TURBOCOMPRESSOR

Abstract

A turbocompressor with an impeller rotatable about an axis of rotation for conveying a fluid, a diffuser downstream of the impeller in terms of flow, and a clamping ring for fixing a thrust bearing axially mounting the impeller in a bearing receptacle. The diffuser and the clamping ring are formed integrally and in a single piece with each other as a unit.

Claims

1. A turbocompressor comprising: an impeller rotatable about an axis of rotation for conveying a fluid, a diffuser downstream of the impeller relative to a flow of the fluid, a clamping ring for fixing a thrust bearing to axially mount the impeller in a bearing receptacle, and an inner housing for receiving a mount formed by the thrust bearing and/or a radial bearing, the inner housing providing the bearing receptacle, wherein the diffuser and the clamping ring are formed integrally and in a single piece with each other as a unit, wherein the unit consisting of the diffuser and the clamping ring forms an end-face housing cover of the inner housing, wherein the thrust bearing is an aerodynamic thrust bearing with at least one thrust bearing washer, and wherein the unit consisting of the diffuser and the clamping ring forms a clamping section protruding in the axial direction for abutting one of the thrust bearing washers, the clamping section having an annular projection extending peripherally in the circumferential direction.

2. The turbocompressor according to claim 1, wherein the inner housing has a pot as a bearing receptacle for receiving the mount, and the housing cover formed by the unit consisting of the diffuser and the clamping ring is connectable to the pot by at least one fastening element, and the mount is fixable in the pot by an axial clamping force generatable across the housing cover.

3. The turbocompressor according to claim 1, wherein the inner housing is also formed to receive an electric motor driving the impeller and forms cooling elements for cooling the electric motor, wherein the unit consisting of the diffuser and the clamping ring is configured to direct the fluid conveyed by the impeller into and/or onto the cooling elements of the inner housing.

4. The turbocompressor according to claim 1, wherein the annular projection is perforated by channels running in the radial direction for decoupling the flow.

5. The turbocompressor according to claim 1, wherein the unit consisting of the diffuser and the clamping ring has a plurality of guide elements and/or cooling elements for cooling and pressure conversion of the fluid conveyed by the impeller.

6. The turbocompressor according to claim 1, wherein the unit consisting of the diffuser and the clamping ring has at least one aligning element for concentric alignment with respect to the axis of rotation and/or for concentric alignment of the thrust bearing with respect to the axis of rotation and/or for concentric alignment of an inflow nozzle arranged on an inflow side of the impeller with respect to the axis of rotation.

7. The turbocompressor according to claim 1, wherein the turbocompressor is a radial compressor or an axial compressor or a diagonal compressor.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] Other advantageous developments of the disclosure are characterized in the subclaims and/or depicted in greater detail below together with the description of the preferred embodiment of the disclosure with reference to the figure. In the drawings:

[0020] FIG. 1 shows a longitudinal section through a compressor.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0021] The figure is schematic by way of example and shows a compressor 1 formed according to the disclosure in a longitudinal section along the axis of rotation A.

[0022] In this regard, an impeller 10 rotatable about an axis of rotation A for conveying a fluid and pressurizing, i.e., compressing the fluid, is provided by the compressor 1, wherein an inflow nozzle 60 is upstream and a diffuser 21 is downstream of the impeller 10 with respect to the conveying direction, by means of which kinetic energy may be converted into pressure.

[0023] For mounting the impeller 10 or a shaft to which the impeller 10 is fastened, respectively, a thrust bearing 30 and, presently, a combination bearing as a combination of a thrust bearing 30 and a radial bearing are also provided. Furthermore, these are presently formed as aerodynamic bearings.

[0024] In order to be able to fix the thrust bearing 30 in a bearing receptacle 41 provided by an inner housing 40 of the compressor 1, specifically as a pot 41, a clamping ring 22 is usually provided, by means of which a clamping force may be applied to the thrust bearing 30 and the latter may be fixed correspondingly in the pot 41.

[0025] Presently, in this regard, the diffuser 21 and the clamping ring 22 are provided to be formed integrally with one another, i.e., in a single piece as a unit 20, whereby not only the number of parts of the compressor may be reduced, but also the concentric alignment with respect to the axis of rotation A may be simplified. Stated another way, the diffuser 21 can be unitarily formed with the clamping ring 22 and the combined unit 20 can be a monolithic structure.

[0026] In order to fix the thrust bearing 30, which, being an aerodynamic bearing, has a thrust bearing washer 31, the unit 20 forms a clamping section 23 extending annularly peripherally in the circumferential direction U about the axis of rotation A, by means of which the unit 20 directly abuts the thrust bearing washer 31 and applies a clamping force to the latter in the axial direction, i.e., parallel to the axis of rotation A.

[0027] In this regard, the clamping section 23 is intersected in the radial direction R by channels 24, through which a radially inner cavity is connected to a radially outer cavity, so that an ambient pressure around the aerodynamic thrust bearing 30 may be homogenised and, optionally, undesired excess pressures arising at the thrust bearing 30 may be discharged.

[0028] Furthermore, the unit 20 is connectable and presently screw-mountable to the inner housing 40 via fastening elements 42, wherein a concentric alignment of the unit 20 with the inner housing 40 occurs by means of an aligning element 26 which is formed as a mating surface annularly peripheral around the axis of rotation A.

[0029] The diffuser 21 has a plurality of guide elements 25 which are presently formed to direct the fluid between cooling elements 43 provided on the inner housing 40 and formed as cooling fins, so that this enables efficient cooling of the inner housing 40 and of the electric motor 50 received therein for driving the impeller 10.

[0030] The disclosure is not limited in its execution to the above-mentioned preferred exemplary embodiments. Rather, a number of variants are conceivable which make use of the illustrated solution even in the form of fundamentally different embodiments.