MOTOR COUPLER ALIGNMENT BASICS

                               OFFSET MISALIGNMENT                    ANGULAR MISALIGNMENT

              DIAL INDICATOR CHECK OF COUPLER O.D.               DIAL INDICATOR CHECK OF COUPLER FACE

Electric motor shaft alignment involves power transmission couplers to be aligned in two planes.

Alignment of the electric motor shaft to the driven equipment shaft can be checked with a straight edge ruler.

A better check of alignment is to use dial indicators as shown, slowly rotate the shaft that the indicator is mounted on, and read the travel of the indicator. Total Indicated Runout (TIR) is the term used to describe the indicator needle travel.

The best method for measuring misalignment uses lasers mounted on one shaft, a complex receiver on the other, and a microprocessor with trigonometric algorithms for determining alignment.

All three methods are used. The two planes of alignment are basic to all of them.

Misalignment is a common cause of destructive vibration.

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