Vibration Analysis

Predictive Technologies
PdM Techniques
 Richard Henry
Vibration and Alignment Specialist
VibrAlign, Inc.
Cardan Shaft Misalignment
Identification
Cardan shafts (shafts with universal
joints) are often neglected.
Cardan Shaft Alignment
Cardan Shaft Alignment
Technical principle
Relative angular velocity
Cardan Shaft Alignment
Technical principle
Degree of irregularity
Cardan Shaft Alignment
Technical principle
Homokinetic operation is reached
by a second cardan joint
Cardan Shaft Alignment
Technical principle
Benefits of cardan shaft alignment
Vibrations

High wrap angle

Vibrations is transfered to gear box and motor

 Benefits of cardan shaft alignment
Why is it important?
• Vital part in drives for process machines, breakage
of cardan shafts causes down time.
• Badly aligned cardan shafts set limitation in
production capacity and product quality.
• Stands for a considerable cost when repair is
needed or a breakdown occurs.
• Badly aligned cardan shafts reduces lifetime in
gearboxes and motors.
• Break down of a cardan shaft in running condition
could be extremly dangerous.
Cardan Shaft Misalignment Typical
vibration symptoms

• Unbalance of the drive line (high 1X).

Drive line will not have the same center of
rotation as the U-Joints.
• High amplitude 2X and 4X driveline speed.
• Torsional oscilliation
Cardan shaft alignment
Measurement principle

Angular error
 Cardan shaft alignment
Tolerances

No standard, but…

• Angular error within  0.25 mils/in

• Offset within specifications.
Cardan shaft alignment
Procedure - Coning

Coning -axis of rotation

 Cardan shaft alignment
Case story
Background:
A customer contracted VibrAlign to identify
the source of an on-going U-Joint and
Gearbox DE Bearing failure problem.
Reasons for the in depth analysis were:
 Cardan shaft alignment
Case story

• High vibration level.

• Axial bearing had to be changed every 8-10 week.
Cost about $1500 every time.
• Reduced production for about 10 hours at a cost about
$1000/hour for each failure.
• Necessary to have bearings in stock.
• Problem with thermal expansion (high bearing
temps).
• No method to perform the alignment.
 Cardan shaft alignment
Case story
Vibralign arrived on site and collected initial
vibration data. Vibration symptoms indicated
severe cardan shaft misalignment.
Using a set of brackets specially designed to
measure cardan shaft misalignment, we were
able to identify an angular error of
approximately 1.5 mils/inch of angularity in
both the horizontal and vertical planes.
 Cardan shaft alignment
Case story
Vertical angular adjustments were made to the
motor by shimming and the motor was
repositioned horizontally.

The following spectra and waveforms clearly

show an improvement to the operation of this
machine.
Gearbox DE Vertical
Gearbox DE Vertical
Gearbox DE Horizontal
Gearbox DE Horizontal
Gearbox DE Axial
Gearbox DE Axial
 Cardan shaft alignment
Case story
Results:
• Significant decreasing vibration level.
• The alignment was performed in February -
98 and no change of bearing in the gearbox
has been done since then.
• Increased production capacity.