What's the maximum pressure one airtank can withstand and how to tell its limit?

Question

I bought a airtank and using it to support many v2 pneumatic cylinders, while I'm using a v1 pump and one motor to pump air to this air tank. Since another airtank or a lego pressure gauge is very expensive in my area, I'm trying to continue with my current installation. I also noticed that the speed of the motor is getting slower while air continue being pushed in.

But is there any way to tell if the airtank is at its limit, and can it explode by using just one pump and one motor? And what's the pressure limit approximately if you have a gauge to measure? Thank you very much!

Answer 1

You will not destroy the air tank using standard LEGO components. I don't know what it's structural limits are, but I can tell you that the weakest link in the pneumatic system in my experience is the connection between the rubber pneumatic tubes and plastic inlets. Under high pressure, the tubes will simply pop off before any of the components will actually break.

I believe that the most pressure you are going to be able to achieve using standard LEGO components is around 40psi. All of the components can easily handle this pressure.

If you'd like to do some exploration of this on your own, you might want to get your hands on the pneumatic pressure gauge that has been available in the LEGO Education line:

If you really want to know the maximum pressure limit of the tank itself, you'd probably need to somehow attach it to real compressor and wait for it to break. I like my pneumatic components too much to do this myself. :)

Answer 2

The pneumatic system's limit is three bar (40psi). After that point, the hoses will pop off the ports. I don't think you could explode the airtank very easily with a real compressor. My guess is that it would start deforming around the 5-10 bar range, and only explode once it was bordering on spherical :P.