Opportunities for innovation with screw compressors

Abstract

It is falsely considered, but widely accepted, that little can now be done to improve the screw compressor process and design. Screw compressors are indeed a mature product today and they form a highly competitive market, especially the oil-flooded air compressor. However, the simultaneous efforts of a large number of manufacturers have resulted in a compact and efficient oil-flooded screw compressor machine. Even small design details now tell the achievement of better compressor efficiency, and there is still some place left for implementation of new methods and procedures that will undoubtedly result in a better final product. New rotor generation procedures, rotor and compressor design optimization for a specified compressor duty and specialized compressor design are innovation elements that are continually improving and developing screw compressors and opening up hitherto unknown ways to produce compressors with better features. Also, the development of a combined compression and expansion machine is reported which could further increase the useful range of application of such machines, especially in refrigeration systems. A review of recent results of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in screw machines is also given in the paper.