shims Archives - Acoem USA

“Mic” Your Shims Before Alignment!

stack of shims

Have you ever added the number of shims your laser alignment tool or dial indicator tells you to during an alignment only to find your machine is still out of alignment? This is a frustrating but common occurrence. Was it a calculation error or did your alignment tool give you the wrong measurement? More than…

Pay Me Now, or Pay Me Later!

Years ago, an automotive oil filter company’s ad campaign, capitalized on the phrase “pay me now, or pay me later”. The premise was that you could pay less upfront for an inferior oil filter, and then pay again because the oil filter would fail, and your vehicle’s engine would require an overhaul. Or, you could…

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…

Installation Errors Part 2 – Shims and Shim Handling

The difference between luck and success is this; Luck is when you achieve a desired result despite mistakes made along the way. Success is when you follow a known process to achieve the expected result. When attempting a precision shaft alignment, precise practices must be followed. One thing for certain in precision alignment is the…

Challenging, But Not Impossible!

As we trainers travel around the country conducting precision shaft alignment training, we often run into some fairly harsh work environments during the field portion of the training. At times the equipment that needs to be aligned is caked in product from spills or leaks. This can create a significant challenge when attempting a precision…

Do’s and Dont’s of Proper Shim and Tool Storage

SHIM STORAGE & USAGE: Shims are an integral part of obtaining precision shaft alignment in an efficient manner. Only new, clean shims should be used. The cost of new shims is minimal when compared to the cost of extra downtime caused by an inefficient precision alignment process. Proper choice, use and storage of shims is…

Save Time. Save Money.

Time is a commodity maintenance personnel typically have in short supply. We hear quite often, in our on-site Shaft Alignment Best Practices training classes, “………. doesn’t give us enough time for a proper shaft alignment”. So how can maintenance personnel get more time for shaft alignment? Stop wasting it! I had the pleasure of working…

Shim Safety

We recently received a customer request about shim safety. An employee at the customer site had experienced a “near miss” safety issue due to walking too closely to a machine, and getting their clothes caught against a shim. Since I have a scar on my right thumb caused by a 3 mil shim, I thought…

Short-cuts, a way to make Precision Shaft Alignment take longer.

I love my job, I love conducting precision shaft alignment training at various facilities across this great country and interacting with industrial maintenance technicians that have suffered through or are suffering through the same issues I did. I love proving over and over again that the VibrAlign method of precision shaft alignment is the best…

Soft Foot And The Dirt That Causes It

While on the road for VibrAlign ReAligning America, we trainers encounter similar issues at every facility where we conduct our Shaft Alignment Best Practices Training. During our training classes we ask the students what are some of the “pains” that they have regarding the precision shaft alignments that they have attempted in the past. The…

Don’t Overlook “Hidden Shims” Under the Feet!

A recent Fixturlaser EVO class performed an alignment check on a 35HP, 1750 RPM electric motor and chill water pump set. The initial set of alignment results indicated horrible angular misalignment (14 to 16 times tolerance) and offset misalignment (6 to 8 times tolerance) in the vertical and horizontal planes. Before making corrections, pre-alignment checks…

Why Do People Struggle with Alignment? – Part 2

In my previous blog entry “Why do people struggle with alignment? Part 1”, we discussed the importance of not only micing, cleaning, and consolidating shims but also noting the total amount of shims under each foot of the movable machine. The motor-pump set we performed an alignment check on, had the following amount of shims…

Why do people struggle with alignment? Part 1

After a shaft alignment check, if it’s out of tolerance, some maintenance personnel will skip the pre-alignment checks and proceed directly to correcting the vertical and horizontal misalignment. Frustration begins to set in as the alignment results go back and forth and seem inconsistent. The laser shaft alignment instrument says to add 20 mils to the…

“MIC” Your Shims!

Has this ever happened to you? You’re aligning a machine and your laser alignment system or dial indicator calculations tell you to add shims under the motor feet. You do what is expected, re-measure and you still have to add shims! Wonder why? I’ve heard it before, my laser doesn’t work or you calculated wrong.…

The Tools of the Precision Shaft Alignment Trade

Efficiency is a critical element in today’s maintenance environment. In every aspect of maintenance, the right tools are necessary to complete a job quickly and efficiently. When performing precision shaft alignments in the field, there are tools that are typical to almost every job. Aside from the tools that are included in the case with…