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Shaft Alignment

How the SHAFTALIGN Touch UI adjusts to your team’s experience level

December 1, 2020 by [email protected]

Need a rugged device that is user-friendly even in harsh environments?

ShaftAlign Touch, the latest addition to the Prüftechnik Adaptive Alignment family of products, boasts a user interface (UI) designed with your entire team in mind. The best-in-class IP rating of 68 means that it withstands even the most challenging environments.

But not only was it designed to tackle almost any alignment challenge—the 3D user interface adapts to users with different levels of experience.

Adaptive Alignment includes the hardware-software combination of single-laser technology and Active Situational Intelligence, or ASI. This unique and powerful pairing sets Pruftechnik products apart by making it possible for even novice users to achieve precision alignment consistently. Applying analytics in real time, Adaptive Alignment recognizes and filters out low-quality or erroneous data.

Low-quality measurements filtered out

The UI of the ShaftAlign Touch was created with several ease-of-use features, significantly benefitting new and less-experienced users. The large, touchscreen graphical user interface offers a guided workflow for clarity and simplicity. It takes users through quick steps: Dimension, Measurement, and Results. Users receive in-the-moment feedback about measurement quality, and any low-quality measurements are filtered out.

The exclusive Live Measurement Quality Factor Active Clock mode, with up to five measurement positions over a 360-degree shaft rotation, make the ShaftAlign Touch accurate to a T. Lastly, the integrated RFID tag reader automatically identifies the correct machine to be aligned and enables users to see its alignment history.

Other features that make the ShaftAlign Touch a user-friendly tool—no matter the user’s experience level—include:

  • Cloud connectivity fosters team collaboration: Measurement results can be shared instantly with experienced technicians anywhere in the world.
  • Live Mode that monitors alignment corrections in real time. Alignment conditions and corrections result in a smiley face when optimal alignment is achieved.
  • Streamlined documentation—thanks to an auto-save function, a camera with a flash/torch, and ARC 4.0 software.

The user interface of the ShaftAlign Touch enables any maintenance team member to succeed at a range of alignment jobs—without requiring extensive training beforehand.

 

Related articles:

https://blog.pruftechnik.com/the-shaftalign-touch-what-makes-it-adaptive/

https://blog.pruftechnik.com/shaftalign-touch-is-rugged-enough-to-use-anywhere/

https://blog.pruftechnik.com/6-reasons-why-pruftechnik-laser-alignment-systems-are-no-1/

Filed Under: Shaft Alignment Tagged With: adaptive alignment, laser shaft alignment

ROTATEK rescues sand plant with help from PRÜFTECHNIK

November 16, 2020 by [email protected]

What started as a mechanical contracting business in 1993 has evolved into ROTATEK, a precision service company specializing in rotating equipment, including laser alignment, 3D metrology, field balancing, and vibration services. ROTATEK, based in Hackensack, N.J., also provides products and rentals, and its field service engineers are available for on-site, worldwide service 24/7.

ROTATEK’s field service engineers are available for on-site worldwide service 24/7.

 

A growing organization requires advanced tools

As ROTATEK’s laser alignment business has grown, so has its need for precise alignment tools, prompting it to begin using Prüftechnik laser equipment.

“Our first laser alignment tool was the OptAlign Smart,” says Steven Santos, ROTATEK’s founder and one of its field service engineers. “Great tool. We used it for 10 years without a problem.”

Santos researched other brands but wasn’t impressed with the products.

“They just weren’t on the same level as the Prüftechnik equipment,” Santos says. “They may have been cheaper, but if a cheaper unit is going take you a lot longer to do the alignment in the field, that doesn’t translate to saving money.”

Eventually, ROTATEK added RotAlign Ultras and later RotAlign Touch devices to its toolkit. They also began implementing vibration analysis to help troubleshoot rotating equipment in the field, leading to the acquisitions of the Prüftechnik VibXpert vibration analyzers and VibGuard advanced monitoring systems.

 

ROTATEK woos enterprise companies

In recent years, ROTATEK has provided its services to an increasing number of larger enterprise companies.

“We have a really good mix of different industries that we serve,” Santos continues. “In one week, we may be doing a turbine alignment with a laser tracker, and that same week we might do a 100-horse pump alignment with a RotAlign Touch.”

While his team could use a laser tracker to do a shaft alignment, it would take longer. Instead, they use the RotAlign Touch to do the same job in much less time.

“It’s faster to dimension the equipment. It’s faster to measure, see your results, and see your corrections,” he states. “You can also see your live moves right on the screen.”

 

ROTATEK solves root cause through expertise

A sand plant in New Jersey experienced a catastrophic blower failure that shut down its plant, costing as much as $50,000 in daily production losses. Of course, they called ROTATEK for its emergency rotating equipment services. Santos and his team responded quickly to assess the damage and get the plant back up and running.

“It was clear right away that the damage required a lot more than just a routine bearing replacement,” he describes. “The bearings, shaft, coupling, and blower wheel were all damaged beyond repair.”

Fortunately, the client was prepared with a spare rotor. The company decided that ROTATEK would work closely with their millwrights to ensure components were properly installed and the machine was reliable.

The team opted to assemble the rotors in a clean shop, minimizing the bearings’ exposure to sand and other contaminants. Once pre-assembled, the team closely followed the final installation procedures in the field. They carefully arranged the blower wheel’s axial and radial location, properly setting the radial clearance on the bearings, and checked the bearing face runout to ensure the bearings were correctly aligned to the shaft.

ROTATEK used its RotAlign Touch to precision-align the 350-hp motor to the blower. They successfully aligned the shaft to the tolerance with the coupling loose, and then verified in the final coupled state.

Monitoring the shaft with ROTATEK’s VibXpert II revealed some elevated vibration levels, indicating imbalanced mechanical looseness. Based on its experience with new rotor installs and the base and foundation condition, ROTATEK suspected this might happen and had informed the client in advance.

To meet production demands while operating at a safe vibration level, the company decided to reduce the blower speed during the midnight shift when no regular working millwrights were scheduled. The customer and ROTATEK developed a plan to correct the base issues and prepare the location for ROTATEK to balance the blower in the coming days.

 

ROTATEK got the dirt on a clogged dredge pump

The same sand plant had an emergency involving a dredge pumping plant, a marine vessel used to pump sand out of lakes and other bodies of water so it can be sold to municipalities to rebuild or enhance their shorelines.

“The dredge suffered frequent coupling failures, with each replacement coupling costing $7,000; not including the labor costs or $30,000 of production losses per day,” Santos explains. “And they had quite a few coupling failures in a short amount of time, so they reached out to us to diagnose and fix the problem.”

Santos and his team took a boat out to the barge with a variety of Prüftechnik equipment, including two VibXpert systems and a RotAlign Touch tool. The barge had a diesel engine, flexibly coupled to a large integral gear pump.

“We acquired an uncoupled measurement with our RotAlign and found excessive misalignment,” he says.

In addition to the misalignment, the Power Take Off (a foot-mounted component) was discovered to have severe angular soft foot. It didn’t have a strong mechanical fit, and the angular soft foot was so severe that it would take an inordinately long time to correct it using alignment shims.

“We recommended a product called RotaChocks, adjustable spherical chocks that could conform to an angled foot,” Santos continues.

For Santos, working on a ship with limited amounts of working space was a unique and challenging difficulty.

“It was a lot of out-of-position work. We were lying on our sides and working upside down,” he illustrates. “But in the end, we had a successful alignment that we verified with the RotAlign Touch.”

Santos and his team mounted the SensAlign heads and used Live Trend to monitor positional movement between the PTO and the gear pump.

Live trend setup
The Live Trend setup

The team went above deck and recorded vibration data through different speeds and processes. Santos and his team confirmed that there was no excessive positional travel.

“I think the movement that we may have recorded was less than two-thousandths of an inch. And they were working the barge hard—it’s not a delicate process when they’re mining for sand,” Santos says. “But we have Live Trend data to show that they didn’t have excess positional movement.”

washer hole
The equipment had cupped washers because the through-hole was so large that when it was bolted together, it mushroomed the washers.

 

Saving money with Prüftechnik tools

ROTATEK’s speedy response saved its customer a considerable amount of money on both jobs.

“The coupling was replaced three times prior to our service, and we installed the fourth one,” Santos explains. “Prüftechnik enabled us to give our customer the best of both worlds—accurate alignments and a product in RotAlign that helped us do more in much less time than a laser tracker.”

Filed Under: Condition Monitoring, Shaft Alignment Tagged With: laser shaft alignment

6 reasons why PRÜFTECHNIK laser alignment systems are No. 1

November 4, 2020 by [email protected]

Laser shaft alignment is the fastest, most precise way to align rotating equipment.  Prüftechnik, the inventor of laser shaft alignment, leads the way for cutting-edge technology, including our exclusive, game-changing Single-laser technology. Here’s a quick overview of why we’re #1.

To download the “6 reasons why PRÜFTECHNIK laser alignment systems are No. 1,” click here.

Filed Under: Shaft Alignment Tagged With: adaptive alignment, Blog, laser shaft alignment

SHAFTALIGN Touch is rugged enough to use anywhere

October 28, 2020 by [email protected]

SHAFTALIGN-touch_rugged-water_social_featured_image

The ShaftAlign Touch, the newest laser shaft alignment system from Prüftechnik, is designed to stand up to the harshest conditions and environments.

Its capabilities and ease of use already set it apart from competitors in the premium entry-level category. But the latest addition to the Adaptive Alignment family also has an IP rating of 68, making it the most rugged tool in its class.

Protection against the elements

An IP (ingress protection) rating, defined by international standard IEC 60529, signifies the degree of protection provided by electrical enclosures against the intrusion of dust, water, and other objects. The specific rating offers more information and certainty than the simple claim that a tool is “waterproof.”

An IP rating of 68 means that the ShaftAlign Touch allows complete protection against dust; that it is “dust-tight.” The rating also means that it can be continuously immersed in water up to 1.5 meters deep.

Dust is common in industrial settings, including during the processing of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and more. Drills, saws, and grinders are a few types of tools known for generating dust. If you align machinery in an environment including these types of tools or processes, you need a tool that will keep the dust out.

Temperature and battery life challenges

In addition to water and dust, the ShaftAlign Touch can withstand temperature extremes. It works in temperatures ranging from as low as -20°C to as high as 50°C (-4°F to 122°F).

The battery life for the ShaftAlign Touch is 11 hours. So no matter what conditions you may find yourself working in, you can trust that the battery will last as long as the job does.

You may never need to use a laser shaft alignment system in such extreme conditions. But many industries present challenging settings, and some jobs are more stringent than others. Make sure you choose a laser shaft alignment tool that is tough enough for any job.

Filed Under: Shaft Alignment Tagged With: laser shaft alignment, Shaft Alignment

What makes SHAFTALIGN Touch adaptive?

October 22, 2020 by [email protected]

ShaftAlign Touch

ShaftAlign Touch offers the precision, cloud capabilities, and other benefits of advanced laser shaft alignment in a rugged, user-friendly tool. But the most unique of its many features may be just how adaptive it is.

Adaptive Alignment is a combination of technologies enabling even novice users to consistently and accurately align assets. Single-laser technology is a vital hardware component of Adaptive Alignment, while Active Situational Intelligence (ASI) is a critical element of the software side. Together, they differentiate Prüftechnik from all other laser shaft alignment systems on the market today.

Facilities that could not justify spending the time and training on laser shaft alignment can benefit from the ShaftAlign Touch features. When machines are aligned correctly, they use less energy and don’t require frequent replacement of bearings and seals.

There are three specific ways in which ShaftAlign Touch is adaptable.

ShaftAlign Touch Adapting to the Asset

Adapting to the asset

The ShaftAlign Touch can be used to identify and handle horizontal, vertical, and angular alignment challenges. The integrated RFID machine identification reader ensures that users can find the correct machine and see its alignment history. The Machine Flip feature allows technicians to align machines are obstructed. And measurements can be taken no matter how severe the misalignment.

Adapting to the situation

Single-laser technology offers quick setup and adjustment, saving time and frustration. No pre-alignment or rough alignment is needed. A large touchscreen, straightforward workflow, and guided user interface make the tool easy to use. Problem-solving with ASI software delivers corrective feedback to users.

Adapting to the team

The ShaftAlign Touch empowers every team member, regardless of experience level, to align almost any asset with precision and speed. Low-quality measurements, whether caused by the user or backlash, are exposed and can be filtered out.

This capability provides users with reliable, repeatable results—no matter who on the team is performing the measurement. Also, ARC 4.0 software sends measurements to the cloud in real time, making it possible to confer and collaborate with colleagues or consultants anywhere in the world. The ShaftAlign Touch is the only entry-level laser alignment system with cloud connectivity.

ShaftAlign Touch Cloud Schema

With the new ShaftAlign Touch, maintenance teams can affordably switch from their decades-old legacy tools to the latest premium digital system without budgeting extra time or money for training.

When even novice users can succeed at completing most alignment jobs, machines will run better and longer. Downtime and maintenance spending will show a downward trend.

Filed Under: Shaft Alignment Tagged With: Blog, laser shaft alignment, Shaft Alignment

Making machine installations a breeze: Aligning a new rewinder at a paper converter plant

October 13, 2020 by [email protected]

Paper Industry Roosevelt Paper, a paper converter and distributor founded 87 years ago in Philadelphia, maintains long-held traditions behind its paper, providing fast, reliable deliveries and offering pricing that gives its customers a competitive edge. From customer savings to quality assurance and innovation, Roosevelt Paper is devoted to a culture of commitment. The company makes it a priority to invest in state-of-the-art machinery to continue saving its customers time and money while providing flexibility and customization.

Roosevelt Paper saves time and money by using a gyroscopic alignment service to align its machines during preliminary installations and routine shutdowns to ensure proper alignment throughout the lifetime of the machine. The technology is known as PARALIGN and the service is provided by Fluke Reliability’s alignment team for all three of Roosevelt’s plants in Illinois, Kentucky, and New Jersey. Across these three locations, Roosevelt Paper houses eight sheeter machines and a handful of rewinders.

During Fluke Reliability’s recent visit to Alsip, IL, the team measured a Rewinder containing 13 rolls in 20 minutes. Adding the initial set-up time of roughly 30 minutes to the time it took to make adjustments to the machine, Fluke Reliability’s team completed the scope of work to align the machine in less than five hours. During this time, the Fluke service team also completed shaft alignments on two separate motor to roll configurations. This particular project was a new machine installation. Upon initial start-up, the rewinder ran flawlessly. The results of the project follow.

Step by step new machine alignment: Rewinder

Front Motor Initial

Front Motor Initial

Front Motor Final

Front Motor Final

Rear Motor Initial

Rear Motor Initial

Rear Motor Final

Rear Motor Final

 

Initial PARALIGN Measurements

 

Initial PARALIGN Measurements

Final PARALIGN Measurements

Final PARALIGN Measurements

Filed Under: Shaft Alignment Tagged With: Blog, machinery alignment, Shaft Alignment

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