A reciprocating compressor is a positive-displacement machine that uses a piston to compress a gas and deliver it at high pressure.
They are often some of the most critical and expensive systems at a production facility, and deserve special attention. Gas transmission pipelines, petrochemical plants, refineries and many other industries all depend on this type of equipment.
There is a misconception in industry that bearings should be lubricated like bushings. Many people are under the impression that if a little lubricant is good, a ton must be better. However, overlubing a bearing can cause the same or more catastrophic problems than underlubing. Although this practice is slowly being eradicated as its ineffectiveness becomes common knowledge, the old ways of overlubing continue to persist in some areas of our workplace.
Excessive heat is a severe contaminant. It wreaks havoc on oil (chemically and physically) and retards lubricant performance by increasing wear, corrosion and friction. Friction and wear cause more heat, which sends the machine into a cycle of despair.
For many years, the process of analyzing lubricants, coolants and fuels to improve the reliability and maintenance of machines has remained relatively unchanged. Fluids typically are sampled from an asset on a regular cadence and sent to a lab to be processed. The results are interpreted by experts or simple rules-based analysis, and a report is returned. The asset owner must then use the report to decide whether to take action or continue normal operation. Although laboratory analysis produces extremely valuable data, the process can become somewhat cumbersome and may not provide a consistent spectrum of deep insights that asset owners need to increase performance and reliability.
