One of the main causes of compressor failure is overheating due to inadequate ventilation of the compressor room, especially in air-cooled compressors. An ambient temperature of 40 – 100°F must be maintained at all times to keep the compressor running properly. Post-cooling compressors are usually designed to cool compressed air to a temperature of ‘ambient +15° F.’ The higher the temperature rise, the more likely the compressor will fail with a high temperature alarm and degraded dryer performance. The compressed air supply will then contain more water vapour, thus negatively impacting the industrial process.
In the development of the Manufacturing Industry which involves the use of heavy machinery in its work, such as Compressors. However, there are several cases that often occur during the work process. There are many dramas of workers due to lack of knowledge about the use of some of the tools that must be used. Not a few compressors experience damage during use in a project, such as a sudden compressor shutdown. Why can something like this happen suddenly?
Based on the results of research (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station) many compressor failures that occur during the operational process of the death of the compressor is due to overheating due to inadequate ventilation of the compressor room, especially in air-cooled compressors.
Incidents like this can actually be minimised by providing direction and literacy to prospective operators so that they have their own program in monitoring the condition of a good compressor. In addition, a good understanding of how the compressor works is one of the protection systems for the compressor so that the engine can last a long time.
It is known that monitoring the engine protection system can improve engine reliability by reducing damage to the engine when problems occur. However, the scope and complexity of engine protection systems, even for similar equipment, can sometimes differ slightly. While more sophisticated machine protection systems can further improve reliability of the instrument as well as additional controls that will increase costs, resulting in additional operating complexity if there are more constraints to control, and can decrease machine availability by causing unnecessary trips.
Hence the need for regular monitoring of the machine is so that we can identify degradation of the machine condition earlier so that we can take action before damage occurs to the compressor. Why is it recommended to always do this? Yes, because this action aims to ensure that the machine can function normally or there is a serious problem with the compressor operating system. Usually, the maintenance of this machine starts from how the condition of the instruments to measure the main parameters, and the control system that displays, alarms and/or trips the machine if a parameter exceeds a predetermined limit.
