QRS 10 150 BM: the compact base-mount 10 HP — 34 inches long, 375 lbs

BM means base mount. This is the 10 HP screw airend, motor, controller and enclosure supplied as a unit to bolt to the floor and pipe into storage of your own, rather than as a machine welded to a receiver you then have to find room for. Measured at roughly 34 inches long and about 375 lbs, it is the most compact way to put 10 HP of continuous-duty air into a building — substantially shorter and lighter than the tank-mounted version of the same output, which matters enormously if the compressor has to get through a doorway, up onto a mezzanine or into a plant room.

The range is built in Italy by Atlas Copco. This unit runs a TEFC motor on 208-230/460V 3-phase supply, carries a 100% duty rating, and produces 35.2 CFM at 150 psi with an unload pressure of 150 psi. A summary field on the listing rounds that output to 35 CFM; it is the same figure.

Before you order: confirm the tank configuration

Published details of this product differ on one point, and it is the point worth settling first.

• The model designation is BM, base mount, and the factory model reference on this listing is likewise a base-mount code. Consistent with that, the listing carries no tank size and no tank orientation field at all, while the tank-mounted machines in this range do. Its recorded length and weight are also far smaller than any 10 HP compressor sitting on a receiver of significant size.
• The feature list on this page, however, states that the unit is mounted on a 132 gallon horizontal tank.

Those two accounts describe different crates. The pattern — a base-mount SKU carrying a tank-mounted machine's feature list — is one we have seen elsewhere in this range, and one call settles it. If a receiver is part of what you are buying, contact us before ordering and we will confirm the exact configuration against the factory data sheet. If you already own a tank and want the base-mount machine, the dimensions and the model code both point that way, and the rest of this page is written on figures nothing else here contradicts.

What continuous duty actually buys

The 100% duty rating means there is no portion of the hour this machine has to spend cooling down. A piston compressor is rated to run for part of each hour and rest for the remainder; exceed that regularly and you are shortening its life on purpose. A screw compressor is sized on air consumption alone. For a shop where several people pull air through the middle of the day, that is the difference between equipment you plan around and equipment you forget about.

Load, no-load, and the short-cycling trap

Control is load / no-load with a timed shutdown. When demand stops the machine unloads rather than stopping dead, and it powers down only after an idle period has elapsed. That sequence exists to stop the airend short-cycling, which is the classic way a screw compressor gets killed in a shop that treats it like the piston unit it replaced. The control panel is UL, cUL and CSA approved, and the electrical enclosure is NEMA 1. Sound output is 66 dBA.

Service parts that come off with a wrench

Both the oil filter and the air/oil separator are spin-on elements. That single design choice determines whether a scheduled service is an hour with a technician on site or a machine on a truck, and over a ten-year ownership it is worth more than most of the specifications above it. The assembly is vibration isolated. On a base-mount installation, mount it on pads and use a flexible connection into rigid pipe — without a tank underneath it, more of the machine's vibration reaches whatever it is bolted to.

Will it fit, and will it run?

Electrical first: 208-230/460V, 3-phase. Single-phase buildings are out unless your electrician has a plan. Then the easy part — at about 34 inches long and roughly 375 lbs this is the one compressor in the range that will genuinely go where you want it rather than where the pallet ends up. Leave clearance on the panel side and the cooler side regardless; compact does not mean it needs less air moving through it. The listing does record an overall width and height, but both are stored with no unit attached, so we are not going to print them as if we knew whether they were inches or millimetres. Ask and we will send the dimensioned drawing. Confirming clearance, supply, ventilation and floor loading remains the buyer's responsibility, and it is much cheaper before the freight is booked than after.

Perfect for

• Shops adding capacity to an existing system that already has a receiver on the header and needs air, not another tank.
• Difficult sites — mezzanines, plant rooms, basements, narrow door routes — where a tank-mounted machine will not physically arrive.
• Redundant installations where two compressors share one large receiver so a service visit does not stop the shop.
• Buildings where the receiver belongs somewhere else for noise, heat or layout reasons.

What is in the box

Stated on this listing: the 10 HP TEFC motor and airend, load / no-load control with timed shutdown, an approved control panel with NEMA 1 protection, spin-on oil filter and separator, and vibration isolated mounting. Whether a receiver is included is exactly the point in dispute above — ask us. Dryer, downstream filtration, drain, valves, pipework and electrical disconnect are not stated as included in any case; treat them as your scope.

Specifications

Approvals, stated plainly

The approval this product's data actually carries is on the electrical side: a UL, cUL and CSA approved control panel in a NEMA 1 enclosure. That is a panel approval and nothing more. No registration claim is made about a pressure vessel on this page — which, given the configuration question above, is one more reason to settle that question with us in writing before you buy. If your jurisdiction, insurer or plant safety programme requires vessel documentation, we will request it from the manufacturer rather than have you assume it travels with the machine.

Shipping and delivery

Freight on a pallet, free of charge. This is one of the easier machines in the range to receive because of its size, but 375 lbs is still a freight shipment: forklift, dock, or collect from the carrier's terminal. Residential addresses carry a residential fee. Check the shipment before you sign it — enclosure panels, cooler fins and the base rails are what get hurt in transit — and write anything you find on the bill of lading while the driver is still with you. Damage noted at delivery is a claim; damage reported afterwards is an argument.

Warranty

Cover is 1 year as standard, with a 5 year term available where the machine is commissioned by a factory-authorized start-up, typically billed at $350. On a base-mount installation that start-up is particularly worth having, because the commissioning technician is looking at a system you assembled — your receiver, your pipework, your drain — and not simply at a factory-built package. Do not open the airend, the separator housing or the control panel before raising a claim; a machine that has already been apart is very hard to claim on.