Air compressor and method of operation

Abstract

An air compressor (10) includes an air pump (34) with a pump inlet (34a) for receiving air to be pressurized and a pump outlet (34b). An air tank (14) includes a tank inlet (14a) coupled with the pump outlet (34b) for receiving pressurized air from the air pump (34), and a tank outlet (14b) for directing pressurized air from a tank outlet (14b) to at least one pneumatic device (24). A brushless DC motor (36) includes a rotatable output (36a) coupled with the air pump (34) for operating the air pump (34) to pressurize air. A control (42) is electrically coupled to the brushless DC motor (36). The control (42) changes the level of electric current drawn by the brushless DC motor (36) to thereby change the rate of rotation of the rotatable output (36a) and/or the pump performance level.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.