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James Pekarek, one of our trainers, wrote a blog entitled “Performing Alignment Checks as Part of Your Preventive Maintenance”.

https://acoem.us/shaft-alignment/performing-alignment-checks-part-preventive-maintenance/

It is a great article, and good advice.  I recently shared this blog post, and the advice, with a customer of ours.  Here’s why.

I taught a training class at a large water plant in the eastern US.  They had multiple buildings, and many pumps.  Precision alignment had been performed on these pumps – some with dials, some with lasers.  They did perform pump PM on an annual basis, but did not check for alignment.

Some of these pumps required coupling insert replacement on a regular basis, and some did not.

When a machine is supposedly aligned, but requires frequent coupling replacement, it is a good sign that:

  • it is not aligned correctly,
  • the coupling is not matched to startup and torque requirements,
  • the alignment has changed.

 

 

 

Obviously, the pump was out of alignment.  Which of these three took place – I don’t know.

It was aligned to tolerance, and the alignment data was saved.  This facility will now include a quick alignment check as part of their PM.

The benefits?

  • If their alignment changes, they will know.
  • They’ll be able to make corrections before more serious damage occurs.

They will use their alignment tool as a PM tool, not just a repair tool.

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