Big B
Diamond
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2009
- Location
- Michigan, USA
What is the largest air compressor that you have ever seen?
I worked at a General Motors plant that was about 40 acres under one roof. It was highly automated and had tons of pneumatics as well as a lot of air blowoffs and other air hogging operations.
The entire plant was run by one air compressor. It was locked in a cage and you couldn't get real close to it, maybe five feet away at the closest. Brand name was Centac. The armature on the motor was around 6 feet in diameter. As I recall the motor was 4,500 HP and it ran on 7,000 volts of power. (we had our own power plant) It was a four stage turbine compressor and as I recall the largest impeller was around 3 or 4 feet.
Our plant had about three other compressor rooms filled with big old Worthington piston compressors but they rarely ran in the 30 years that I worked there.
In all the time that I worked there I only recall seeing it not running one time when it was down for a rebuild. I worked a lot of nights and weekends, holidays, you name it and I was there. I'd ride by on a scooter and the whole plant was shut down but that motor was still spinning.
I've always been kind of fascinated by huge machinery and this was no exception. It got me to wondering if there are larger compressors out there.
Feel free to share your huge compressor story here.
I worked at a General Motors plant that was about 40 acres under one roof. It was highly automated and had tons of pneumatics as well as a lot of air blowoffs and other air hogging operations.
The entire plant was run by one air compressor. It was locked in a cage and you couldn't get real close to it, maybe five feet away at the closest. Brand name was Centac. The armature on the motor was around 6 feet in diameter. As I recall the motor was 4,500 HP and it ran on 7,000 volts of power. (we had our own power plant) It was a four stage turbine compressor and as I recall the largest impeller was around 3 or 4 feet.
Our plant had about three other compressor rooms filled with big old Worthington piston compressors but they rarely ran in the 30 years that I worked there.
In all the time that I worked there I only recall seeing it not running one time when it was down for a rebuild. I worked a lot of nights and weekends, holidays, you name it and I was there. I'd ride by on a scooter and the whole plant was shut down but that motor was still spinning.
I've always been kind of fascinated by huge machinery and this was no exception. It got me to wondering if there are larger compressors out there.
Feel free to share your huge compressor story here.