Most mechanics are pretty familiar with flexible couplings. They are designed with an elastomer, or flexible element, which compensates for slight amounts of misalignment through a sliding motion between the…
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While working on a sludge pump, several issues arose that could have caused alignment headaches that would have lasted hours. There isn’t any medication that would have removed that pain.…
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As alignment professionals we all want to do the right thing and perform the best shaft alignment possible; however there may be a time when you have to choose and…
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Normally, it is faster and more accurate to perform shaft alignment while the machines are coupled together. This offers several benefits such as: Keeping the relative angular positions of the…
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VibrAlign’s Verti-Zontal Compound Move is a shaft alignment process to allow the aligner to make both vertical and horizontal alignment corrections with a single measurement, or spin of the shafts.…
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There are only two types of measurements for shaft misalignment – offset, which may be called parallel or rim, and angularity, which is sometimes called slope, or face. Offset (parallel…
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If you align machinery for a living then more than likely you have encountered machines that are base-bound or bolt-bound. Base-bound is when the movable machine has to be lowered…
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Do you understand the fundamentals of dial indicators? It is essential to understand the following 3 dial indicator concepts: 1. Total Indicator Reading, or TIR, 2. The Validity Rule, and…
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Some companies have a policy of torquing motor hold down bolts to set prescribed value. While this may be a regulation in some industries, or required on specific types of machines, it…
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Today’s maintenance personnel are tasked to do more in less time so production can resume as soon as possible. As such, aligners of rotating machinery may believe they are saving…
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* Picture courtesy of V-Tek Associates, http://www.vtekassociates.com/ Practice and repetition are key components to becoming good at anything. Precision shaft alignment is no different. It is a rare day when an…
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In mechanical trades, most of us have been taught that most installed machines must be installed level and the bases must be flat. But contrary to what many of us…
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One of the great things about being out and about with other shaft alignment professionals is seeing how they get work done. Two recent shaft alignment training classes had some…
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The inclinometers in a laser alignment system work against gravity in the horizontal plane for a typical horizontal shaft alignment. When performing a vertical shaft alignment, the process will be…
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Back around 1982, when I made my first forays from machinist into mechanical maintenance, I remember hearing about coupling alignment while working at a now-defunct rope factory in North Carolina.…
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