Page 483 - Compression Machinery for Oil and Gas

464 SECTION III Applications

Standards also exist for several other reasons, including standardized parts,
standardized analyses, and to serve as a purchasing specification. An example
is the ANSI standard that defines pipe flanges, ANSI B16.5 “Pipe Flanges &
Flanged Fittings.” This ANSI standard provides for very standardized dimen-
sions and pressure ratings for flanges. Without standardized ratings and dimen-
sions, there would be chaos with piping and flanges. Standards also provide the
user with a purchase specification. An example is API Standard 618 “Recipro-
cating Compressors for Petroleum, Chemical, and Gas Industry Services”
which states in its Introduction, “The objective of this publication is to provide
a purchase specification to facilitate the procurement and manufacture of recip-
rocating compressors for use in petroleum, chemical, and gas industry
services.”
Industry standards are readily available and used exclusively at the will of
the end user. Many end users will have an “overlay” specification of their own
writing that deletes, revises, or adds to an industry specification. Manufacturers
will routinely make comments and take exceptions to these industry and
end-user specifications.
The goal of this chapter is to give a broad overview of standards, recom-
mended practices (RPs), and other documents that apply to gas compression
equipment, including compressors, drivers, associated equipment, and systems.
Most of these standards are quite lengthy and include too much information to
be presented here. The text in this book is intended to provide the applicable
standards and brief descriptions to help the reader understand which standards
apply to gas compression equipment. Furthermore, this chapter does not cover
pumps, fans, or blowers.

Machinery Specific Standards: Compressors
Centrifugal Compressors
The industry standard for centrifugal compressors is API 617, titled “Axial and
Centrifugal Compressors and Expander-Compressors for Petroleum, Chemical,
and Gas Industry Services.” The current API 617 is the Eighth Edition,
published in September 2014, with a Ninth Edition in development. API 617
provides four main parts in the document, as follows:

– Part 1—General requirements, including information pertinent to all equip-
ment covered by the other parts of API 617.
– Part 2—Nonintegrally geared centrifugal and axial compressor require-
ments. These machines do not have gears integral with their casing but
can have external gears.
– Part 3—Integrally geared centrifugal compressor requirements.
– Part 4—Expander-compressor requirements.