Preventing a Major Wreck on a New Reciprocating Compressor: The importance of commissioning testing

Abstract

During commissioning testing of three new reciprocating compressors a fault was detected requiring the testing to be stopped. Debris was found in the bearing resulting in minor damage due to the early indication from the monitoring system. This case study highlights the failure data, the monitored parameters, damage found and corrective action taken. However, the key learnings for the site was the justification of the commissioning process, the utilization of the monitoring system, and paying close attention to the available data from the monitoring system.