What effect does dead space have on the efficiency of bellows? When making bellows with the battens on the inside of the chamber and having open areas where the air is compressed and does not go through the outlet valve, this air will expand as the bellows move on the induction stroke until the pressure in the chamber is low enough to allow a new charge of air into the chamber, then the cycle continues. Would the efficiency of the bellows be improved if as much of the dead space as possible was reduced? I have been unable to find any references to this topic. Any views on this?
My views on this are, in theory removing all dead space from the bellows and the reservoir should improve things tremendously. But in my tests it resulted in more wincing and gasping of the organ, increasing the dead space reduced the wincing/gasping but having too much dead space particularly in the reservoir makes things worse. I have tested this theory on a known organ, (My Dean) just changed the design of the bellows. So what am I saying? It depends on the particular organ’s setup that will ultimately dictate the bellows and the reservoir requirements.
Yours Phil Radford AOBG website & forums administrator.
Bellows Efficiency
Posted - 25/01/2009 : 04:58:33 AM
