Vibralign Blog

Balancing| condition monitoring| machinery diagnostics| ONEPROD Hawk| rotor unbalance| unbalance

By Stan Riddle on June 20, 2017

Electric motors are almost always well-balanced when they leave the motor manufacturer.  But occasionally, motor unbalance problems are picked up with vibration monitoring tools, such as the OneProd Hawk. Here are some easy troubleshooting methods to determine the cause of unbalance in the motor. An electric motor’s rotor, like any rotating mass, cannot become out […]

bearing failures| flexible couplings| Laser Shaft Alignment| Pre-Alignment| Precision Shaft Alignment| roughing in

By Stan Riddle on June 1, 2017

Some people believe that precision laser shaft alignment has evolved to the point where pre-alignment steps, such as roughing in the alignment with a straightedge, are no longer needed.  Well, quite frankly, those people are wrong! The reason for roughing in the alignment has little to do with how accurately the lasers/sensors measure.  It has […]

condition monitoring| Hawk| machinery diagnostics| machinery vibration| ONEPROD Hawk| Vibration Analysis

By Stan Riddle on May 25, 2017

Gearboxes are common in industry.  They are used to increase or decrease speed from the driver, provide increased torque, and change direction of power transmission.   There are two main types of commonly-used gearboxes:   GEARBOX TYPE Parallel or Standard Gearbox-one where the input and output shafts are parallel. Bevel or Right Angle Gearbox-one where […]

"precision alignment"| "shaft alignment targets"| dial indicator alignment| Precision Shaft Alignment| troubleshooting

By Stan Riddle on April 27, 2017

A VibrAlign customer recently called, stating they were having repeatability problems with aligning a small motor to gearbox to pump.  After some phone conversation, I asked if they could send me photos of the machine, and the discrepancy in the measurements.  After seeing them, I knew what the problem was.   Machines with small diameter […]

coupling failures| coupling insert| Couplings| elastomer couplings| maintenance reliability

By Stan Riddle on March 30, 2017

In industry, many couplings utilize an elastomeric insert or element.  This type of coupling has many advantages, among them: Ease of replacement Ability to absorb torsional loading No need for lubrication Tolerant of slight amounts of misalignment Inexpensive It is important to remember that even though these elastomer couplings can be tolerant of misalignment, the […]

bearing failures| Couplings| flexible couplings| maintenance reliability| mechanical seals| Precision Maintenance| Precision Shaft Alignment| seal failures

By Stan Riddle on March 8, 2017

    At VibrAlign, we are in the precision maintenance business.  Our tools, our training, and our people, are all about precision maintenance.  While teaching the field alignment portion of our shaft alignment training, at a customer site, we went out to align a particularly troublesome pump.  They didn’t think they were getting the life […]

micrometer| precut shims| realigning America| shim stack| soft foot| troubleshooting

By Stan Riddle on January 18, 2017

I am going to pass along to you a gift – one that I believe could potentially cut your alignment times-maybe by more than half!  One that could lessen loosening and tightening bolts, reduce frustration, and increase your “alignment” confidence substantially!  Would you like such a gift? Well, here it is – measure your shim […]

angular misalignment| bearing failures| offset misalignment| shaft alignment tolerances| uncoupled alignment

By Stan Riddle on December 28, 2016

These types of couplings are quite common in industry, and there are various companies producing similar types of couplings.  They are capable of transmitting large amounts of torque in a reasonably small space.  They also do not require lubrication, and are quite easy to install, in most circumstances.  These attributes make them quite desirable in […]

angular misalignment| base-bound/bolt-bound solutions| Laser Shaft Alignment| offset and angularity| offset misalignment| Precision Shaft Alignment

By Stan Riddle on December 2, 2016

Most aligners are familiar with a bolt bound situation, which occurs when the motor cannot be moved enough to achieve proper horizontal alignment.  A base bound condition occurs when a motor cannot be lowered sufficiently to achieve proper vertical alignment.  Here is an example.  During a customer’s recent pump replacement, the motor was left in […]

condition monitoring| machinery diagnostics| machinery vibration

By Stan Riddle on September 15, 2016

Resonance is when a force causes an object to “resonate”, due to excitation of its natural frequency.  Think of a machine coasting down to a stop.  There are certain speeds in coasting down that excite natural frequencies of the machine components.  This is often observed in the coast down of a bench grinder.  As the […]

realigning America| shim stack| shims

By Stan Riddle on September 1, 2016

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 […]

bearing failures| condition monitoring| machinery diagnostics| machinery vibration| ONEPROD Hawk

By Stan Riddle on August 3, 2016

Mechanical looseness is a very common machine vibration diagnosis.  It is often overused-becoming a “catch all” category for undiagnosed vibration.  It can be caused by a multitude of things that may seem to have no relationship to each other, such as:   Loose bolting                                               Coupling looseness or backlash Belts Too Loose                                           Cracked welds Improper bearing […]

bearing failures| bearings| condition monitoring| machinery diagnostics| machinery vibration

By Stan Riddle on June 6, 2016

  In industrial machinery, the centerpiece of vibration analysis is the ability to detect bearing problems BEFORE the bearing fails.  Even more beneficial is detecting the root cause of a bearing problem before damage is done. The bearing really is the heart of the rotating machine.  There’s a plethora of bearing types and designs. There […]

machinery diagnostics| machinery vibration| Vibration Analysis

By Stan Riddle on May 18, 2016

LUBRICATION Lubrication is sometimes incorrectly thought of as a job for unskilled workers, apprentices, or operators.  When I hear a maintenance person say, “I’m just an oiler”, I cringe a bit. Proper lubrication methods, formulations, quantities, and procedures are essential to machine reliability. A machine can no more do without lubrication than it can do […]

Balancing| Laser Shaft Alignment| realigning America| troubleshooting| vibration

By Stan Riddle on March 24, 2016

Unbalance is another common machinery vibration problem.  Unbalance is the uneven distribution of mass around a rotating axis. Any rotating machine can have an unbalance problem, not just fans.  It is important to note that once rotating machinery components are balanced, they should stay balanced until something changes.  These changes are normally: Dirt, paint, or […]