Improving Shaft Runout Measurement Efforts
December 1, 2013
To help designers, engineers and maintenance staff make better shaft runout measurements, Lion Precision has documented best practices in a new application note available on its website.
"Real-time shaft runout measurement is common in machine condition monitoring and other applications," said a company spokesperson. "Like many measurement applications, there are unanticipated challenges for the uninitiated and a variety of solutions to those challenges. Even people with shaft runout measurement experience may discover that there is a better way.
"Non-contact capacitive and eddy-current displacement sensors are the most practical methods for real-time measurements in an operating machine. Each sensing technology has advantages and disadvantages, which are documented in detail in the application note. The application note also includes strategies for mitigating sensor disadvantages and challenges so as to produce the most accurate measurement possible within the specific application.
"Shaft runout as part of a condition monitoring system is common in power generation, ship drive systems and other industrial machinery driven by a rotating motor. In such a system, bearing wear is inevitable. The condition of the bearings must be monitored to alert operators when bearings need to be replaced - before they fail with potentially catastrophic results. Without condition monitoring, bearings must be replaced on a defined periodic basis. This often results in either the costly and unnecessary replacement of perfectly good bearings or the catastrophic failure of a system in which the bearings fail prematurely."
The application note is available in the Technical Library's Application Notes section of the company website.
"We want to empower people to solve their measurement problems," said Don Martin, President of Lion Precision. "To that end, the company is developing an entire library of Application Notes and TechNotes to provide design and maintenance professionals all the information they need to get the best measurement results possible with non-contact displacement sensors."
For more information contact:
Lion Precision
563 Shoreview Park Road
St. Paul, MN 55126
651-484-6544
info@lionprecision.com
www.lionprecision.com
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