Rotating Equipment Course

Module 8

Compressor Components
LEARNING OUTCOME

When you complete this module you will be able to...

Discuss the components, which when assembled, make up a typical reciprocating machine.

Learning Objectives

Here is what you will be able to do when you complete each objective.

1. Discuss the materials used in the construction of the compressor components and describe the physical
characteristics which determine their selection.
2. Discuss the function of the individual components and describe how they are combined to form the
entire machine.

3. Discuss the components which require special or frequent attention.

OBJECTIVE ONE

When you complete this objective you will be able to...

Discuss the materials used in the construction of the compressor components and describe the physical
characteristics which determine their selection.

Learning Material

COMPONENTS OF RECIPROCATING COMPRESSORS

Frame

The frame sustains all the moving components and transmits all the forces to the base. All compressors start
with a frame which is like the human skeleton on which all the necessary operating equipment is hung or
attached. The frame is almost invariably of cast iron because it is cheap, rigid and can be quite intricately
shaped.

Cylinder

This is separate from the frame and carries the piston. The cylinder is usually cast as one integral piece from the
crankcase to the outer head, consisting of an inner bore which may or may not be lined. This inner bore
determines cylinder size and the wall thickness and material of the bore determine the pressure rating. Around
this bore is normally an outer jacket to provide a cooling area for jacket water to carry away friction and
compression heat generated in the cylinder.

If air cooling is used, then the cylinder is constructed with integral cast fins which provide increased radiating
area.

More efficient cooling is obtained with water cooling than with air-cooling. The air-cooled machine, however,
has the advantages of simple construction, less piping needed and no freezing hazard.

Normally, the cylinder has one opening on the top and one on the bottom to attach piping: the upper opening
splits within a small passage set into the cooling jacket and feeds to each end to the valve openings. Refer to
Figure 1. There may be one or several inlet and outlet valves, depending on the make and size of cylinder. Large
cylinders are often made in three pieces. Each end contains the valves. The center or bore section resembles a
barrel. This is commonly referred to as a barrel type cylinder. A cross-section of a water jacketed cylinder is
shown in Figure 1.

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 Figure 1
Water Cooled Cylinder

OBJECTIVE TWO

When you complete this objective you will be able to...

Discuss the function of the individual components and describe how they are combined to form the entire
machine.

Learning Material

RUNNING GEAR PARTS

The running gear of a reciprocating compressor consists of piston, piston rod, crosshead, connecting rod and
crankshaft. These parts are illustrated and briefly described.

1. Pistons
These may be of the hollow one piece or two piece design, solid, shrunk-fit onto the rod or integral with the rod.
The piston actually rides on the bore of the cylinder and the gas seal around the piston is made by piston rings.
The number of rings required will depend on the pressure differential that is developed across the piston. A
common and worthwhile practice is to fit the piston with wearbands to lower the friction between the piston and
the cylinder lining. This was initially begun with babbitt and bronze but the most common and effective method
is to use carbon filled Teflon. Teflon does not work in cylinders which have slugs of wet and dry gas alternately
hitting the cylinder. The wet slugs wash off the Teflon coating which is deposited during the dry gas period and
rapid wear of the Teflon then occurs.

Compressor pistons may be made of aluminum, cast iron, steel or even, on occasion, carbon, glass and wood.
Piston rings come in an almost infinite variety of materials, the more common being cast iron, bronze, bakelite
filled asbestos, carbon filled Teflon, bronze filled Teflon and pure carbon. Compressor rods are normally made
of steel, some with a hardened surface to improve wear properties and some with chrome or other type of
overlay. The pressure packing may consist of one or two square cut rings next to the compressor cylinder, called
pressure breakers and from two to seven sets of pressure packing may be used. Seven packing sets is most
common although up to twenty sets are used for special applications. Each set of pressure packing will normally
consist of one tangential ring which is used to make up each set. The rings which are held in the packing cup are
precision-fitted to maintain a positive seal.

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The packing cups used on high-pressure service or in certain high temperature applications, will have cooling
water passages included in their construction and packing used above 10 MPa should normally be cooled.
Figure 2 illustrates two types of compressor pistons: the single-acting trunk type and the double-acting type.
2. Piston Rod
With the single-acting piston, shown in Figure 2, the connecting rod serves as a piston rod. The double-acting
piston, however, also shown in Figure 2, is attached to a crosshead by means of a steel rod called a piston rod.

Figure 2
Compressor Pistons

3. Crosshead
This joins the connecting rod and the piston rod and is made of steel with upper and lower bearing surfaces
contacting the crosshead guides. A threaded hole is provided in one end of the crosshead into which the piston
rod fits.
The crosshead pin, to which the connecting rod is attached, is usually held rigid in the connecting rod and moves
within bearings or bushings on each side of the crosshead. In some designs, however, the crosshead pin is
securely fastened in the crosshead and the bearing or bushing is in the connecting rod end. Figure 3 illustrates
the construction of a compressor crosshead.
Figure 3 - Compressor Crosshead

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4. Connecting Rod (Con Rod)

Compressor connecting rods are constructed of forged steel and have a crankshaft bearing at one end and an
opening for the crosshead pin (or for the piston pin of a trunk type piston) in the other end. They transmit the
rotative energy of the crank into linear energy.

Figure 4 shows two designs of connecting rods and Figure 5 illustrates a connecting rod attached to the
crosshead pin within the crosshead.

Figure 4
Compressor Connecting Rods

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 Figure 5
Crosshead and Connecting Rods

5. Crankshaft

The crankshaft is a shaft running the length of the compressor. Portions of the shaft are offset to form throws, to
which the connecting rods are attached. The crankshaft is supported in main bearings and therefore is able to
convert the rotary motion of the crankshaft to reciprocating motion for the pistons. Crankshafts are of forged
steel and are usually made from a single forging which has been machined and ground to precision limits and
drilled to provide oil passages for positive pressure lubrication. In order to balance reciprocating and rotating
forces, the crankshaft may be made with counterweights, as shown in Figure 6 or else it may be the type shown
in Figure 7 which has opposing crank throws to provide balance.

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 Figure 6
Counterweighted Crankshaft

Figure 7
Crankshaft with Opposed Crank Throws

OBJECTIVE THREE

When you complete this objective you will be able to...

Discuss the components which require special or frequent attention.

Learning Material

BEARINGS
These contain the various moving parts. The most common bearings are the crank bearing, con rod bearing and
wrist pin bearing or bushing.

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The crankshaft is commonly mounted in a pair of opposed heavy duty tapered roller bearings with provision for
fine adjustment to compensate for wear. Bearings provide high radial and thrust load capacity. Figure 8 shows
such a tapered roller bearing.

Figure 8
Tapered Roller Main Bearings

VALVES

Probably, of all the components in reciprocating compressors, the valves are undoubtedly the element to which
the greatest attention has been devoted by manufacturers and are probably the least known by the user. Despite
this scrutiny for years by specialists, there is still considerable work to be done to bring these components to the
level of reliability enjoyed by other parts of the compressor. The final design is usually a compromise between
good aerodynamic performance and outstanding mechanical reliability which are inherently conflicting
requirements. In the ultimate, a valve with virtually no lift will last practically forever at the expense of
prohibitive losses in performance.

All reciprocating compressor valves have three principle elements. These are, the seat, the guard and the
movable components. The movable component consists of a series of strips in some designs; concentric rings in
most others. In other designs, movable poppets, balls or other individual plugs are used. The limit of plate or
strip travel is provided by the seat at one extreme, where the gas sealing is affected and the guard which
provides a limit to the lift. Flow area through the lift portion of the valve is provided by flexing, direct lift or a
combination thereof for strips or direct lifting of the plates or poppets.

VALVE TYPES
Compressor valves are usually the automatic type which open and close on a pressure difference. Two
commonly used designs are the plate or disc ball type and the channel type.

1. Plate or Disc Valves

These valves are commonly used where high-pressure ratio and differential pressures are required and are, as a
consequence, widely used for chemical process services such as refinery compressors, synthetic ammonia, gas
gathering, high-pressure industrial air and the like. The plates or rings, are relatively thick to withstand the
pressure differential and valve action is achieved entirely by direct lift. With high-pressure ratio per stage in use,

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the internal cylinder work is high and valve losses can be kept to a small fraction of the total compression
power.

There are many design variations of these ring type plate valves, depending principally on:
1. Operating pressures and pressure difference.
2. Compressor speed.
3. Valve size.
4. Gas compressed (i. e. molecular weight, corrosive or not).
5. Lubricated or non-lubricated.

In the disc type valve in Figure 9, the gas entering through the ribbed upper body forces the valve discs down
against the cushioning action of the spring. The gas then passes between the valve discs and the valve seats and
out through the ribbed lower valve body.

Figure 9
Disc Type Valve

A most important variable is plate lift. Generally smaller lifts are conducive to longer life inasmuch as impact
stresses are lower with lower lift. The minimal lift to produce acceptable aerodynamic performance depends on
such variables as compressor piston speed, molecular weight of the gas, pressure level, etc. and is calculated in
each case. This may vary from as little as 0.8 mm to as high as 4 mm, depending on the individual service
condition.

Referring to Figure 9, the smaller plates use three springs each, with the larger plates employing six or more
springs per plate. In smaller valves, in addition to the outer rings, a center ring is used, supporting a single co-
axial spring. In each case, the number of springs has been determined to produce the proper dynamic plate
behavior. The springs are set in a drilled recess in the guard, with a filled Teflon button. This prevents any pieces
of broken spring from entering the cylinder, should there be spring failure.

There is a variety of other plate valve designs in use but all are based on the above elements. Each valve must
open and close once for each crankshaft revolution. The valves in a compressor operating at 800 r/min for 16
hours per day and 350 days per year will have opened and closed 48 000 times per hour, 768 000 times per day
or 268 800 000 times in a year.

Commonly used valve materials are as follows:

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 a. Valve Seats and Guards:
Cast iron, nodular iron, forged steel, stainless steel or K Monel, depending on the pressure and other
conditions of service.
b. Valve Plates:
Type 410, SAE-4145, Inconel, titanium, Micarta, bakelite or other plastics; again depending on
pressures, temperatures and gas service. Very good results have been obtained with plastic materials in
refinery hydrocarbon gas compressor services where differential pressures and temperatures permitted
their use. The high internal dampening and chemical inertness of these materials has worked in their
favor.
c. Valve Springs:
Chrome vanadium steel (cadmium plated), corrosion resisting steel or Inconel.

2. Strip or Channel Valve

In the channel type valve, Figure 10, the port plate and the seat plate fit together with their passages or openings
corresponding. The valve channels fit over these openings and are held down against the seat plate by the valve
springs which fit inside the channels and are held in place by the stop plate. The gas, entering through the port
plate, pushes the channels up off the seat plate against the springs and the gas then passes through the openings
in the stop plate. Strips of self-lubricating material are placed within the channels to prevent metal contact
between the channels and the valve springs.

This valve is extremely simple in concept and provides valve action by flexing of the strips. A very small
amount of direct lift is provided, principally to account for manufacturing tolerance. Auxiliary springs are not
required since the valve strip acts as its own spring because of a pure flexing action. The stress in a strip bent to
an arc, is on the one hand, a function of strip thickness, modulus of elasticity in the material and radius of
curvature of the guard (strip in open position) and on the other hand, the differential pressure across the seat and
width of the strips. The simultaneous satisfaction of these two criteria determines the strip thickness and sets a
limit to the valve lift; hence, its area and the permissible differential pressure across the valve. Modern strip
valves operate at differential pressures in the neighborhood of 4000 kPa and compressor speeds of up to 1800
r/min.

The most common types of strip valve material are 410 stainless steel, titanium, Monel or beryllium copper; the
latter being used where unusual strength or corrosion resistance is required.

Direct lift and flexing valves are also used. In this design, a light leaf spring is used between main strip and the
guard to provide rapid and controlled closing for reasons previously described. Valves utilizing an inflexible
lifting channel shape in combination with a leaf spring are also used for the same purpose as the direct lift and
flexing valve.

It is desirable in many process applications and mandatory in others, that the process gas stream be free of any
lubricants. Oxygen compression is a good example of the latter. For these services, specially designed packing
and piston rings are required, for example, filled Teflon. The valves must also be expressly designed to function
with negligible wear in the absence of lubrication. Valves for non-lube service are fitted with replaceable filled
Teflon supporting and guiding elements at points of wear. In the case of oxygen compressors, non-sparking
material combinations are used.

Scrupulously clean gas streams are particularly necessary in the case of nonlube service to assure long life of the
valves, rings and packing. Line suction stream filtration is also required close to the cylinder.

Figure 10
Strip or Channel Type Valve

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 Learning Module: Assignment

1. Describe two methods of reducing unbalanced forces set up in a reciprocating compressor.

2. Describe two methods of cylinder cooling used for air compressors and give the advantages and
disadvantages of each method.

3. Describe the construction and operation of an automatic type of valve for an air compressor.

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