System for aligning a rotating line-shaft

Apparatus for determining the magnitude of static displacement of a rotating shaft from an aligned reference position at each respective one of a plurality of bearings supporting said shaft, said shaft tending to vibrate differently than when aligned due to said static displacement at at least one of said bearings, said apparatus comprising:

• memory means for storing a reference linear vibration amplitude value of said shaft at each said bearings when said shaft is aligned;
• means for measuring at each said bearings the linear vibration amplitude of said shaft caused by said shaft being statically displaced from said aligned reference position at at least one of said bearings;
• computer means for producing from said stored reference linear vibration amplitude value and from said measured vibration amplitude value at each said bearings a difference signal for each said bearing which difference signal manifests the magnitude of linear static displacement of each said bearing from its aligned reference position;
• and
• shimming means for shimming each said bearing in accordance with the magnitude of said linear static displacement of each said bearing, an amount of shimming for each respective bearing being substantially equal to and opposite from said static displacement at each respective bearing.

A method for determining the magnitude of static displacement of a rotating shaft from an aligned reference position at each respective one of a plurality of bearings supporting said shaft, said shaft tending to vibrate due to said static displacement at at least one of said bearings, said method comprising:

• determining at each of said bearings the linear vibration amplitude of said shaft caused by said static displacement of said shaft from at least one of said reference positions;
• producing in response to said determined vibration amplitude an indication representing the magnitude of said static displacement of each said bearings from said aligned reference position which displacement corresponds to and is the cause of the determined linear vibration amplitude at each of said bearings;
• and
• shimming each said bearing in accordance with the magnitude of said static displacement of each said bearing, an amount of shimming for each respective bearing being substantially equal to and opposite from said static displacement at each respective bearing.

A method for determining the magnitude of static displacement of a rotating shaft from an aligned reference position at each respective one of a plurality of bearings supporting said shaft, said shaft tending to vibrate due to said static displacement at at least one of said bearings, said method comprising:

• determining the linear vibration displacement value of each bearing for the aligned shaft-bearing system;
• creating a matrix of dynamic influence coefficient values for a misaligned shaft-bearing system wherein each bearing is misaligned a unit displacement value, said matrix of values being calculated from said unit displacement values which correspond to a set of calculated vibration response values based on the unit displacement values;
• measuring the actual linear dynamic vibration displacement value of each bearing;
• determining the linear static displacement value for each said bearings from (1) the measured linear dynamic displacement values;
• (2) the determined vibration displacement value of an aligned system;
• and (3) the created matrix of dynamic influence coefficient values;
• and
• shimming each said bearing in accordance with the magnitude of said static displacement of each said bearing, an amount of shimming for each respective bearing being substantially equal to and opposite from said static displacement at each respective bearing.