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I recently participated in an alignment done on a boat. The alignment was between a diesel engine and V-transmission connected by a cardan shaft.

The Challenges:

  • The offset between the gearbox and motor was a little over 1 inch.
  • Aligning the engine to the transmission without removing the cardan shaft.
  • Alignment is difficult because it has to be done while the boat is in the water,  which means conditions can vary as the job is being performed.

The Solution:

  • Use a ROTALIGN® ULTRA laser alignment system with compact magnetic brackets, which allow mounting the components even in very tight spaces. See Figure 1.
Figure 1
Figure 1

Using the Multi-point measurement mode allows measuring accurately even with the waves affecting the stability of the boat. This measure mode allows us to increase the number of points collected at each arbitrary measurement position. Multi-point also lets us use the “InfiniRange” feature which allows extending the measurement range of the detector during a set of readings, thus making it very easy to cope with the large misalignment across the cardan shaft.

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, by Carlos Bienes CRL