A dowel pin, in its simplest form, is a hardened steel shaft, usually very short, and can be straight or tapered. It is often used in machinery for: Precise locating of machinery components, such as the top half of a pump, gearbox components, line shaft bearings, etc. Dowels are usually located in diagonal corners of…
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A reader of our blog posted a comment stating that he could not cut a step shim to correct for angular soft foot, since it was not permitted in API standards. Which, naturally, made me do two things: • Look at API Standards, because, at least in my 33 years of aligning machinery, I have…
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To the casual observer, precision shaft alignment of large machinery may look like “grunt work” a task that only requires a strong back. But those of us who perform shaft alignment know it is moving big heavy machines to within very small tolerances. As such, small movements can often make big differences in alignment quality.…
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For precision shaft alignment, nothing beats a good laser alignment tool. But the best of tools can have errors, or not even work at all, if the Sensors (detectors) can’t “see” the laser beams! We received a customer support call, and the aligner stated that his laser alignment tool wasn’t repeating. This is a rare…
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A coupling alignment tolerance and a shaft alignment tolerance are different things – VERY different things! A Coupling Alignment Tolerance is often (but not always) the maximum amount of misalignment the coupling will operate at before premature failure. A Shaft Alignment Tolerance is the maximum amount of misalignment the shafts can tolerate before they begin…
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Simply stated, a machine train is when three or more machine components are coupled together, acting as one. Machine train alignment can sometimes be a complicated task. Some laser alignment tools can measure machine trains of up to several machines, simplifying the move options. Whether you have a machine train program or not, by using…
Read MoreEquipment rooms can sometimes have numerous machines running all at once-side by side. Often, technicians are required to perform a precision alignment next to a machine which is running. The technicians are right to be concerned about vibration from nearby machines, but the concern can be greatly reduced if certain procedures are followed. The first…
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After 34 years, aligning a few thousand machines, teaching millwright training for a technical college, and being an instructor for VibrAlign, I sometimes think that no alignment challenge can beat me! Then something comes along to really put me in my place! I was put in such a place while training at a large manufacturer…
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I frequently hear statements similar to these in training classes: We just straightedge it in, and align it when we have an outage. Don’t be so picky. It IS a flexible coupling. They won’t give me time to align it properly. My answers are something along these lines: I doubt they’ll let you go back…
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When performing precision shaft alignment, regardless of the measuring tools being used, size matters. Many coupled machines have obstructions around the couplings, such as transmitters, oil or cooling lines, conduit clamps, and many other components which can make precision laser shaft alignment challenging. Fixturlaser’s new generation Bluetooth sensors (pictured on the left above) are the…
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In shaft alignment, the terms Spacer Shaft, Jack Shaft, and Spool-piece are often interchanged. They refer to a shaft which connects the driving machine to the driven machine. While the name is not so important, the type of configuration must be known, because the method of alignment can be different depending upon the type. They…
Read MoreA shaft alignment tolerance is simply that – an allowable, minimal amount of misalignment. There are many different tolerance tables for shaft alignment. At VibrAlign, we have a good alignment tolerance, based on many years of experience and engineering. Other alignment tools have their own tolerance tables. Many technical and trade organizations have their alignment…
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VibrAlign recently released an excellent “how-to” video on its You Tube channel. This video explains not only how to use the VibrAlign Belt Hog laser sheave/pulley alignment tool, but also introduces the 3 concepts of sheave misalignment and how to correct them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmtMGikWApw However proper sheave alignment is only one step in making belts last. …
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No, it is not the place where good shaft alignments get lost – never to be seen again! It is a way of thinking about locating machinery feet so that the shafts are in alignment, even when the feet of the moveable machine may be a few thousandths up, down, left, or right of perfect. …
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Recently a customer contacted us about increased vibration on a motor, due to a broken washer. And they wanted to know if there was a specification for washer hardness, and a guide for bolt size to washer size. There are many standards for bolting (USS, SAE, ASME, etc.), of which, washers are an important part. …
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