Page 366 - Reciprocating Compressors Operation Maintenance

Preventive Maintenance for Reciprocating Compressors 351

with budget questions and the pressure to reduce costs, maintenance
managers are still expected to raise the level of service in the plant-
Maintenance often falls victim to budget cuts because management mis-
takenly believes maintenance can be deferred. It is thus important to
wisely and effectively allocate and spend maintenance money. Inspection
records and data can obviously be used to show what must be done to
optimize the reliability of the compressor and to determine logical shut-
down intervals.

GOOD MAINTENANCE IN A NUTSHELL

The following summarizes what good maintenance is all about.

»The design must be right.
* Correct materials must be used.
* Assembly must be without error.
* The compressor must be maintained properly.

SPARE PARTS .

A very important part of compressor rebuilding, continuing reliability,
and a factor in the preventive maintenance program is having an ade-
quate inventory of parts for each compressor. Maintenance needs an
effective parts supply. A good store is essential. You can't keep equip-
ment running without parts. It is well known that the compressor manu-
facturer cannot be depended upon to furnish critical parts on a short-time
basis. In order to properly overhaul and maintain the compressor, each
user must have the required parts on hand.
Inspection data and records allow for the proper planning for the next
overhaul and replacement of those worn components. If the proper parts
required are not available at time of shutdown, compromise overhaul
decisions are often made to use worn or damaged parts or non-standard
and out-of-tolerance parts. The use of worn or non-standard parts invites
premature failure and unscheduled shutdown of the compressor. It. is
false economy to use these parts if there is any question about their abili-
ty to endure the scheduled operational period. It is also false economy to
reuse parts such as gaskets and O-rings which do not lend themselves to
visual inspection methods. They should be replaced with new parts each
time the assembly is disturbed.