Rotating vane compressor

A type of compressor that is used in some industrial air compressors is the rotating vane compressor. This claims advantages in terms of cost over the screw compressor. However, they cannot be used for fuel cells, since the tips of the rotating vanes must run over a film of oil, and so, even after filtering, there will always be some oil in the output gas, which is not generally acceptable for fuel cells. 

The sliding-vane compressor uses a single rotating element (see Figure 1-8). The rotor is mounted eccentric to the center of the cylinder portion of the casing and is slotted and fitted with vanes. The vanes are free to... 

Rotary compressors are positive-displacement machines. Figure iO-7 shows a typical vane compressor. The operation is similar to that of a vane pump shown schematically in Figure 10-10 of Volume 1, 2nd Edition (Figure 10-9 in 1st Edition). A number of vanes, typically from 8 to 20, fit into slots in a rotating shaft. The vanes slide into and out of the slots as the shaft rotates and the volume contained between two adjacent vanes and the wall of the compressor cylinder decreases. Vanes can be cloth impregnated with a phenolic resin, bronze, or aluminum. The more vanes the compressor has, the smaller the pressure differential across the vanes. Thus, high-ratio vane compressors tend to have more vanes than low-ratio compressors. 

The Nash vacuum pump or compressor has only one moving part—a balanced rotor that runs without any internal lubrication. Such simplicity is possible because all functions of mechanical pistons or vanes are performed by a rotating band of liquid compressant. 

Liquid-Piston Type This type is illustrated in Fig. 10-97. These compressors are offered as single-stage units for pressure differentials up to about 0.52 MPa (75 Ibf/in ) in the smaller sizes and capacities up to 6.8 X 10 mVh (4000 fF/min) when used with a lower pressure differential. Staging is employed for higher pressure differentials. These units have found wide application as vacuum pumps on wet-vacuum service. Inlet and discharge ports are located in the impeller hub. As the vaned impeller rotates, centrifugal force drives the sealing liquid... 

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