lower the cost of portable compressors resulted in the development of a compound compressor using turbochargers for the first stage and our standard reciprocating compressor for the second. Turbocharging was selected because it was easily applied, with little modification to the engine and compressor, but offered substantial performance improvement which could be sustained at high altitude. Details of initial development units and later production models are described in this paper. The program resulted in the introduction of new machines into production that outperformed their predecessors by considerable margins, but did not increase in package size. Several of these machines are now in service, they are performing well and the compact, high speed single axle package has been well received.
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