Dry Seal & Bearing Design

[Click image to see video]

First run test of our new dry internal seal and bearing design Expander Motors.

Dry seals and bearings have the benefit of oil-free operation in extreme heat or cold conditions where oil lubricant would fail.  Another benefit is no need to separate lubricant oil from the working fluid.  This is beneficial when using Steam or other fluids such as ORC refrigerants that do not work well with oil.

Seen here is a small production-ready model running on a tank of compressed air.  We charged up the tank and shut off the compressor.  The stored air drives the Expander as the pressure drops.  This is ideal for pressure-letdown applications such as with Natural Gas.   As you can see, our Expander has the torque to drive this load immediately from a dead stop with no problem.  It is connected to a low rpm synchronous 3-Phase AC permanent magnet generator with a direct 1:1 speed coupling.  The live load consists of 36 x 100-watt real incandescent bulbs, not LEDs.