Geometric Design Investigation of Single Screw Compressor Rotor Grooves Produced by Cylindrical Milling
Cylindrical milling of a screw rotor groove in a single screw compressor has higher machining efficiency than turning. However, the screw groove bottom produced by the flat end of the milling cutter fails to mesh hermetically with the flat tooth tip due to the oversized clearance between them. The clearance forms two leakage paths leading to a compressed gas leakage. The shape of the path is roughly the same as that of two parallel oblate divergent nozzles in an inverse orientation. A mathematical simulation is presented for the surface profile of the screw groove bottom for a single screw compressor generated using several cylindrical milling cutters. The results contribute to improving the design of the meshing pairs in the single screw compressor.