What started as a routine check for new equipment alignment turned into an unexpected challenge when the ParAlign team uncovered hidden issues with the flooring and frame.
Background
On the factory floor of a global manufacturer of vacuum bagging and composite tooling materials, precision is a quiet but relentless demand. The company’s extensive product range — from films to pressure-sensitive tapes to carbon fiber reinforcements — plays a crucial role in industries where the margin for error is razor-thin, such as aerospace, wind energy, and automotive.
With processes that involve extreme temperatures and intricate components, even a slight misalignment in their machinery can ripple through production, causing costly delays and compromised quality.
That’s why alignment was the first step following the installation of new chill rollers at their facility in California. These machines are used to remove heat from products during production processes that require precise temperature control. Only after ensuring that the rollers were properly aligned could the facility team start production, confident in the precision of their operations.
As the ParAlign team had previously worked on alignment at the facility, the customer reached out again for quick assistance with this important task.
Challenge
When the ParAlign team arrived on site, the equipment had been installed and locked in place, but the alignment of the rolls still needed to be checked. The team quickly got to work, measuring all 30 rolls in just 1.5 hours to assess the alignment conditions. That’s when they identified an unexpected issue. “We came to the conclusion that the frame of the winder section and the floor it was on wasn’t entirely level,” explains Lily Meuninck, a field technician from the ParAlign Service team.
Since the winder in the new section could move left and right depending on how production was running, the ParAlign team measured its alignment in the center, left, and right positions. “We wanted to make sure everything was aligned in all positions, so that no matter how it’s running, everything would operate smoothly,” Meuninck explains.
However, the team’s measurements showed that while the center was aligned, the left and right positions were significantly out of alignment. “A lot of it was due to the flooring, and we also believed there was a possible twist in the frame,” Meuninck says.
The complexity of the misalignment required more time than initially planned, leading the facility team to schedule an additional day to complete the work.
Implementation
The next day, the ParAlign team, along with the facility team, began making the necessary adjustments.
First, they worked to align the rolls in the winder section to a best-fit scenario between the center, left, and right positions. But during this process, technicians discovered that the actual issue with that line was not only the floor, but with one linear bearing that the winder was mounted and moved on as well. “It was out of earth level compared to the others due to the floor,” explains Jamie Mobley, Field Service Team Lead. “This was causing one corner of the machine to rise up a few thousandths resulting in a frame twist that was causing an inconsistent measurement results from one side to the other.”
With this finding, the team was able to correct it while on-site. “We were able to adjust it to make more consistent alignment results in the left, right, and center positions, and from there we were able to fine tune it to bring everything within tolerance,” says Mobley. When these adjustments were complete and everything was finally level, the winder was also measured in its as-found position. Then, it was rotated 180 degrees and remeasured.
Beyond the winder, the team focused on fine-tuning the remaining rolls throughout the new section. In total, 9 rolls were adjusted during the service appointment to bring the alignment within the required tolerance of +/- 0.030. Rolls that exceeded this tolerance were either bolt-bound, pinned in place, or deemed by the facility team not critical to adjust.
Results
Even though the alignment turned out to be more complex than expected due to the floor issues, the ParAlign team was able to rise to the challenge and work with the facility team to tackle all unforeseen challenges with precision. Adjustments corrected the misalignment and stabilized the frame, allowing the line to be brought to life after weeks of downtime as the result of the installation.
What could have been a setback became an opportunity to fine-tune the system from the start, leaving the equipment ready to perform under pressure and exceed expectations right out of the gate.
