SHAFT ALIGNMENT

Misalignment is a common and sometimes serious problem.Poor alignment can cause premature wear or failure of bearings,overheating of shaft couplings,and,in extreme cases,cracked or broken shafts.The procedure for alignment depends on the type of equipment and its design.
Large vertical units,suspended from a thrust bearing in the motor or generator,require making the shaft plumb and the guide bearings concentric.
The lineshafts of vertical turbine pumps are held in alignment by lineshaft bearings in the pipe column.The proper alignment of the lineshaft depends on the proper assembly of the pipe column and the bearing retainers.Depending on the design,the pump motor to lineshaft coupling may be aligned by the face and rim method or the reverse indicator method.