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Belt Alignment
V-Belt Sheave and Groove Gauges
V-belts are cheap, right? That’s what most people in industry think, but a dumpster full of worn-out belts represents a good amount of money. Not only that, but the time required to change belts, along with any downtime, can be significant. Make Belt Drives Efficient Belt drives need four things to make them efficient: Proper…
Read MoreWhy V-Belt Tension Gauges Matter
An often-overlooked precision maintenance tool is the V-belt tension gauge. Many maintenance technicians believe they can just go by “feeling” for what proper belt tension should be. In our Reliable Precision Maintenance (RPM) course, we often let mechanics tension the belts to what they “feel” is correct. Then we check the tension with a V-belt…
Read MoreSheave Alignment: Aim Small, Miss Small
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…
Read MoreThe Basics of Fans – Know Your Machines
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…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read MorePerspective
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…
Read MoreBelt 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…
Read MoreAn 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…
Read MoreVibrAlign 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?…
Read MoreThe Importance of Mechanical Skills in the Data Center: Belt installation, Tensioning, and Sheave Alignment
Proper belt installation and tensioning and sheave alignment are essential in order for a facility to function at optimum efficiency. A key thing to understand when it comes to belts is proper sizing. Whether you are using a correctly-sized belt for your machine will have a significant impact on the machine’s ability to function at…
Read MorePrecision 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…
Read MoreHere 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…
Read MoreVibrAlign Releases 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…
Read MoreX, 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…
Read MoreBelt 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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