A Pump Tale: Misalignment Exposed

Angular Misalignment from video by Acoem USA Offset & Angularity

Vibration data was taken on a motor/pump during initial training on the Acoem Falcon. This pump was chosen based on history and a visual inspection. The visual inspection pointed towards a potential misalignment issue.   Misalignment Diagnosis The Accurex software in the Falcon diagnosed misalignment. This was confirmed by the Acoem EVO laser alignment tool.…

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Gearboxes – Know your Machines

Gearboxes are used in numerous applications, including machine tools, industrial equipment, conveyor belt drives, and just about any power transmission application with rotary motion that requires a change in torque and/or speed. Output speed and torque are always going to be in contrast to each other – if you use a gearbox to increase the…

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Keep It Simple: Common Vibration Problems to Master

Over the years when training “new” vibration analysts, I stress for them to keep it simple. Many analysts believe that you must review time waveform data to analyze all machinery problems. This is not true. However, some problems are impossible to diagnose without it.   Common Machinery Problems in Industry A majority of plant machinery…

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Good Vibration Data vs Bad Vibration Data

Good and bad data from an industrial machine.

It is important in vibration analysis to know whether the vibration data you are looking at is actually “good data”. Below is a review of the causes and symptoms of junk data, as well as some tips to improve data quality overall in the future.   Reasons for Bad Data A poor electrical connection is…

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Performing Shaft Alignment on a Caterpillar!

Maintenance worker looks at 1000 hp Caterpillar engine attached to a pump in an industrial setting.

Aligning motors to pumps, fans, compressors, etc., it’s what we do. But occasionally we get to assist a customer perform some real “millwright” work! Case in point – a 1000HP Caterpillar engine, driving a backup floodwater pump for a large municipality in the southeast US. This pump is critical to prevent flood water from mixing…

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Static, Couple, and Dynamic Unbalance

According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), unbalance is “that condition which exists in a rotor when the vibratory force or motion is imparted to bearings as a result of centrifugal forces”. In other words, unbalance is an unequal weight distribution of a rotor around its rotating centerline. The rotating centerline or rotational axis…

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Using a Strobe Light to Verify RPM

Knowing the correct rotational speed is critical when performing machinery diagnostics. A strobe light can be an excellent tool for determining speed. Look for a unique mark such as a keyway, piece of tape, etc. to use as a reference. You will adjust the flash rate of the strobe light until you only see one…

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How Vibration is Measured (Cont.): Vibration Level Charts, ISO Values, and More

In Part 1 of How Vibration is Measured, we discussed how equipment vibration is measured.  An accelerometer mounted to a machine bearing vibrates.  This vibration in the accelerometer produces a voltage.  The amount of movement of the accelerometer determines the amount of voltage, and the severity.  The frequency of the voltage (how many times per…

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Using the Acoem Bearing Defender as a Lubrication Tool

Co-author, Stan Riddle. Lubricating bearings on a regular PM schedule has some inherent problems-mainly, how do you know if a bearing needs lubricating or not?  If the bearing seal is not compromised, grease should stay in the bearing, and provide lubrication for a long time.  But if the seal is blown, the bearing will require…

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Root Causes of Machinery Failure

As maintenance and reliability professionals we have a tremendous responsibility to keep the machines in our facilities up and running. As the entire world navigates through this pandemic, water, power, food, medicine and many other essentials have continued to be provided. Having the necessary skills and knowledge is critical to ensuring that we are able…

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Double or Tandem Mechanical Seal?

  Although it is not the millwright or mechanics responsibility to specify mechanical seal applications, it is a good idea to have a basic understanding of their purpose. This blog will give the basics of double and tandem mechanical seals. The double mechanical seal uses two mechanical seals (an inboard and outboard seal). They can…

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Pre-Alignment with the RT-300

ACOEM-VibrAlign has shared over 100 separate blog posts and over 1 million YouTube views on Pre-Alignment. Thus, we can all agree it is an important topic and the key to a successful precision shaft alignment job. No matter if you are using a Straight Edge, Dial Indicators, or the latest and greatest Laser Shaft Alignment…

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Generating Global and Special Reports in the NEST

Once you have moved your data back into the Nest, after a Route has been collected, you may want to provide a report or reports to different parts of an organization. The Nest has several ways of generating a couple different types of custom reports. For your discussion we will focus on a global report…

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Identify Gaps in Knowledge with the Smart Machine Checker!

At a recent Fixturlaser Smart Machine Checker (SMC) training class, one particular pump came up during the discussions. This pump has been “a problem child” for years. It had been rebuilt recently by one of the class attendees. The mechanic had rebuilt the pump “just as it had come apart” and was certain the impeller…

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Mechanical Looseness Identification

A common vibration signature on equipment is looseness. There are two types of looseness: structural/fastener, fit between rotating components. For this discussion, we will focus on structural and fastener looseness.  Typically, it is highly directional, occurs at 1xRPM, and will look similar to this spectrum. In this case, the vibration was confined to the vertical…

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