Air compressor cooling system

Claim 1

A compressor cooling system for an oil-flooded air compressor for use in conjunction with an engine cooling system, the air compressor having an oil inlet and an oil outlet, and the engine cooling system having an engine cooling path including cooling passages in the engine block, with a coolant flowing therethrough, the cooling path including an engine heat exchanger having a coolant inlet and a coolant outlet, and a coolant pump, the engine cooling system further having a bypass line to the coolant pump in parallel with the engine heat exchanger, and a thermostat valve for bypassing coolant flow away from the heat exchanger through the bypass line to control the temperature of the coolant, said compressor cooling system comprising: an oil flow path defined from the oil outlet to the oil inlet of the air compressor; a compressor coolant flow path defined between an inlet to the coolant pump and a fluid intersection with the engine cooling path on the opposite flow side of the thermostat valve from the engine heat exchanger coolant inlet at a location where coolant has at least substantially traversed through cooling passages in the block of the engine; an oil/coolant heat exchanger interposed in heat exchange relation between said oil flow path and said compressor coolant flow path for transferring heat between oil flowing through said oil flow path and coolant flowing through said compressor coolant flow path, wherein said compressor coolant flow path is the only path for coolant through said oil/coolant heat exchanger, and further wherein said compressor coolant flow path is in parallel with the engine heat exchanger so that coolant flow through said compressor coolant flow path is not diminished when the thermostat valve bypasses coolant flow away from the engine heat exchanger.