Coupling manufacturers have an “acceptable” misalignment tolerance range that is typically much greater than precision shaft alignment tolerances. Why is that? Because flexible couplings are designed to allow for incidental movement of machines during operation. Seal manufacturers have very tight tolerances for allowable misalignment. Why? Because of how they seal. Typical mechanical seals have mating…
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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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Taking the ONEPROD Falcon to the field is a big part of the 2-day training we provide on our entire Falcon line of condition monitoring tools. When we go to the field we always find interesting issues to analyze and discuss. A recent check of a centrifugal pump yielded one of those issues. The pump…
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In a previous blog I wrote in Jan of 2016 “Soft Foot Concerns in the Stationary Machine?” soft foot in the pump was causing repeatability issues during a precision shaft alignment. https://acoem.us/other-topics/soft-foot-concerns-stationary-machine/ Soft foot can also distort the pump casing which can change clearances within the casing. This can shorten the life of the…
Read MoreAt 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…
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As a Millwright, Service Technician or any type of field or in-house Mechanic, we understand there is one main goal that we have in common, which is to keep the equipment running. This includes repairing and minimizing downtime in the event of an unpredicted failure or breakdown. Although it’s important to make repairs and perform…
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One of the common misconceptions in industry is that precision shaft alignment is not needed when using flexible couplings. Studies have show that nearly 50% of all machine breakdowns is due to misalignment. So what happens to misaligned machines? Check out the recently added video to the VibrAlign You Tube Channel titled “5 Effects of…
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