When more than four feet are on the movable machine, it is necessary to shim under the additional feet. How do we determine what amount of shim is required to properly support these feet? This is debatable. Some would say that it is necessary to calculate the needed shims. Others might say “Why bother?…
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There are many pump types, sizes and applications. Positive displacement: gear, screw, progressive cavity, lobe, peristaltic, diaphragm, Velocity: radial & axial flow, mixed flow, educator, etc. With all the various pump types, sizes and applications it would be quite the feat to list the exact cost for each one in this blog. I will leave…
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The world of machinery maintenance continues to grow with reliability and technology at the forefront of the majority of today’s maintenance programs. The mechanics toolbox must change to support these changes. Computer based manuals and programs were the first step into “the future” of machine maintenance. Now smart phones and tablets have more memory available…
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Recently while visiting a client’s site, we were asked for alignment advice regarding an electric motor coupled to a mixer. The customer shared that the electric motor sat upon an adjustable base plate with adjustment bolts (jack bolts) in the vertical and horizontal planes. Despite the base plate having vertical jack bolts, VibrAlign’s typical…
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Another video in VibrAlign’s “Concepts of Shaft Alignment” video series is titled “Bearing Clearances” The video illustrates radial and axial bearing clearances which can affect the precision shaft alignment process. The video was based on ideas for visualizing alignment created by David Zdrojewski, CEO of VibrAlign. According to Zdrojewski, “One of my passions is…
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The night before the OJT portion of a recent Fixturlaser GO Pro Training class, at a Combined Cycle Power Plant, the shim packs of the disc type coupling between a 3300 HP electric motor and fluid drive began to fail. The machine was shut down before any damage could occur and was waiting for our…
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During the OJT portion of a Fixturlaser NXA Pro training class, at a power plant, the students asked me to allow them to perform the precision laser shaft alignment of a 75 HP electric motor to pump without interrupting them or offering any advice. I obliged and let them go on their way. The first…
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While assisting a recent Fixturlaser NXA Training Class with a precision shaft alignment we came across an unusual alignment challenge. When tightening the hold down bolts, after making a Verti-Zontal Compound MoveTM, we were seeing insignificant amounts of horizontal movement at the motor feet but nothing unusual. However, upon rechecking the alignment, we were out of…
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I recently took a call from a customer at a coal-fired power plant in Arkansas. He was performing a precision laser shaft alignment of a 450 HP, 1750 RPM electric motor coupled by a fluid drive coupling to a gearbox on a coal conveyor. Similar to the one pictured above. This conveyor is one of…
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During a recent Fixturlaser GO Pro Training class, at a mid-west university, we performed a shaft alignment on a large Flowserve HVAC pump with a 500 HP electric motor. This motor was large enough that multiple people could work on both sides without really seeing each other. Well, that proved to be an issue with…
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During a recent Fixturlaser XA Pro training class, at a Texas petrochemical plant, we were performing an alignment on a 25 HP, 3600 RPM electric motor & water pump. At first the class was having a little trouble bringing the alignment into the 3600 tolerance due to two separate issues. The first was severe vibration…
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Previous blogs have discussed several different solutions for solving Base Bound & Bolt Bound conditions when preforming precision laser shaft alignment (Base/Bound Math and Solving Base/Bound Alignment Alignment Problems). Sometimes though, the solution for a Bolt Bound issue is fairly straight forward and what you need to do is right in front of your eyes…
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During our Best Alignment Practices Training classes our staff of VibrAlign Trainers stresses the importance of rough aligning the machines as part of the pre-alignment steps. The main reason to do so is to minimize the coupling influences on the movable and stationary machine’s rotational shaft center-lines so the final alignment can be completed with…
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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. In this scenario and all alignment jobs, Pre-Alignment is a MUST! I was asked to witness an alignment; a 400 HP motor driving a sludge…
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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 knowingly leave a machine slightly misaligned for the short-term until other corrections can be made to the equipment to get it to an “alignable” condition.…
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