Correcting faults that cause

vibration

No predictive maintenance program is complete until it has the three

basic components:
 Detection
 analysis and
 correction.
Statistics indicates that a very large percentage of machinery vibrations
are due to unbalance and misalignment alone.In this section, we will
discuss the correction of these common faults.
 Balancing
Unbalance is often defined as simply the unequal distribution of weight about a rotor’s
centerline.

Correction of this unequal distribution of weight about a rotor is called balancing.

Balancing compensates for less-than-perfect manufacturing. The main causes for unbalance
during manufacture are:

• Materials do not have uniform density

• Holes are not bored exactly parallel to the center

• Imperfections occur in machining round or symmetrical shapes

• Assembly errors.
 Balancing concepts
• To improve an unbalanced rotor, it is necessary to determine the location and
weight of the heavy spot. The heavy spot is the radial location where the excessive
radial mass distribution exists.

• The dilemma is that it is difficult to identify the location of the heavy spot.
However, it is possible to identify the high spot. The high spot is the radial
location where the shaft experiences maximum displacement during a rotation.
When an unbalance weight is added to a perfectly balanced rotor:

It vibrates at a frequency of 1. rpm.

• The measured phase will be steady, and under the strobe light a reference mark will appear
stationary (at any angle).

• If the weight of the unbalance is doubled, the vibration amplitude also doubles, which implies
the amplitude is proportional to the unbalance force.

• If the location of the unbalance weight is changed, the phase reading will change.

• If the unbalance weight is moved clockwise through a certain number of degrees, the phase
reading or the reference mark under the strobe light will move by an equal number but in the
opposite direction.
The two important fundamentals of balancing are:

1. The amplitude of vibration is proportional to the severity of unbalance.

2. Reference marks shift in the direction opposite to the heavy spot. However, the
angle of the shift of the heavy spot and the reference mark is the same.
 The effect of a trial weight

• A trial weight is a mass of known weight that is attached at a specific location with
respect to the reference mark. When a trial weight is added, the original unbalance
is disturbed. It may change for the better or worse, or not at all. If the original
unbalance does not change at all, it implies that the selection of the trial weight or
its location on the rotor is inadequate. A heavier trial weight must be attached, or a
different axial location must be used. As a rule of thumb, a trial weight should
result in at least 30% change in vibration amplitude and phase.