Introduction

This book describes the necessary activities for the design, procurement, and operation of large machine trains, which serve for the compression or expansion of process gases in process engineering production plants, as well as for their drive. Their power requirements are usually in the range between 100 kW and 100 MW. Such machine trains fall under the term “Heavy Duty Rotating Equipment”, abbreviated as “HDRE”. This introductory chapter describes the importance of HDRE machine trains within a process engineering plant and provides an overview of the contents of the individual book chapters. Essential terms occurring in the book are defined.