Vibration Dampers on Sabroe Compressors

[kelvin_27_84]

Hi, I have recently encounter a question while at work. That is, Frick usually recommend bolting down the compressor on a housekeeping pad firmly. Yet Sabroe recommend vibration dampers. Anyone encounter any problems with the Frick. Like say super strong vibration on the ground at 100% loading.

[Poodzy]

Well, we currently have 22 frick compressors, in are department. We have them just bolted to the floors. When we got are 3 new 700hp compressors a couple of years ago we had to have some *mufflers* put on them, due to vibration. They had to cut off the end bells to put them in but this is the only problem we have ever had with vibration on any of are equipment.

[US Iceman]

You have to be very careful with different types of mechanisms that can cause vibrations. There are essentially two main types; mechanically or acoustic induced.

Mechanically induced is caused by the rotating parts and the speed.

Acoustically induced is caused by the gas pulsations from the compressor causing the pipe to reach a natural frequency that excites the piping. This in turn induces the mechanical vibrations.

The oil separator problem mentioned is the acoustic type, while the concrete pads (or sometimes called inertia blocks) are used for mechanical purposes.

The Sabroe recommendation for vibration isolators may be based on the need to remove the source (the compressor) from the floor on a mezzanine. These are very hard to deal with because the vibration not only travels through the solid building, but can also cause the floor to emit noise.