INCREASING MACHINE RELIABILITY THROUGH PRECISION ALIGNMENT - THE BENEFITS OF OPTICAL ALIGNMENT TECHNIQUES

摘要

This paper discusses high-precision optical alignment techniques and their use in optimizing rotating machinery alignment to improve long-term reliability. Our paper discusses our criteria for precision shaft alignment, providing calculation techniques to account for shaft speed, bearing design and coupling design. We review optical measurement equipment and techniques, the specific equipment needed in various applications, and the advantages that optical alignment has over other techniques. We explain how optics allows us to quantify how the inherent effects of thermal growth, pipe strain, static deflection, driving torque, and inaccurate OEM thermal growth estimates all degrade our initial shaft alignment and ultimately decrease reliability. And we show how to incorporate these optical measurements into our shaft alignment offsets to produce machinery that is accurately aligned while operating. We present a summary of data from various machines for illustration, and will conclude with several case histories detailing the efforts and results of our work, including changes incorporated by customers that improved their long-term reliability.