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Balance Your Couplings

Balancing your couplings is not essential to a great precision shaft alignment, though it is an essential part of a job well done. As part of your prealignment steps/checks, the keyways of the driver and driven machine shafts should be set 180 degrees apart from each other. This will help to correct any influence that…

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Broken Washers Can Cause Headaches!

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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Coupling or Shaft Runout

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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“MIC” Your Shims!

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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It’s Brand New, So It MUST Be Aligned, Right?

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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Start Low to Use All of the Sensor/Detector Range

During a recent cooling tower shaft alignment, using a Fixturlaser XA Alignment System, when we started taking our initial set of measurements the laser beam went slightly off the “S” sensor detector, even in 60 degrees of rotation. Normally when the laser beam travels off the detector I use the laser beam, to perform the…

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How to Minimize the Effects of Coupling Backlash when Measuring Misalignment.

Certain types of flexible couplings are designed to have looseness creating coupling backlash.  Even when installed correctly!  Looseness from coupling backlash, if not controlled, will have a negative effect on measurement quality by increasing measurement error and the amount of time it takes to do a precision shaft alignment.  So, how can coupling backlash be…

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The Tools of the Precision Shaft Alignment Trade

Efficiency is a critical element in today’s maintenance environment. In every aspect of maintenance, the right tools are necessary to complete a job quickly and efficiently. When performing precision shaft alignments in the field, there are tools that are typical to almost every job. Aside from the tools that are included in the case with…

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IS VIBRATION INTERFERING WITH YOUR PRECISION SHAFT ALIGNMENT?

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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IT’S HAS TO BE ALIGNABLE!

One of the issues precision shaft alignment technicians face is whether a machine is alignable. There will be times that a machine cannot be aligned in its current condition. A recent Fixturlaser GO Basic training class ran into this issue when performing alignment checks on 4 small centrifugal pumps.  All pumps had 10 HP electric…

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Got Alignment Problems? Just Let Us Know!

VibrAlign’s Shaft Alignment Training is the best in the industry.  We not only train maintenance personnel on how to use our tools – we teach alignment!  Lots of it!  We teach correcting soft foot, bolt bound problems, pipe strain, coupling problems – real world stuff. Our training staff has about one hundred combined years of…

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Sof Shoe® Shims

Soft foot is undoubtedly the number one challenge faced on an everyday basis in precision shaft alignment.  The concept is simple enough; make sure the machine feet rest flat on the base. Unfortunately, it is not always so simple to solve. Before sitting down to write this, I noted there are 17 articles posted on…

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The Devil is in the Details!

During the field alignment portion of a Fixturlaser GO Basic shaft alignment training class, we were attempting to align a 100 H.P., 3600 RPM  motor to a double suction pump. Sounds easy enough! Here’s the skinny… The pump and motor were the top set in a vertical, two unit skid made of I-beams and very…

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Non-Repeatability, a Little Movement can Cause a Lot of Headaches!

A recent Fixturlaser GO Basic Training class performed a field alignment on a 100 HP, 3 Phase, 5600 RPM electric motor coupled to a crude oil pump in a refinery.  The class decided it would be permissible to use the 3600 RPM setting in GO Basic active tolerance table, which is +/- 0.5 mils/1” angular…

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What Size Shims Should I Use?

One of my co-workers recently fielded a call from a customer, asking, “What is the proper way to size shims under motor feet?”  In other words, if the foot is 6 by 4 inches square, how big should the shim be? Excellent question!  And one I wasn’t sure how to answer.  I have always tried…

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