Fasteners are a critical component of the precision shaft alignment process, yet the importance of fasteners is many times overlooked. If bolting is not selected, assembled, and torqued correctly, it can make the precision shaft alignment process less accurate, more difficult to achieve, and potentially harmful to the machines. While there are always unusual circumstances,…
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James Pekarek, one of our trainers, wrote a blog entitled “Performing Alignment Checks as Part of Your Preventive Maintenance”. https://acoem.us/shaft-alignment/performing-alignment-checks-part-preventive-maintenance/ It is a great article, and good advice. I recently shared this blog post, and the advice, with a customer of ours. Here’s why. I taught a training class at a large water plant in…
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On occasion, we are asked, “What are these numbers on the screen?” All our alignment tools (and most others) can be configured in Imperial or Metric. Most US users use Imperial (inches, feet, and so on). When we say, “Your laser displays in mils”, we’re asked, “What’s a mil?” Definition – [mil] noun. 1. a…
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Acoem USA has introduced the Runout Probe, an accessory device for the NXA Pro. I (as a jaded, grizzled old millwright-but a good “company man”) was outwardly excited. But inside, I thought, what’s the big deal? It’s an electronic dial indicator. That’s what I thought – until I took it for a test drive! I…
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One of the hallmarks of a good maintenance technician is the ability to troubleshoot – not just using vibration tools, or volt meters, or laptops with Ethernet plug-ins, but the ability to troubleshoot machinery in their minds. In other words, the ability to visualize what the problem might be. “Fix the easy things first” is…
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A vibration sensor (or accelerometer) measures vibration-simple, right? But how and where you mount the sensor is CRITICAL to getting good information. Here are some good tips to keep in mind. 1. Mount the sensor as close to the bearing location as you can safely do it. These sensors can measure vibration anywhere on the…
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Most people who work on, or around pumps are familiar with the term “cavitation”. It is often used as a catch all phrase for any flow-related vibration on pumps, and is often reported by vibration analysts when: Pump noise level is high, Pump vibration is erratic, with lots of “noise” in the spectrum. But there…
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I recently taught alignment training at a gas compression site. These were sharp technicians, and they keep these large gas compressors in excellent shape. We went out to check alignment between the engine and compressor. It was great just as I expected, because compressing gas is their only product. So I asked if they had…
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A customer called me, extremely frustrated, because he could not get a good alignment. “I’ve spent two hours trying to align this stupid pump!” he said. He blamed the laser, the “cheap” pump his company had, the bad base, his bad trainer (me), and anything else that came to mind. I did not take it…
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Electric motors are almost always well-balanced when they leave the motor manufacturer. But occasionally, motor unbalance problems are picked up with vibration monitoring tools, such as the OneProd Hawk. Here are some easy troubleshooting methods to determine the cause of unbalance in the motor. An electric motor’s rotor, like any rotating mass, cannot become out…
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Some people believe that precision laser shaft alignment has evolved to the point where pre-alignment steps, such as roughing in the alignment with a straightedge, are no longer needed. Well, quite frankly, those people are wrong! The reason for roughing in the alignment has little to do with how accurately the lasers/sensors measure. It has…
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Gearboxes are common in industry. They are used to increase or decrease speed from the driver, provide increased torque, and change direction of power transmission. There are two main types of commonly-used gearboxes: GEARBOX TYPE Parallel or Standard Gearbox-one where the input and output shafts are parallel. Bevel or Right Angle Gearbox-one where…
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A VibrAlign customer recently called, stating they were having repeatability problems with aligning a small motor to gearbox to pump. After some phone conversation, I asked if they could send me photos of the machine, and the discrepancy in the measurements. After seeing them, I knew what the problem was. Machines with small diameter…
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In industry, many couplings utilize an elastomeric insert or element. This type of coupling has many advantages, among them: Ease of replacement Ability to absorb torsional loading No need for lubrication Tolerant of slight amounts of misalignment Inexpensive It is important to remember that even though these elastomer couplings can be tolerant of misalignment, the…
Read MoreAt VibrAlign, we are in the precision maintenance business. Our tools, our training, and our people, are all about precision maintenance. While teaching the field alignment portion of our shaft alignment training, at a customer site, we went out to align a particularly troublesome pump. They didn’t think they were getting the life…
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