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Maintenance Partners has leading power in the repair and reconditioning of electrical and mechanical rotating machines in various branches of the industry.

Upgrades

Abradable Sealing

Maintenance Partners implements air compressor upgrades by applying abradable sealing systems. Fertilizer plants are able to increase the ammonia production after this modification due to the extra supply of compressed air by up to 12 %.

BORSIG – COOPER – CKD - DRESSER RAND – DEMAG – ELLIOTT - HOWDEN – HITACHI – KOBE - MITSUBISHI – NUOVO PIGNONE – DELAVAL - SULZER – THERMODYNE – THOMASSEN

ABRADABLE SEALING

The overall efficiency of a turbo compressor is greatly influenced by the internal recirculation of the compressor gas (Internal recycle flow).

Maintenance Partners is able to provide you this labyrinth sealing that significantly reduces recirculation.

The stock casing labyrinths are replaced by abradable seal rings with abradable coating applied on the inside diameters. Seal strips are installed on the following rotor positions:

  • Impeller eye
  • Spacer sleeves
  • Balance piston
  • Gland seals area

The abradable sealing technique consists of installing seal strips into rotor parts with a labyrinth tooth on its cylindrical surface.

This creates a hard metal rotating sealing element that matches with a soft annular coating anchored on the stationary abradable sealing.

The coating sprayed on the stationary part is a compound of aluminium powder bonded with polyester. Its thickness is about one millimetre.

The gap between the rotating and stationary elements is kept very small. When rotating, the labyrinth teeth will slightly cut the abradable sealing and create small grooves in the abradable sealing.

The gap between the rotating and stationary parts is about one third of the clearance of traditional seals. This substantially reduces gas recirculation, providing a spectacular increase in efficiency.

ADVANTAGES

  • Thermal spray coated parts offer easy overhauls and repairs
  • Thermal sprayed coatings result in an excellent combination of
  • abrasive and erosion performance and sealing features
  • Compressor efficiency is improved by approximately 10%, depending on
  • the number of impeller stages and the ( wat van de) balance piston
  • Low energy rub provided by the low friction polyester components
  • and long erosion life
  • Low repair costs compared to compressors with conventional sealing methods installed
  • No sealing spares on stock
  • Energy savings