Blog

Planning to succeed

April 29, 2014

Most facilities have a planning and scheduling process for maintenance work activities. The goal of the planning process should be to determine and prepare the parts,  tools, permits, steps, etc. that are required to perform the maintenance activities at the scheduled times. The planning process could fail if the total number of equipment issues overwhelms the […]

Equipping a Field Service Team to Do Shaft Alignment: 15 Must Have Items

April 24, 2014

I am often asked, What tools and equipment do a millwright team need to do shaft alignment? Beyond the obvious safety equipment, such as hearing protection, steel-toe shoes, work gloves, hard hat, safety glasses, and fire retardant clothing, some of the other essential equipment is not so obvious. So here’s a little list, with commentary, […]

What contributes most to a reliable plant or the lack thereof?

April 22, 2014

Most of the time focusing on reliability issues or improvements is placed on maintenance. Good equipment reliability requires that detailed attention be placed on several factors beyond your maintenance department and efforts. Good reliability processes and sustainability requires that focus be placed upon design,  purchasing,  stores (warehouse), installation, startup, operation, and finally the maintenance of […]

Checking the Flatness of a Milling Machine Bed

April 17, 2014

Milling machines are an essential tool in any machine shop and their calibration is equally important.  The quality of the parts made by a mill depends on two factors: one,  the skill of the machinist,  and two, the condition of the equipment used. The bed of the mill can sometimes be overlooked, and imperfections in […]

Testimonial: VIBXPERT II Balancer saves fan rotor replacement in 3 shots

April 15, 2014

I have been using the VIBXPERT® II Balancer for a year. I have balanced fans ranging in size from 10, 000 to 1 HP, mostly within 3 shots. My last customer had a contractor quoting a fan rotor replacement. Using the VIBXPERT II, the fan was balanced to 2 mils from 25 mils in 3 shots. […]

Alignment of an Automotive Transmission Testing Robot

April 10, 2014

The accurate shaft alignment of an automotive transmission testing robot presented great difficulty in obtaining the alignment measurements. A system was needed that could align the shafts of various machines simultaneously across larger distances. The main difficulty was an uncoupled measurement for two precision spindles about 5 feet across. The ROTALIGN® ULTRA iS with the […]

Finding the running speed of a machine

April 8, 2014

Proper vibration data collection and diagnostics require knowing the accurate operating (turning speed) of monitored equipment.  The most common tools used for measuring equipment turning speed are a tach (tachometer) and strobe (strobe light). If a means to determine equipment speed is unavailable,  then an advanced vibration analyzer like VibXpert® may have additional capabilities to […]

Why Monitor Online? 8 More Reasons to Consider an Online Monitoring System

April 3, 2014

Here are some more reasons to consider an online vibration monitoring system. High Accuracy: Primarily in machining processes,  or for highly precise machinery that has no tolerance for deviation,  online systems can provide advance early warning of developing problems and other critical information as to operating conditions, correlate conditions that can lead to problems in production quality and provide […]

Why Monitor Online? 8 Reasons to Consider an Online Monitoring System

April 1, 2014

There are many reasons to consider an online vibration monitoring system. Criticality: This is the most common reason why online monitoring systems are installed. Air compressors,  main mill drives,  chillers, or any potential production bottlenecks are the primary candidates. Safety: Rotating equipment can be dangerous to be around. Excessive noise, heat, or moving product can be a […]