Alignment Procedure When we perform alignment on any machine, we should all follow the set procedure, a simple and effective procedure for doing shaft alignment. First we perform the Pre-Alignment Checks; • Safety procedures • Lockout/tag out of the machine • Visual inspection of the foundation, ground and baseplate • Clean-up, remove rust, scale, paint…
Backlash – Coupling What is backlash? Backlash in unintended movement that occurs when rotating the shafts during an alignment. It is most often caused by looseness in the coupling. Backlash is most often caused by looseness in the coupling. On misaligned machines, backlash can cause measurements error. In order to eliminate measurement errors, backlash must…
Coupling Types On the basis of shaft alignment. Couplings can be classified into two types; Rigid Coupling Flexible Coupling Rigid Coupling It is used to connect two shafts having no misalignment, ideally co-axial shaft. They are further classified into following types; Sleeve or Muff Coupling Clamp or Compression Coupling Flange Coupling Sleeve Coupling is one of…
Effects of Misalignment Five most common negative effects misalignment can have on your machinery. Seal Failure: Mechanical seals are very expensive, and when one fails, fluid leaks can adversely affect other machine components. Bearing Failure: In addition to the replacement cost of bearings, you can also suffer damage to other components, with an even…
Lift Check Used to detect excessive bearing clearances. If the shaft “lifts”, it can mean the bearings are defective. As bearings wear, internal clearances gets larger which can cause erroneous shaft alignment readings. A lift check is one way to test for excessive clearances. Using a magnetic bracket, mount the dial indicator to read off…
Shaft Alignment – Dial Indicator Fig. 1 Dial Indicator Dial indicator is a valuable tool and can be used for variety of applications. Most common application is measuring shaft alignment. Working Mechanism: The dial indicator uses a precisely geared mechanism that is driven by a plunger to measure thousands of an inch. We will…
Soft Foot What is Soft Foot? “When one or two machine feet are not in the same plane as the other feet.” Soft foot is a major problem. One that can make a 30 minute alignment take hours or even days sometimes so it is a big source of frustration in the alignment process. You can…
Proactive Maintenance Proactive maintenance is an attempt to anticipate problems and resolve them before they become problem. It is also an attempt to design problems out or remove the root causes of problems. We can say that being proactive is a general approach that consist of wide variety of practices and strategies and utilizes various…