You could rate a saw like that, or for that matter any machine with a direct drive where a nincompoop operator 'controls' the torque by feeding into the work like a bloody maniac, ignoring the tortured screams of the mechanicals. How long before overheating or breaking a shaft or blade? How long before you fire his ass? A 4-pole @ 1400 rpm? The cooling fan runs too slow, it's less efficient electrically and there is more heat to dissipate.
But for a compressor to run at 220% rated, they'd have to deliberately change the drive ratio, making the machine useless for anything but brief operation and/or making it unstartable. I bet they didn't do that! - Badge Engineering by Marketing - much cheaper!
What we have here is a deliberate lie designed to mislead the consumer. An air compressor is sized by the user on how much air is needed for the job in hand, such as paint-spraying or portable air tooling. A 'below spec' machine usually gives lousy spraying results or an inability of airtools to work at the required speed or endurance.
In these circumstances the maker got off very lightly indeed by being able to fob off tricked buyers with some crappy low spec tools. The tools he actually bought the compressor for don't work properly!
A full refund plus damages, a few million dollars in fines plus the CEO locked up 2-10 would have been more appropriate. That's what you get for fraud isn't it?
Alan
