Spool Seal Design and Testing for the Spool Compressor

摘要

Several seals, designed to minimize leakage between the rotating spool assembly’s endplates and the stationaryrncompressor housing, are introduced, constructed and tested. Some designs are deemed impractical due to either highrnleakage or high torque. A novel one piece hybrid design that blends the function of a face seal and piston ring isrntested and shown to achieve excellent results. A test apparatus is introduced to isolate and measure the spool seal’srnperformance independent of the compressor. It is concluded that the hybrid design is highly effective and well suitedrnfor many applications of the spool compressor.