Charged Air Cooler are meant to cool compressed engine air after it has passed through a turbocharger, but before it enters the engine. The idea is to return the air to a lower temperature, for the optimum power for the combustion process within the engine. They are essential to meet engine manufacturers’ design objectives for better horsepower, competitive fuel economy by increasing volumetric efficiency and reduced exhaust emissions.

Charge air coolers range in size depending on the engine. They vary in sizes from smallest one which is meant for trucks/tractors & larger one for Marine applications.

Charged Air coolers named as it cools the turbo’s air charge before it is routed into the engine. “Charge-Air Cooler”, is an air-to-air or air-to-liquid heat exchange device used on turbocharged and supercharged IC engines to improve their volumetric efficiency by increasing intake air-charge density through isochoric cooling. A decrease in air intake temperature provides a denser intake charge to the engine and allows more air and fuel to be combusted per engine cycle, increasing the output of the engine.

Depending on the number of stages of turbo charging, there can be intermediate stage CAC (sometimes called as Intercooler) or After-cooler.