We at VibrAlign love educating folks on the benefits of shaft alignment. Twice last month, Lev Nelik (aka Dr. Pump) of Pumping Machinery invited Mike Keohane of VibrAlign to speak on the virtues of shaft alignment and how it improves pump reliability. Dr. Nelik is a world renowned expert on all things pumps. He is published many times over and writes every month in Pumps and Systems magazine. If you don’t already receive it you can check it out online at Pumps & Systems.
Class topics included essential prealignment checks, rim and face and reverse dial indicator methodology and laser alignment. Students learned how to handle base-bound and bolt-bound situations, how to compensate for off-line to running movement (OL2R) as well as how to read alignment reports. Classes were walked through the simple steps of measuring and correcting shaft misalignment with both a Fixturlaser GO Pro and Fixturlaser XA Pro. In addition to the classroom exercise, students had the opportunity to align a 2000 HP split case horizontal pump that Dr. Nelik has in his shop. They quickly realized that measuring and getting results is only the beginning of the shaft alignment process and that the real work starts when you have to move the machines around. Students quickly saw the advantage of the true position sensors and the Verti-Zontal compound move. Photos of the event in early June can be seen here. The event in late June can be seen here.
We look forward to working with Dr. Pump again at the 8th Annual PumpTec Conference in Atlanta this September.
