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 […]

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 […]

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

By Michael Keohane on May 10, 2017

Knowing the correct shaft speed of both shafts on a belt-driven machine is important when performing machinery diagnostics. Ideally you would do this by first identifying the input and output speeds using a strobe light, photo tach or laser tach. Once you know the accurate speed of both components, use this formula to determine the […]

condition monitoring| machinery diagnostics| machinery vibration| ONEPROD Hawk| predictive maintenance

By Mac MacCormack on February 21, 2017

Predictive Maintenance, also known as Condition Based Maintenance or affectionately known as “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” also has its own set of pro’s and con’s. The pro’s: Rotating equipment usually gives warning signs before failure. Vibration level or pattern changes, rise in temperature, wear detected via oil analysis, performance change, motor current […]

machinery diagnostics| machinery vibration| maintenance reliability| ONEPROD Hawk

By James Pekarek on February 15, 2017

So you received your new OneProd HAWK Supervisor or HAWK Supervisor with Balancing.  There are some steps to follow to insure your instrument is configured correctly. Nest Set-up:  You will need to make sure you are using only Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 (or higher) for the first connection and you will need to download MS […]

condition monitoring| machinery diagnostics| maintenance reliability| Preventive maintance| troubleshooting

By Mac MacCormack on February 1, 2017

Preventive Maintenance, also known as planned maintenance, scheduled maintenance, calendar based maintenance, historical maintenance, etc. has its own set of pro’s and con’s. The theory is machinery has a life cycle. The probability of failure increases as the machine ages so maintenance needs to be performed prior to failure to extend its life and avoid […]

bearing failures| condition monitoring| machinery diagnostics| realigning America

By Mac MacCormack on January 4, 2017

In the current highly competitive global economy we live in, there is always a drive to get the competitive edge. One way is to develop a maintenance strategy that will improve safety, meet production goals, increase uptime, increase plant efficiency and thus increase plant profitability. There are four basic maintenance strategies: Breakdown Maintenance Preventive Maintenance […]

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 […]

machinery diagnostics| ONEPROD Hawk

By The VibrAlign Blog on September 14, 2016

VibrAlign Inc. announces the HAWK Pump Challenge.  The Challenge is designed to expose mechanics and reliability personnel to modern machinery diagnostics by applying the HAWK’s built-in automatic diagnostic software to analyze their most troublesome pump. When machinery mechanics or reliability personnel sign up for the HAWK Pump Challenge they will be contacted to set up […]

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 […]

angular misalignment| condition monitoring| machinery diagnostics| machinery vibration| ONEPROD Hawk

By Steve Matthews on July 27, 2016

This is a subject that comes up relatively frequently with our customers and observations from the field.  The purpose of today’s blog post is to illustrate what can and often does happen.  While misalignment can and does present with easily identifiable vibration signals; often it does not.  Misalignment may be present in a machine, developing […]

condition monitoring| machinery diagnostics| machinery vibration| misalignment| soft foot

By Mac MacCormack on July 15, 2016

Although shaft distortion due to misalignment affects more than just the electric motor, here are a few things that are a telltale signs you may have an alignment issue. In a perfectly straight shaft, the centers of each shaft cross-section from end-to-end of the shaft lie on a straight line. A shaft is bent if […]

angular misalignment| bearing failures| machinery diagnostics| offset misalignment

By Tom Shelton on June 29, 2016

With the availability and decreasing prices of technology to help diagnose rotating machinery health, machine failure should be a diminishing concern. Thermal imaging cameras can be expensive, however these cameras have very detailed diagnostic abilities and high resolution. Reduced cost Thermal Imaging has recently become available through various sources. I recently purchased an infrared camera […]

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 […]