Oil slugging on a Mycom screw compressor.

[passandscore]

Recently a customer of mine added oil to his V-series Mycom screw compressor with a pneumatic barrel pump through a valve on the suction line with the unit running. Once notified I was instantly concerned about the possibilty of premature failure to the sleeve bearing and or other internal components.

It was also brought to my attention that the compressor once online and running for 10 minutes, starts to leak ammonia from the shaft seal. The leak disappears once you shut the machine down. This leak materialized only after the customer added oil in the aforementioned fashion.

Does adding a cold, high viscous oil to an operating screw compressor in an oil slugging manner explain the ammonia leak or are the two possibly unrelated?


Passandscore

[RANGER1]

passandscore,
I would not be concerned personnally as the screw has a lot of oil circulating anyway.
For example a Mycom 200VLD may have approx 100-150 litres/min of oil getting pumped into it when running, so would doubt any damage would occur if you added say another 20 litres/min on top of that.
They are a pretty robust machine.

Shaft seal may need checking if excessive as well as coupling alignment by qualified tech.

[passandscore]

Ranger1,

After an extensive, non productive search for confirmation and/or literature I to have concluded that the machine is fully capable of handling the addition of oil via the suction port. As for the coupling alignment, it has been completed by a qualified third party technician. Oil samples have been taken and I am waiting on the results of a vibration analysis.

[Magoo]

Hello Passandscore
What brand of oil is being used in compressor ?

[passandscore]

Cimco Type A