I am going to pass along to you a gift – one that I believe could potentially cut your alignment times-maybe by more than half! One that could lessen loosening and tightening bolts, reduce frustration, and increase your “alignment” confidence substantially! Would you like such a gift? Well, here it is – measure your shim…
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These types of couplings are quite common in industry, and there are various companies producing similar types of couplings. They are capable of transmitting large amounts of torque in a reasonably small space. They also do not require lubrication, and are quite easy to install, in most circumstances. These attributes make them quite desirable in…
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Most aligners are familiar with a bolt bound situation, which occurs when the motor cannot be moved enough to achieve proper horizontal alignment. A base bound condition occurs when a motor cannot be lowered sufficiently to achieve proper vertical alignment. Here is an example. During a customer’s recent pump replacement, the motor was left in…
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Resonance is when a force causes an object to “resonate”, due to excitation of its natural frequency. Think of a machine coasting down to a stop. There are certain speeds in coasting down that excite natural frequencies of the machine components. This is often observed in the coast down of a bench grinder. As the…
Read MoreWe recently received a customer request about shim safety. An employee at the customer site had experienced a “near miss” safety issue due to walking too closely to a machine, and getting their clothes caught against a shim. Since I have a scar on my right thumb caused by a 3 mil shim, I thought…
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Mechanical looseness is a very common machine vibration diagnosis. It is often overused-becoming a “catch all” category for undiagnosed vibration. It can be caused by a multitude of things that may seem to have no relationship to each other, such as: Loose bolting Coupling looseness or backlash Belts Too Loose Cracked welds Improper bearing…
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In industrial machinery, the centerpiece of vibration analysis is the ability to detect bearing problems BEFORE the bearing fails. Even more beneficial is detecting the root cause of a bearing problem before damage is done. The bearing really is the heart of the rotating machine. There’s a plethora of bearing types and designs. There…
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LUBRICATION Lubrication is sometimes incorrectly thought of as a job for unskilled workers, apprentices, or operators. When I hear a maintenance person say, “I’m just an oiler”, I cringe a bit. Proper lubrication methods, formulations, quantities, and procedures are essential to machine reliability. A machine can no more do without lubrication than it can do…
Read MoreUnbalance is another common machinery vibration problem. Unbalance is the uneven distribution of mass around a rotating axis. Any rotating machine can have an unbalance problem, not just fans. It is important to note that once rotating machinery components are balanced, they should stay balanced until something changes. These changes are normally: Dirt, paint, or…
Read MoreMachines vibrate for lots of different reasons-some good, others not so good. Over the next few months, we are going to write about some of the most common machinery vibration causes, and possible solutions. COUPLING MISALIGNMENT One of the most common problems in coupled rotating equipment is misalignment. Simply stated, misalignment is when the driving…
Read MoreMost Fixturlaser alignment tools have detectors in the sensors that can measure a change of position up to 30mm (over 1 inch). In most instances, this is more than enough to measure even severe misalignment. However on long spans, if the misalignment is severe, the machines may need to be roughed in before precision alignment…
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In my last post, we looked some reasons for non repeatable, or when “two plus two doesn’t equal four”. This time, let’s think about when we don’t get an expected or desired outcome when we shim and move. Think of it as when “two minus two doesn’t equal zero.” You may perform an alignment measurement,…
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When mechanics align rotating machinery, they expect two outcomes. One, they expect their alignment values to be repeatable. Two, they expect shimming and moving machinery to produce a desired outcome-namely, to be in tolerance. In this paper, we’ll discuss repeatability, which is, performing the same measurement twice, and getting the same results. If alignment results…
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Precision alignment of rotating equipment is a task which requires precision. Those of us who perform this task are asked to position big, heavy machines to tolerances often less than the thickness of a human hair. The measuring tools used to perform shaft alignment are quite capable of successfully showing us how to position these…
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Occasionally industrial machinery is not level relative to earth, but is designed to operate on an angle. Those angles can be: • Driver High • Driver Low • Angled to the left or right (as viewed from one end) Regardless of the orientation, these machines can be effectively and easily aligned with any Fixturlaser Shaft…
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