One of the most enjoyable parts of precision shaft alignment training for me as a trainer, is the field portion. This provides the opportunity to build confidence that what the students learn in the classroom, really works in the field!
In a recent Fixturlaser GO Basic class, the decision was made to align two recently installed rebuilt centrifugal overhung pumps.
An attempt was made to align these prior to training, however there were repeatability issues which made the alignment process frustrating and taking an excessive amount of time.
Before checking the alignment, their reliability department wanted before and after vibration readings of the motor/pump set. These were simply overall velocity readings in IPS (inches per second). The before vibration readings showed an overall velocity vibration of 0.25 IPS. This doesn’t necessarily verify a misalignment issue but may point in that direction so the alignment was checked. The initial alignment results did indeed show significant misalignment. Therefore, a precision shaft alignment was performed.
Here is the enjoyable part.
After having a day of alignment training and understanding the causes of alignment frustration and taking care of “The Little Things” that can cause it, they completed a precision shaft alignment in about 30 minutes’ start to finish.
The vibration level was rechecked. The overall vibration reading dropped to 0.06 IPS, that’s a 76% reduction in the overall IPS! Well within the unrestricted operation range based on ISO 10816-3.
There were a couple other things I noticed that would likely have improved the readings further, perhaps another blog article. Are you monitoring the health of your rotating machinery? If not, we can help.
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