Quality Classes

To make it easier to talk about compressed air quality, we use quality classes. Each class stands for a particular level of water, oil or dust.

Almost every piece of pneumatic equipment in your factory will have some guidelines about the quality of the compressed air.

Now instead of listing the maximum amount of dust, oil and water by numbers (which can become confusing quickly), the manufacturer can simply give you the required quality class for each contamination.

The official compressed air quality classes can be found in ISO 8573.

Here’s the full table:

For dust particles, there’s a sub-devision into different particles sizes. For water and oil, we’re talking about the total water or oil content.

The big advantage of this that’s it is much easier to put together a compressed air system that delivers the right quality to the end user.

Because all compressed air filters and dryers will state the quality class that it produces, it makes our life much easier.

Here are some examples of typical compressed air classes for different applications: