Gas Booster

Also called: Boost pumps, Boosters, "Bootstrap" Pump, "Accumulator" Pump, Pressure Multiplier, and other names.

1. What they are (if we are talking about the same thing, Lol) in simple form is a pair of pistons that drive one another, one piston and cylinder is small and the other is far larger, they have inlet and outlet valves and manifolds (or hoses) from a low pressure source tank to the pump and then to a high pressure tank. You can also use a low pressure compressor in place of a low pressure source tank.

2. They use the low pressure air on the big piston/cylinder side to drive the small piston/ cylinder side to compress room air to a very high pressure; you get work out of the low pressure air to make a smaller volume of (very)high pressure air.

3. They are expensive; min 1.5K$, as high as 5K$ easily. Depends on the ratio of pressure boost/volume, and can be more expensive than a compressor of equal output. The beauty of them is they are usually going to last forever compared to compressors.

4. No dangers beyond the normal ones associated with hig pressures. The drawbacks are that they are relatively slow compared to HPA compressors, the beauty is that your pressure source(CO2,Nitrogen,SCBA or SCUBA etc cylinder) can be used down to, say; 500psi.

5. It/they have been used by some for decades to fill airguns. I would have gone that route 20 years ago if I hadn't been a SCUBA diver with multiple cylinders to use as a cascade system.

6. Depends on what you mean by "reasonably" Google the names I gave in 1. and you should get a number of hits.

HTH

shootski