January 30, 2012
When experiencing lack of repeatability using a laser system, check the components for looseness: Brackets: Make sure that they are rigidly attached to the shafts (or solid coupling hubs). The surface imperfection where the brackets are mounted plays no role provided the shafts are rotated and the bracket is firmly attached to the surface. Risers: [...]
January 25, 2012
ENERGY-TECH • January 2012 At a power generating station in Florida, a severe electrical fault caused such extensive damage to a 40 MW gas turbine-driven generator that a complete replacement of the generator stator was required. An on-site spare generator core was available, but needed the faulted generator’s bearing support brackets to be installed to make [...]
January 16, 2012
When aligning a vertical flange-mounted machine, it can be helpful to tweak the flange configuration in your laser alignment system to take advantage of different shimming alternatives. For instance, if the OD of the flange is larger than the diameter of the mounting bolt circle, a good laser system will compensate for this by taking [...]
January 4, 2012
The following tips are presented for consideration for when “the going gets tough”, meaning that problems like residual soft foot or “bad geometry” or becoming bolt-bound impede your ability to easily obtain an excellent alignment. First, a few definitions: Residual Soft Foot present: A bit more soft foot than you are comfortable with, but that [...]
December 27, 2011
TransAlta from Alberta, Canada won Uptime Magazine’s Best Vibration Analysis Program. Their Vibration Journey started when due to distance and the high costs of using a contractor, they moved away from outsourcing their vibration analysis services to a full time in-house vibration analyst. During the implementation and mentoring period, and in spite of the business [...]
December 19, 2011
Domtar Espanola from Ontario, Canada won Uptime Magazine’s Best Asset Health Management Program. Their goal was “Go from Reactive Maintenance to Proactive”. To achieve this goal, they put together a plan including several proactive actions and PdM technologies integrated with an Asset Performance Management Software which allow them to closely monitor equipment health. Kim Hunt [...]
