---
title: "Compressed air"
description: "Compressed air at industrial plants is delivered by an on-site compressed-air system at typical pressures of 4–10 bar. Two grades exist:"
canonical_url: "https://sylio.co/glossary/compressed-air"
last_updated: "2026-06-28T02:29:34.351Z"
---

**Compressed air** at industrial plants is delivered by an on-site compressed-air system at typical pressures of 4–10 bar. Two grades exist:

- **Plant air** — general utility air; tolerant quality
- **Instrument air** — filtered and dried; for controls and precision devices

[Pneumatic acoustic cleaners](/glossary/pneumatic-acoustic-cleaner) tolerate plant air for most service but specifying instrument air or dried plant air improves [diaphragm](/glossary/diaphragm-horn) life.

## Consumption

A typical industrial [sonic horn](/glossary/sonic-horn) consumes 8–14 Nm³/min during a 5–15 second firing burst at 4–7 bar [operating pressure](/glossary/operating-pressure). On a 5-minute firing cycle this averages 0.3–1.0 Nm³/min continuous draw per horn. Multi-horn arrays must be sized against the simultaneous-firing case.

## Air receiver and regulation

A correctly-sized air receiver buffers the horn's pulse demand from the compressor. Under-sized receivers cause SPL drop-off during multi-horn firing — a common engineering error on initial installations.

## Related terms

- [Pneumatic acoustic cleaner](/glossary/pneumatic-acoustic-cleaner)
- [Operating pressure](/glossary/operating-pressure)
- [Solenoid valve](/glossary/solenoid-valve)