Sheave Alignment: Aim Small, Miss Small

A belt driven fan has a laser tool mounted to it to perform a sheave alignment.

A customer recently called saying his Belt Hog Sheave Alignment Tool was out of calibration. He stated that when he placed the Belt Hog lasers in the sheave grooves, they showed a slight amount of misalignment. However, when he rotated the lasers 180 degrees to check, there was a variance of 3mm (0.118”). While this…

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The Basics of Fans – Know Your Machines

A large metal fan is connected to a gearbox in an industrial environment.

Fans are a very common component in industry, they are used to move air from one place to another.  Fans are used in dust collection, supplying air to boilers, provide ventilation to factories, are used in the manufacturing process and more. Even your HVAC system at home has a fan/blower in it to move the…

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The 5 Questions No Maintenance Supervisor Should Ask

I’ve never been a maintenance supervisor, but I have worked for several.  And when a machine has had problems, most maintenance supervisors have 5 questions: What’s wrong with it? How bad is it? How much longer can we run it? What do we have to do to fix it? What can we do to prevent…

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Perspective

I don’t know about you, but in my nearly 45 years in industrial maintenance, there have been times when I felt stumped when trying to solve a problem. Sometimes you can just walk away and the solution comes to you while performing another task. Other times, a colleague or coworker may come along and have…

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Belt Drive Basics

All over the world belts provide power transmission in transportation, industrial and commercial machines. Belt drives for power transmission are classified as frictional drives. The belt transmits power by contacting the sides of the drive and driven sheaves. Belts are available in several styles: Flat belts, v-belts, Synchronous (timing) belts and Multi-ribbed belts. While belts…

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An Old Maintenance Mechanic’s Look at the Next Generation

This grainy photo was from my last day at a Weyerhaeuser mill in 1987.  I was a 26 year old millwright.  If you look closely, you’ll see an IBM computer in the storeroom.  We had another one we used for running Palomar Microlog vibration data collection.  We had a first generation laser alignment tool, but…

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VibrAlign Training During COVID-19

Like many people worldwide, the ACOEM VibrAlign Training Team is grounded while we wait this virus out.  It is the right thing to do-for ourselves, our families, neighbors, co-workers, and nation. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t help YOU!  If you have questions about alignment, vibration, or reliability of your equipment, WE CAN HELP!  How?…

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Precision Maintenance in Data Centers

  The emergence of portable computers, the internet, and the ubiquity of portable smart devices has given rise to a new type of industry–the data center. A data center is simply a building used to house computer servers. While these servers may be used for many different types of data storage, their requirements for in-house…

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Here are the Top Maintenance Tips from VibrAlign Experts

As you may have noticed if you follow VibrAlign’s social media accounts, we have been going through “Maintenance Tip Mondays” for the past couple months. This is a fun opportunity to hear from our experienced technical trainers as they share the top tips and tricks they have learned over the years in the field and…

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VibrAlign Releases The Alignment Field Guide

The Alignment Field Guide

Spanning over 250 pages, The Alignment Field Guide features articles covering a variety of shaft alignment topics, including common alignment issues, shims and hold down hardware, coupling alignments, belt and sheave alignments, and tips on saving time and money during your alignment procedure. The book also features full-color photos of alignments from the field, as…

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X, Y, & Z Axis. Does the Z Axis Affect Shaft Alignment?

Does the z axis affect alignment? In short, no it does not. There are aspects of the z axis that could affect the running of a machine, but rotational shaft alignment is not of them. What is the z axis? The X and Y axes are references to horizontal and vertical planes respectively.  With regard…

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Belt Hogs for Busses?

A creative application for the VibrAlign Belt Hog sheave alignment tool has paid off for New Flyer of America and one of its customers, King County (Seattle, WA) Metro Transit Division Fleet Engineering and Vehicle Maintenance. New Flyer is a major manufacturer of heavy-duty buses in the U.S. and Canada.   The Belt Hog is…

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Sheave Alignment Is the First Step in Making V-Belts Last

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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V-Belt Alignment of a Variable Pitch Sheave to a Fixed Pitch Sheave

Variable pitch sheaves are used frequently in air handlers.  They allow the design engineer to increase or decrease the speed of the driven machine.  In doing so, they allow for: Changes in amp draw of the motor, to maximize efficiency, Increase or decrease static pressure and air flow. Normally, the design engineer will specify the…

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