When maintenance team members prepare to work on an asset, they may wonder how to tell whether they have the correct alignment data for a given machine. Aligning a machine based on the historical information from different assets wastes time and can have serious consequences, including impacted performance. Thermal growth information, dimensions, and RPM values that are used to set coupling tolerance limits often vary and must be applied to the correct asset. Adaptive Alignment tools from Prüftechnik, which enable even novice users to consistently and accurately align assets, address these challenges.
Our systems are equipped with software to “read” asset tag data encoded with RFID, which stands for radio-frequency identification. Using RFID tags on assets in combination with Adaptive Alignment tools — such as the OptAlign Touch, RotAlign Touch and RotAlign Touch EX — can help solve these alignment problems.
Get a Complete Alignment History of an Asset
RFID is a technology that uses electromagnetic fields to identify and track tags attached to objects automatically. It’s used for everything from access control and car key fobs to personal ID cards and asset tracking.
RFID identification software is integrated into Prüftechnik systems, enabling them to automatically read a machine’s RFID tag and save relevant information. Companies that utilize these tags also provide their technicians with an alignment and maintenance history of the equipment that is helpful to all — but especially to newer maintenance team members.
Technicians can view a complete alignment history of the asset with the connected ARC 4.0 (Alignment Reliability Center) PC software, track the alignment of individual assets over time (alignment trend), and investigate deeper causes of frequent misalignments. RFID also makes alignment data a dynamic condition monitoring parameter for asset management and condition-based maintenance programs.
Using the RFID reader and corresponding RFID tags:
- Enables maintenance teams to clearly identify the equipment that needs to be aligned
- Stores measurement results, machine templates, and RFID data into touch device asset data
- Allows teams and engineers to quickly check the most recent alignment conditions
- Automatically saves new alignment results
Built-in RFID technology is part of the powerful Adaptive Alignment feature set built into Prüftechnik systems. To learn more, please visit this webpage to download our Adaptive Alignment white paper.
