Reciprocating air and nitrogen boosters

A piston and a cylinder, which is the oldest way of compressing gas and still the most direct way to reach a high pressure from a modest inlet.

Multiple stages with cooling between them keep the discharge temperature of each stage inside what the valves and rings can live with. The intercoolers are therefore not an accessory, they are what makes the machine last.

These machines are built to be rebuilt. Valves, rings, liners and packings are all replaceable items with published intervals, which is why a well kept reciprocating booster stays in service for decades.

Interstage pressures are the diagnostic on a reciprocating machine. When one stage loses valve condition the pressure between stages moves, and that shows on the panel before output does.

The machine stops on the receiver rather than cycling against a valve, and it counts starts as well as hours, because start count is what wears a motor of this type.

Discharge temperature per stage is alarmed and trended. On a piston machine it is the earliest honest warning of a valve on the way out.

Valves first, then rings and packings, then liners. The intervals are published and the parts are stocked, and a machine kept to that list will outlive most of the plant around it.

The most expensive mistake on a reciprocating booster is running a tired valve. It costs power immediately and it puts heat into the next stage, which then costs another set of parts.

We record flow at pressure and interstage pressures at every service, so the record shows whether the machine is still doing what it did when it was new.