Patent ID: 7153106

Claim:
A portable electric motor driven reciprocating air compressor unit energizable by an electrical circuit having a limited amount of available electric current for the motor comprising: a portable air compressor including a compression cylinder having a piston mounted therein to reciprocate in strokes along the length of said compression cylinder, the strokes comprising intake strokes which draw air into said compression cylinder and compression strokes which compress the air, an inlet to said compression cylinder which is the source of air that is drawn into said compression cylinder by said piston on each intake stroke as said piston reciprocates; an electric motor interconnected with said piston to cause said piston to reciprocate within said cylinder, said electric motor being connectable to an electrical circuit having a predeterminable maximum current level; and a manually controllable valve mechanism mounted to said inlet, said valve mechanism having a plurality of positions to which said valve mechanism can be manually adjusted, each said position allowing one of a plurality of amounts of air to be compressed to flow through said inlet during each intake stroke, an adjustment of said valve mechanism from one position to another varying the amount of air that is compressed with each compression stroke of said piston, thereby causing the amount of electric current used by said electric motor to drive said piston to vary the portion of the predeterminable maximum current level of said electrical circuit that is used by said electric motor.