Gear Box Coupling Halves Alignment

Poor alignment can cause vibration that will be transmitted through the machine and cause wear and lead to premature failure of mechanical seal, bearings, couplings and other machine elements.

Alignment techniques 1. Straight edge to bring the machines into rough alignment. 2. Rim and face method. This method produces acceptable results, but is less accurate than the reverse dial indicator method. 3. Reverse dial alignment does not require removal of the coupling to collect data. 4. Laser

Types of misalignment Parallel misalignment

Angular misalignment

Pre-alignment conditions
1. Machine shaft axes are roughly aligned within 50 mils. 2. The foundation base plate is adequate 3. All machine feet are in full contact with the foundation base plate or supports. 4. Piping is not inducing strain onto the machine cases. Piping should be aligned to within 2 mils of their flanges. 5. The machine feet bolt holes have enough clearance to conduct alignment activity. How ?

A pipe sleeve about 2 1/2 diameters larger than the bolt should be used . Why? To allow movement for the final positioning of the bolts.

6. Radial run out is less than 2 mils.

7. Coupling face run out is less than mil.

8. The required amount of cold offset compensation (Thermal growth) is available from the machine manufacturer.

L = L()(T) L = thermal expansion L = height centerline to base of machine = coefficient of thermal expansion of material T =change in temperature from ambient

Material Aluminum Bronze Cast iron Copper Mild steel Stainless

a (in./in./F) 0.0000126 0.0000101 0.0000059 0.0000092 0.0000063 0.0000074

9-The alignment bracketry is appropriate to the activity required.

10.The moveable machine has as initial shim pack installed; the shim pack should be comprised of one thick spacer and one or two smaller shims. Too many shims will act like a spring causing additional problems. 11.shims are adjusted during the leveling process 12.Shim material should preferably be corrosion resistant and of sufficient proportions to support the weight of the machine. If the shims are crushed under the load of the machine then level and alignment will be destroyed.

13- Shims may be either flat material or wedge shaped

When flat shim material is used it is recommended that it is shaped to fit around the anchor bolts.

Anchor Bolt

Wedge-shaped shims provide an easy method of adjustment but care must be taken to ensure that they are installed correctly so that they are aligned with the bedplate and fully support the load

Right and wrong ways of using wedge shaped shims.

14- Check for Soft Foot

Soft Foot check procedure i. Move indicators to 12 o'clock position, depress indicators and then zero ii. Loosen one base bolt. If indicator moves away form zero, place the amount of shims that will slide under that foot. Retighten bolt
iii. Repeat this procedure for the remaining feet.

15. Bar sag Correction i. Installing the bracket and dial indicator, in the identical arrangement to be used on the machine, onto a pipe.

ii. Zero the indicator while it is on top of the pipe.

iii. Rotate the pipe 180 so that the indicator is at the bottom position.

iv. The indicator will now display twice the amount of bar sag.

16- Pipe Strain Pipe strain is the force exerted on the fixed component from suction and discharge piping that is not supported properly. If pipe strain is not corrected, it may be difficult to align the shafts properlyy Piping flanges must be brought squarely together before the bolts are tightened. Flanges can be assembled with no more than 200-pounds force (an average adult can arm push 200 pounds).

How to check for residual pipe strain ?

1- Four dial indicators, in orthogonal directions, and "zeroed."

One of the dial indicators is mounted at 12 oclock, and the other is mounted at either 3 oclock or 9 oclock

2- All of the hold down bolts shall be completely loosened. This will relieve any pipe strain that may have been present

3-Movements greater than 0.005 inch indicate external strain on the machine. The strain shall be corrected prior to proceeding.

Types of misalignment? Angular misalignment: This occurs when the shaft center-lines are out of parallel

Parallel misalignment: This occurs when the shaft center-lines remain parallel, but are offset