Blog

Many Man-hours Saved on Critical Gas Turbine Alignment Job

August 28, 2014

A customer in Florida needed to do an alignment between a gas turbine and a generator. Their main issue was that the gas turbine shaft could not be rotated by hand and engineering was reluctant at that time to turn on the lift oil pumps. This customer owns and uses the ROTALIGN® ULTRA iS. We […]

Triboelectric effect on vibration accelerometers

August 26, 2014

There are two primary types of accelerometers: one is the ICP (integrated circuit piezoelectric) having voltage output,  and the other is known as a CLD (current line drive) type, with a current output. The standard ICP accelerometer has a nominal output of 100 mv/g and the output of a standard CLD accelerometer is 9.81µA/g. Cable movement […]

Tug Boat Z-Drive Alignment with ROTALIGN ULTRA

August 21, 2014

Recently,  while visiting the West Coast, I had an opportunity to get involved in an alignment with Mr. Roy Loop from The Rueck Company on a tug boat being built on the Columbia River near Portland, OR. This tug will be put into service halfway around the world where it will be towing and docking […]

Is the window of enthusiasm closing on your Condition Monitoring Program?

August 19, 2014

Education and responsibility go hand in hand. Leaders of reliability programs should expect their employees to return from a training course with a better idea of how Condition Monitoring can effectively increase equipment reliability and be willing to provide the support to take full advantage of the education gained. Indeed,  there is a narrow window […]

Aligning a Gearbox Shaft to Compressor Bores During Assembly with ROTALIGN ULTRA

August 14, 2014

Some weeks ago,  a compressor manufacturer contracted us to perform ROTALIGN® ULTRA laser alignment training at their testing facility. During the training,  the millwrights mentioned that they had a need to align the gearbox shaft to the compressor bores during the assembly process before the compressor shaft was installed. Since my ROTALIGN ULTRA also features […]

Lessons learned. 3 steps to add to your daily equipment maintenance efforts

August 12, 2014

Recently I visited a customer’s facility to provide onsite training for the VibXpert® vibration data analyzer they had recently purchased. Before we could get started collecting data,  we needed to build the equipment hierarchy and measurement templates required. Once the database was created, we loaded routes into the VibXpert and proceeded to collect vibration data. […]

Thermal Growth and Machinery Movement Crash Course Video

August 7, 2014

“Thermal growth” often refers to the change in machinery positions as a machine runs from startup to operating conditions (or vice versa). Machinery positional change can also be caused by dynamic forces,  pipe stress and other factors. Compensating for thermal growth is necessary because the machine will be misaligned during operating conditions if it is […]

The Value of Continuous Vibration Measurements

August 5, 2014

Advanced vibration analyzers like the VibXpert® have powerful analytical features that often go underutilized. One such feature is the ability to acquire continuous (live) vibration measurements. This can be utilized to check for measurement signal stability and quality. However,  it can also be used for additional analytical troubleshooting as well. Continuous (live) vibration data can […]