Reciprocating Compressor Actuator Static Seals
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electromechanical actuators for reciprocating compressors face challenges in preventing compressed gas from contacting windings due to wear on dynamic seals, especially when handling highly flammable gases, leading to safety risks and inefficiencies in pressure compensation.
Innovation Solution
An electromechanical actuator with non-magnetic protective elements and static seals is used to isolate the electromagnet windings from the moving parts, eliminating the need for dynamic seals and reducing friction, ensuring safety and reliability by using static sealing elements that are not subject to wear.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If dynamic seals are used on the actuator rod to enable continuous movement, then the actuator can provide continuous flow control, but the seals wear out due to high activation frequencies, allowing compressed gas to contact the electromagnet windings
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and eliminates the dynamic seal component from the actuator rod by transitioning to a piston-based design where the rod is fixed in the actuator body and the piston moves within the cylinder. This removes the wear-prone dynamic sealing interface while maintaining continuous movement capability through the piston's reciprocating motion driven by electromagnetic forces.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces a piston as an intermediary element between the electromagnet and the external environment. The piston with its static seals acts as a mediator that isolates the electromagnet windings from compressed gas while still allowing force transmission. The piston's movement within the cylinder enables continuous flow control without exposing the electromagnet to wear-prone dynamic sealing conditions.
2Productivity
If dynamic seals are positioned on the actuator rod, then the actuator can operate at high activation frequencies, but friction between the seals and rod increases energy consumption and reduces efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The invention removes the dynamic seal-rod interface that generates friction by fixing the rod in the actuator body and instead moving a piston within a cylinder. This eliminates the continuous sliding friction between dynamic seals and the rod, reducing energy losses while maintaining high activation frequency capability through the piston's reciprocating motion.
3Reliability
If static seals are used to protect the electromagnet windings, then gas infiltration is prevented, but the magnetic field may be affected by non-magnetic protective elements
Solution Approach 1:
The piston serves as an intermediary structure that provides gas isolation through static seals while being transparent to the magnetic field. The piston's design allows magnetic field lines to pass through unaffected while the static seals on the piston effectively prevent compressed gas from reaching the electromagnet windings, thus protecting against gas infiltration without requiring additional non-magnetic protective elements that would complicate the design.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides a safer, more reliable, and balanced actuator that effectively limits gas infiltration and friction, enhancing safety and performance in environments with highly flammable gases by using non-magnetic protective elements with static seals, which are not affected by magnetic fields and do not wear out.
Implementation Method 1
at least one electromagnet facing said chamber; a movable rod designed to cooperate at one end with at least one suction valve of a reciprocating compressor and at the other with a moving element made of a magnetizable material
Data Source
AI summary
An electromechanical actuator for controlling the delivery rate of reciprocating compressors, comprising: a movable rod designed to cooperate at one end with a suction valve of a reciprocating compressor and at the other with a moving element made of a magnetizable material; at least one chamber in which said moving element is housed and onto which at least one winding of an electromagnet positioned inside a seat facing said chamber protrudes, there being positioned between said winding and said chamber at least one protective element made of a non-magnetic material and provided with static sealing elements and designed to keep the winding of the electromagnet separated from the chamber in which said moving element is housed, characterized in that said protective element made of a non-magnetic material comprises at least two series of static sealing elements, a first series being positioned internally to the protective element and a second series being positioned externally to the protective element, with gas recovery holes being provided between said series of static sealing elements, and in that at least one hole for connection to a gas bleeding and washing circuit is provided in said chamber.