Fluke’s Shaft Alignment Tools Combat Unexpected Costs and Maintenance

Fluke Reliability’s laser alignment technology enables users to precisely align the shafts of rotating equipment to prevent additional drag forces that lead to premature wear and inefficiency. The technology includes a modular set of components that can be purchased and implemented to meet the demands of a particular system.

Shaft Misalignment

How big of a concern is shaft alignment? According to Fluke, up to 90% of industrial installations of rotating equipment have shaft misalignment. Even a slight misalignment places undue stress on components and requires additional energy to run, increasing maintenance costs and unplanned downtime and lowering overall efficiency. Overheated bearings, damaged belts, excess vibration from gear chatter, clutch replacements, and other similar problems are often signs of a shaft misalignment in the drive system.

Fluke’s Pruftechnik Rotalign Touch laser shaft alignment tablet features a user-friendly touch interface for simple operation. Image courtesy of Fluke

As an example, consider a 75 kW motor driving a pump. According to Fluke, if there is a shaft misalignment of 0.75 mm, this can cost almost $1800 annually, just in extra energy required to run the pump. This is due to the additional drag forces and friction of a misalignment. The friction inefficiently converts some of the energy into heat, wearing out bearings, couplings, and other components, quickly adding even more costs to operations.

Laser Shaft Alignment Tools

One of the leaders in shaft alignment technology was Pruftechnik, which was acquired by Fluke in 2019. Today, Pruftechnik continues to develop its hardware and software tools.

At the core of Fluke's Pruftechnik laser shaft alignment technology is a ruggedized tablet. It is designed for rough use in a manufacturing environment, with a drop-tested, durable rubber case rated to IP65. Dustproof, water-jet resistant, and armored, this tablet can withstand even the clumsiest handling.

Technicians use the tablet to interface with a software package called FRS Shaft Alignment. It is an intuitive platform that can be purchased in two modes: locked and unlocked. The locked version is the easiest to use and acts as a terminal for performing shaft alignment. The unlocked version allows the installation of other apps to assist with the alignment, such as thermal imaging camera interfaces or computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software.

Fluke’s alignment heads using a laser for precise shaft alignment. Image used courtesy of Fluke

From there, the tablet and software are used to interface the Pruftechnik shaft alignment hardware. Three alignment heads, SensAlign 3, SensAlign 5, and SensAlign 7, are available to perform the actual laser alignment. By using lasers to align the shaft, a high degree of precision in both axis alignment and angle is possible.

Precise Laser Alignment

Fluke's shaft alignment tools have the potential to enhance reliability, lower operating costs, and reduce unplanned downtime in virtually any industrial setting with drive motors. Beyond motors themselves, the tool can achieve these advantages on other motor-driven hardware, such as pumps, motorized valves, gates, doors, roller lines, belt and chain-driven equipment, and so on.