The article presents results of experimental and theoretical studies to determine the integrated energy characteristics, operational performance and service life of the seals in the working chamber of a nonlubricated rotary vane compressor under various design configurations and friction conditions of the tribological contacts. As a result, a new working chamber design is proposed, incorporating profiled vanes and load‑relieving rolling bearings; its use makes it possible to reduce the sliding speed in the chamber’s tribological contacts by up to ten times. Implementing the new working chamber design in a rotary vane compressor, compared with the conventional configuration, increases the operability of the sealing vanes by 2.5 to 7.5 times depending on environmental conditions and machine speed, and enables a seal service life of up to 20 000 h.
Raykovskiy et al. (Fri,) studied this question.