06/23/2025
CompAir has enhanced the Ultima range, its best-in-class, oil-free air compressor, with the launch of a new 55 to 110 kW range and a footprint up to 50% smaller than other oil-free air compressors.
The Ultima family of oil-free air compressors
The new range incorporates a brand-new drive concept, delivering best in class flow and efficiency. Noise levels are as low as 69 dB(A), making Ultima one of the quietest oil-free air compressors available today.
With a footprint of less than two square meters, the new Ultima is 34% smaller than the first-generation models and up to 50% smaller than many competitive models, offering a significant space advantage for modern production facilities. The new Ultima is available with a maximum working pressure of up to 145 psi (10 bar) and flow rates up to 20 cubic meters per minute.
At the heart of Ultima are two state of the art, oil-free compression stages – directly driven by CompAir’s U-Drive Technology. Two high-speed permanent magnetic motors replace the traditional gearbox design, resulting in less friction losses and high efficiency throughout their full operating range. In addition, the motors exceed the highest IE5 efficiency standards, with an additional IES2 rating for the entire drive design.
Traditional two-stage, oil-free air compressors are driven by a single gear wheel, which can consume large amounts of energy and requires high volumes of oil to lubricate the gears. In contrast, Ultima uses a digital gearbox concept that allows each compression stage to operate independently at its optimal speed. This allows the air compressor to match the required load, dynamically with optimized airflow, for peak efficiency, whatever the demand.
Ultima uses water in a closed-loop circuit to cool the airend jackets. This allows greater heat transfer and cooling efficiencies than with an oil-cooled system, as well as ensuring as little oil as possible is used in the system for assured air purity. Water-cooling also places less stress on these components, and the closed circuit avoids any ingress of dirt. This helps avoid maintenance issues that might otherwise arise during the air compressor’s lifetime to reduce service costs.
Optional heat recovery is available on all Ultima air compressors. This can recover up to 90% of the heat generated during compression, which would otherwise be lost to the atmosphere. The recovered heat allows for hot water temperatures of up to 194°F (90°C), providing maximum flexibility for use in heating or process systems.
Heat extraction in the water-cooled models is entirely internal, so there is no requirement for bulky ducting or wide air clearances between each air compressor. This allows units to be installed closer together, saving even more space. A range of heat recovery options are available, including integration into the turnkey E-max solution, providing heat exchangers, pumps and controls in one plug-and-play unit.
Each unit is fully upgradeable between the 55 to 110 kW range. This means if a site’s air demand increases in the future, customers can choose the optimal Ultima variant based on the increased capacity. There is no need to purchase a new air compressor, eliminating the associated downtime or delivery wait that comes with upgrading to a new system.
The proven Delcos XL SE7 controller, with a large, 7-inch, high-resolution touchscreen display, provides user friendly and intuitive control. Real time displays of key air compressor parameters and built-in graphical trending provide greater insight on compressed air performance, for easy diagnostics and monitoring. The unit is also fully compatible with CompAir's SmartAir Master, for operation of up to 12 fixed or variable speed air compressors.
Ultima is also iConn enabled, at no additional cost. The CompAir iConn platform is a cloud-based system to support compressed air analytics, providing predictive maintenance and condition-based monitoring to help avoid unplanned maintenance and downtime.
All models are offered with CompAir’s Assure service agreement and extended warranty.
"Since its launch in 2017, Ultima has proved itself to be an efficient, economical, reliable, oil-free compressed air solution for industries around the world,” said David Bruchof, Product Manager for CompAir's oil-free compressor solutions. “In developing the next generation of Ultima, we set out to meet three customer demands. First to deliver even better efficiency and performance. Second, to deliver reliability and air purity for the most demanding applications. Finally, we wanted to make the new Ultima even easier to use and flexible for future compressed air demand. The result is a smarter, cleaner and more space-efficient approach to the generation of oil-free compressed air.”
About CompAir
With over 200 years of engineering excellence, CompAir offers an extensive range of reliable, energy-efficient air compressors, dryers and accessories to suit all applications. An extensive network of dedicated CompAir sales companies and distributors around the world provide global expertise with a truly local service, ensuring CompAir’s advanced compressor technology is backed up with the right support. CompAir has consistently been at the forefront of the compressed air market, developing some of the most energy efficient and sustainable compressors available today, helping customers to achieve or surpass their environmental targets. For more information, visit https://www.compair.com.
