[Dsg-rich] Atlas Copco technician visit summary - compressor element suffered catastrophic failure

[Amrit Yegneswaran]

calvin, tyler  good work.
thanks for all the info.




________________________________
From: Dsg-rich <dsg-rich-bounces at jlab.org> on behalf of Tyler Lemon <tlemon at jlab.org>
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2019 2:09 PM
To: dsg-rich <dsg-rich at jlab.org>
Subject: [Dsg-rich] Atlas Copco technician visit summary - compressor element suffered catastrophic failure

Hello,

The Atlas Copco technician was at JLab today. He, Calvin, and I went and checked out RICH compressor 1. Attached are some photos from the visit.

First we opened the compressor cabinet and ran the compressor so he could get an idea of how it was acting while visually inspecting the moving elements (photo "1 compressor elements.jpg"). As soon as it was running, we noted the compressor sounded like it was running much rougher than before.

>From the front panel of the compressor, the technician read the two compressor elements' outlet temperatures (photo "2 compressor element outlet temps when running.jpg"). The low temperature of element 2 indicated that it was not operating correctly and was not compressing air.

Next we started to remove element 2 from the cabinet to be able to fully open the element and look at the scroll. When the piping was removed, we saw a lot of metal dust and chunks (photos  "3 compressor scroll 2 debris - from removing filter.jpg" and "4 compressor scroll 2 debris - at filter inlet.jpg").

When the element was removed from the cabinet, relocated via overhead crane to a workbench on the ground level, and opened, it was evident that element 2 suffered a catastrophic failure (photo "5 compressor scroll 2 catastrophic failure.jpg"). The tech stated that this catastrophic failure could be due to the compressor running 2 x the 5000-hour recommended maintenance period without proper maintenance.

Based on the logbook entries for the tests performed recently, the failure most likely occurred during the test mentioned by Sandro and Dario in the logbook entry at https://logbooks.jlab.org/entry/3738070.

>From these findings, element 2 of the compressor must be replaced. The technician strongly recommends also replacing the other compressor element (element 1) as it has run for just as long. He also stated that depending on the price, it may be more cost effective to buy a brand new replacement compressor. He will generate a quote for both the new compressor elements and a brand new compressor to help us make an informed decision.

Since compressor 2 (one that works now) will be used in the upcoming physics run (Nov 2019 - May 2020; ~5 months = ~4000 hours), it may require maintenance right now to be able to run for the full experiment. We will check compressor 2's counters to see how many hours it has and when it would need maintenance.

Best regards,
Tyler

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