In this situation, there is little or no room to mount the laser sensors to the motor and pump. What would you do? You could remove the entire coupling and do an “uncoupled alignment”. Or, be creative… Remove ½ the flexible coupling. Then mount…
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The belly of your electric motor that is! During the OJT portion of a training class, at an Omaha NE client, I ran into a most extreme case of soft foot. The customer told me they had a motor/pump set that they could not align no matter what. This was a 100 HP electric motor…
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Here’s the formula for better dial indicator alignments: Fixurlaser Dials App + Fixturlaser Dial Indicator Kit + Instructional Video Earlier this year we introduced the Free Fixturlaser Dials App. The app was designed to walk the user through the reverse rim alignment process using dial indicators. We are also now offering a new Dial Indicator…
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According to our resident alignment training “philosopher” Stan Riddle, “The fastest way to complete a precision shaft alignment is to take your time”. This doesn’t mean to take numerous breaks, what he is telling us is to stop and think! As Industrial Mechanics, usually in a production environment, we tend to try and complete a…
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One of the frequent questions that we are asked is “Where do I mount the sensors?” The answer is that you must mount them to the rotating elements of the driver and driven machine in a location that provides a solid footing for whatever mounting apparatus you need to use. The sensors also must have…
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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…
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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…
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VibrAlign released the free Laser-Dials App to aid laser system users who need/want to convert their laser shaft alignment system results to rim and face dial indicator readings. You can also use the App to convert dial indicator readings to laser readings. Most are interested in converting laser results to dials so that is what…
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No, it is not the place where good shaft alignments get lost – never to be seen again! It is a way of thinking about locating machinery feet so that the shafts are in alignment, even when the feet of the moveable machine may be a few thousandths up, down, left, or right of perfect. …
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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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Recently a customer contacted us about increased vibration on a motor, due to a broken washer. And they wanted to know if there was a specification for washer hardness, and a guide for bolt size to washer size. There are many standards for bolting (USS, SAE, ASME, etc.), of which, washers are an important part. …
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On rotating machinery, runout is defined as the degree to which a shaft or coupling deviates from true circular rotation. Every shaft or coupling has a center or rotation, or centerline. Any stray from concentricity is considered runout. If runout is severe, it can cause many problems with equipment, such as: Excess vibration Seal wear…
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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.…
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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 training class at a new facility in Indiana, the class wanted to check alignment of a recently installed circulating pump. Their response was, “It’s brand new, so it must be aligned, right?”. To which I responded, “I’ll bet it isn’t”. Here are the alignment results as we found it. For an 1800…
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