NTT Blog

Shaft Alignment Basics Your Team Needs to Know

Machinery is the pillar to outcome realization and profit making in any production and manufacturing industry. This fact always calls for an up-to-date and efficient process. Maintaining good shaft alignment is therefore crucial to productivity and profit realization. For your company to achieve this, your team should be tech savvy when it comes to shaft alignment.

What are Some of the Basics to Shaft Alignment with a Laser?

Precise alignment is achieved when the center lines of rotation of two shafts essentially are collinear with each other.

Opposed to the conventional mechanical methods, laser alignment of shafts in rotating machinery is simple and more accurate. Through the use of sensors (PSD’s and IPS’) and small measuring units, design and implementation of actual shaft adjustment is actualized.

Thus, laser shaft alignment is the best technology when looking to increase the precision and efficiency of your team. It offers a long term benefit encompassed under diagnosis, repair, installation, and maintenance.

Through the use of laser beams rather than steel bars, there is no indicator bag sag and hysteresis, low resolution, reading errors and shaft axial play that can affect readings.

Also, PSD provides high resolution while minimizing human errors through PSD signal processing for the readout system achieved through laser beam transmission, detection, and pre-calibration units. In the long-run, accurate shaft alignment will increase the life of bearings, seals, and couplings.

Why is Shaft Alignment Important?

Maintaining correct shaft alignment on your machinery directly affects the rate of company productivity and profits through the smooth running of operations.

Being either a manufacturing or production industry, downtimes are intolerable. To avoid them, all the rotating machinery should be maintained at peak operation. Your technical team should always have the quickest and most accurate ways of conducting the maintenance.

This is how shaft alignment helps workers do their jobs more efficiently.

Improved Machine Reliability and Productivity

The ability of your machines to produce at the required time and the right quantities is indispensable. Maintaining good shaft alignment cuts on downtime experiences while saving on time that would otherwise be used on conducting repairs.

Reduced Power Consumption and Part Failures

The transmission of rotary motion to the driven parts of your machines from their motors involves power transmission. In case of any misalignment, some of this power is used to supply energies to sliding velocities that cause wear and tear on bearings, seals, and couplings.

Minimizes Installation and Repair Time

Mainly, horizontal corrections are made after vertical tolerances are satisfied, however, at times there is a need for further vertical adjustment after horizontal adjustments are made ending up in time wastage.

What are the Benefits to Sending Workers for Formal Training?

Being a company owner, it is important to have a competent team with up-to-date laser alignment training. This not only increases their skill but also the productivity of your company.

Proper training does not just focus on shaft alignment but on its diversity as a whole. Let us consider;

• What happened before the alignment condition is met?
• What do you do in a post-alignment mishap?
• Do you understand what the machine you are aligning is telling you?

Diagnosis for misalignment, resolving the problem and mastering proper alignment procedures are vital of the process. Formal training enhances the recognition of your technicians for the overall quality assurance.

Think About the Future of Your Workers and Your Facility

Do you want top-notch training for your shaft alignment team? NTT Inc. is the solution. To know more about our online and on-site training, contact NTT Inc. today for more information!

NTT Inc. has its training accredited by the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training(ACCET). We offer a comprehensive laser training experience, serving the interests of agencies, companies and the public.