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IS ROUGH ALIGNMENT NEEDED FOR
SHAFT ALIGNMENT?
September 7, 2021
In general, laser shaft alignment systems have increased
the ability to eliminate misalignment defects. There are
many systems on the market, with varying capabilities, but
the core benefit has been that the computer and laser
work together to create an alignment report that can be
used to assess and determine corrective action.
With advances in the interface and measurement
technology, the skill required to take measurements has
been reduced when compared to older methods, such as
dial indicators. Thus, more users can perform the job with
less training for the task of gathering the measurements.
Unfortunately, this convenience has in some cases
resulted in the good practices of the fundamentals of shaft
alignment falling by the wayside, given the perceived ease
of use. It has gone so far that some systems have
marketed the idea that alignment can be done faster and
in fewer and fewer steps to the point of rough alignment
not even being necessary!
IS ROUGH ALIGNMENT NOT NECESSARY?!?!
The claim is that if the laser can measure the misalignment
without the laser going outside the detector, the alignment
can be determined and the entire correction is done once.
Anyone who has done at least one alignment in the field
knows that this is far from the truth as you can’t escape
physics in shaft alignment.
Depending on the setup, dial indicators could measure far
more misalignment than a laser setup. Let’s say you had a
situation where the indicators showed 300 thou
misalignment. If you performed the right calculation
would you expect to move the machine one time and get it
within tolerance? Absolutely not! The reason is that the
two shafts would be so strained as to the force required to
bring the machines back together, that the coupling would
be impossible to install, the shaft would deflect, and the
forces would cause incorrect soft foot measurements.
Again, you can’t escape physics.
The solution is to rough align the machine! It’s a best
practice as per our field-proven 5-Step Shaft Alignment
Procedure, which applies to all shaft alignment tools.
WHAT ABOUT MEASURING SEVERE OUT-OF-
ALIGNMENT CONDITIONS WITH A LASER
ALIGNMENT SYSTEM?
First of all, if you are aligning an existing machine that has
been running and did not experience a failure, I will give
the previous alignment technician the benefit of the doubt
that it was not severely out of alignment, and 99% of the
time, you will not encounter the laser going out of the
detector.
Second, if it is a rough alignment there is a chance it could
move out of alignment for any laser shaft alignment
system, single or dual beam. In rough alignment, you will
typically align with a straight edge and most likely be
within laser detector range to get an approximate set of
readings. In one case, I checked the rough alignment of
the machine with a 27-foot separation between machines
(shown below.)
The lasers moved 8″ from the detector on both sides.
Regardless of whether you had a single beam or a dual-
beam system, there is no system on the market with a
detector that is 8″ in size to handle this rough alignment,
nor is it necessary, provided you have a dual laser beam
type laser alignment system.
HOW DO YOU ROUGH ALIGN WITH A LASER
ALIGNMENT SYSTEM?
Fortunately, I used the Easy-Laser XT770 which features a
dual laser configuration. Using a process called “coning” I
was able to rotate both shafts from 90 to 270 degrees,
move lasers to the middle of travel and then use them as a
visual indicator to align the machines until both lasers hit
the center of both detectors. In one vertical and
horizontal movement, like magic, the axes of rotation were
rough aligned. The millwrights on hand were amazed at
how quick, efficient and intuitive this method was – which
can only be done with a dual laser alignment system. This
means the machines were roughly aligned 27 feet apart
without dealing with a complicated movement of the laser
during measurement as the single laser systems require.
We were then able to do a full 360-degree measurement,
get the values, and start the alignment corrections and
finish the alignment as per the 5-Step shaft alignment
procedure.
Related Blog: Benefits of Performing a Rough or Initial
Soft Foot in an Overall Alignment Procedure
by Diana Pereda
WHAT IS MACHINE TRAIN
ALIGNMENT AND HOW IMPORTANT IS
IT? PART 3
August 31, 2021
We welcome you to read the previous blog in this
series, “What is Machine Train Alignment and How Important
Is It? Part 2”
ANALYSIS 2: THE REFERENCE MACHINE IN THE TRAIN
CANNOT BE MOVED
Now we have to face the situation of the big 172 mils
moves at DF2, Compressor 3 back foot. For this, we are
going to make use of the XT770 Adjustment Guide to
predict what will be the minimum moves needed at
Compressors 1, 2, and 3 to get the misalignment to
excellent tolerances.
Here is a brief description of what is the Adjustment
Guide and how it works:
It is Firmware utility built into the Easy-Laser XT770
alignment system to aid the aligner to predict what will be
the minimum moves or shim changes required to align all
the machines in the train to get the alignment at each
coupling within tolerance when there are limitations to
adjustment such as when Machine 1 cannot be moved in a
3-or more machine train. Let’s explore what can be done in
our alignment.
As stated in Blog1 the calculated corrections at Machines
2, 3, and 4 are to bring the whole train to alignment to
Machine 1. We also spoke on how valuable this
information is.
Now that we know ‘the whole picture’ of the train and we
know that Machine 1 cannot be moved, we can make
‘virtual moves’ and predict the minimum required moves
at each pair of machine feet to get the alignment between
consecutive machines to excellent tolerances. See
examples in pictures 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.
When we first invoke the Adjustment Guide we see a
graph pictured below.
Picture 7
Allow me to describe what we are looking at in Picture
7. Several things:
The actual misalignment at couplings 1 and 2.
Machine 1 feet, AF1 and AF2 are ‘Locked’ because
they cannot be moved.
We see empty white rectangular boxes under BF1,
BF2, CF1, and CF2.
Underneath the white rectangles, we see the needed
adjustments to make to bring machines 2 and 3 into
alignment with Machine 1.
We see the interval set up, set to 1 mils by default,
and of course adjustable up to 125 mil increments
every time you press the + or – icon. In other words,
user-adjustable to save time.
The left and right arrows allow the user to move
down or up on the machine train.
Having said this, we used the arrows to ‘virtually move’ BF1
and BF2, see below.
Picture 8
Picture 8 shows the final virtual adjustment on BF1
and BF2 to get Machine 2 to ‘Excellent’ alignment
relative to Machine 1. Please note a couple of things:
We needed to move machine 2 only 19 mils at BF1
and 31 mils at BF2 instead of 22.5 mils and 45 mils
to get to excellent alignment. And more
importantly…
It allows us to leave the angularity of machine 2 with
an angle such that machine 2 ‘points towards
machine 3’, thus minimizing the moves at machine 3
to get it to perfect alignment with Machine 2.
Picture 9
Picture 9 above shows the ‘virtual moves’ needed at
CF1 and CF2 to get Machine 3 aligned to excellent
tolerances with respect to Machine 2.
Please note that to achieve Excellent alignment the move
at CF1 is only 53 mils instead of 78.3 mils and at CF2 it is
86 mils instead of 132.3 mils. Also note that we left
Machine 3’s angularity in such a way that Machine 3 points
towards Machine 4, thus minimizing the moves that will be
required at Machine 4.
Picture 10 below shows the last 2 couplings and DF1
and DF2 with ‘empty’ values.
Underneath the empty rectangles that are waiting for the
input of the virtual moves, we see the required move to
bring Machine 4 (Compressor 3) into alignment with
Machine 1, which are, DF1 150 mils and DF2 172.5 mils.
However; what is needed, as pointed out before, is only to
bring Machine 4 into alignment with Machine 3, not with
machine 1. See Picture 10 below.
Picture 10
We continue the process as we did before making ‘Virtual
Moves’ at DF1 and DF2 in any order until excellent
alignment is achieved. See Picture 11 below.
Picture 11
Picture 11 shows that we have ‘Virtually Moved’ DF2 90
mils.
We will proceed to move DF1 and DF2 in any order until we
reach excellent alignment. Remember the ‘increment’ is
adjustable, hence when getting close to alignment it can
be lowered to 1 mil to make more precise moves.
Picture 12
Picture 12 shows that we have moved DF1 50 mils and
DF2 90 mils.
Picture 13
Picture 13 shows the moves required at DF1 to be only
92 mils instead of 150 mils and for DF2 only 93 mils
instead of 172.5 mils to achieve alignment to
tolerance.
As we can see, the Adjustment Guide utility is a
tremendous aid that helps the aligner predict what is
going to happen and most importantly find out if he or she
will be able to obtain his or her goal.
by Diana Pereda
SHAFT ALIGNMENT TIPS TO GET
WITHIN PRECISION TOLERANCE
August 3, 2021
Shaft Alignment is a critical step in any world-class
maintenance program, and when done properly, can help
decrease unscheduled downtime and keep equipment
running longer and more efficiently. This means machines
need to be aligned within the recommended tolerances
based on the RPM of the equipment. However, this is
sometimes easier said than done, especially if any residual
soft foot is present, or due to bad geometry in the
movable piece of equipment. If you find yourself struggling
to complete an alignment to tolerance, here are some tips
that, when combined with Ludeca’s 5-Step Shaft Alignment
Procedure, may help you complete the alignment faster
and with less frustration.
1. Get the position of the front feet close to the
alignment offset tolerance. Once the front feet are
close to or within the tolerance value, complete the
alignment by correcting the rear feet only.
2. Try to leave both the front and rear sets of feet with
positions having the same sign, either positive or
negative.
3. It is not desirable to leave the position value of the
front feet higher than the position value of the back
feet. This means that the final position value of the
rear feet should be larger in value than the position
of the front feet.
The following scenario is an example of how these rules
can be applied to help you complete an alignment to
precision tolerance as defined by the ANSI standard
(ANSI/ASA S2.75-2017/Part 1.) This standard defines three
acceptance levels: Minimal, Standard, and Precision. These
acceptance levels, as well as the corresponding tolerance
values for 3600 RPM, are shown below in Figure 1. The
scenario below was prepared utilizing an Easy-Laser® XT770
Shaft Alignment System and the Adjustment Guide feature.
Our Easy-Laser XT Series is one of the few laser alignment
platforms on the market today with the new ANSI alignment
tolerances built-in giving the user the freedom to choose
between traditional tolerances, the new ANSI standards, or
custom tolerances.
Figure 1: ANSI/ASA S2.75-2017 Tolerances for 3600 RPM
In Figure 2 we have our shaft alignment results measured
on equipment running at 3600 RPM, where the position of
the front feet is at +1.0 mils and the position of the rear
feet is at –0.6 mils. This creates misalignment at the
coupling with an offset measuring +2.6 mils, which puts us
in the Minimal tolerance range. We need to make some
adjustments to improve the alignment in order to reach
the precision tolerance range, but how? Let’s try following
the recommended tips!
Figure 2: As-Found Results
If we look at the position of the front feet in Figure 2 we
see that we are at +1.0 or 1.0 mils too high. Since the
position of the front foot is already less than the desired
Precision Offset Tolerance Value of ±1.3 mils (shown in
Figure 1), Tip 1 says we should leave the front feet where
they are and complete the alignment by correcting the rear
feet only. Looking at the position of the rear feet in Figure
2, we see that we are at –0.6 or low by 0.6 mils. Using the
Adjustment Guide feature on the XT770, let’s see what
would happen if we add 1 mil worth of shims to the rear
feet.
Figure 3: Adjustment Guide adding 1 mil to rear feet
In Figure 3, we add 1 mil of shims to the rear feet of the
alignment result that was shown in Figure 2 bringing the
new position of the rear feet to +0.4 mils with the front
feet still at +1.0 mils. Although both feet now have the
same sign, satisfying Tip 2, we see that this still produces
an offset measuring 1.5 mils at the coupling, putting us
within the Standard alignment tolerance range. Although
we did improve the alignment slightly, we still are outside
of the Precision alignment tolerance that we are pursuing.
What would happen if we added another 1 mil to the rear
set of feet bringing the final position of the rear feet to
+1.4 mils?
Figure 4: Adjustment Guide adding 2 mils to rear feet
Now in Figure 4, we have added 2 mils worth of shims to
the rear feet of the alignment result that was shown in
Figure 2, bringing the final position of the rear feet to +1.4
mils with the front feet still at +1.0 mils. Now we see that
the position of both the front and rear sets of feet are
positive in value satisfying Tip 2. Additionally, the
positional value of the rear feet is greater than the
positional value of the front feet, thereby also satisfying
Tip 3. Now if we look at the misalignment measured at the
coupling, we have an offset measuring just 0.6 mils and
putting us well within the desired Precision alignment
tolerance. In addition, the angularity value has also
decreased and is well within the precision alignment
tolerance range. Note also that adding shims is always
easier than removing them, especially if you do not have
enough thickness of shims left under the feet to make the
desired negative correction possible.
We hope these three tips will make your task of precision
aligning machines much easier.
Request your complimentary copy of our Shaft Alignment
Fundamentals Wall Chart which highlights the ANSI/ASA Shaft
Alignment Tolerances as well as information and guidelines
for the implementation of good shaft alignment of rotating
machinery, best practices, soft foot, tolerances, thermal
growth, and much more!
by Diana Pereda
WHAT IS MACHINE TRAIN
ALIGNMENT AND HOW IMPORTANT IS
IT? PART 2
July 27, 2021
We welcome you to read the previous blog in this series,
“What is Machine Train Alignment and How Important Is It?
Part 1”
ANALYSIS 1: ALL MACHINES IN THE TRAIN CAN BE
MOVED
Since ALL 4 machines in the train can be moved we have
many options.
OPTION 1:
Let’s see what the minimum moves will be for the whole
train. How we do that with the Easy-Laser XT770? We
simply make ALL 8 feet in the train movable. NO LOCKED
FEET in the train. See Picture 3 and Picture 4 below.
Picture 3
