Rotor balancing calculator

A portable, hand-held, battery-powered balancing instrument of the type used for in-situ field balancing procedures on rotors comprising:

• at least one vibration sensor for producing vibration data;
• a rotation sensor for producing rotation data;
• an angle sensor for producing angle data, the angle data further comprising at least angle size and direction;
• a data port comprising:
• a vibration sensor communications port for receiving vibration data from at least one of the vibration sensors;
• a rotation sensor communications port for receiving rotation data from the rotation sensor;
• an angle sensor communications port for receiving angle data from the angle sensor;
• a conditioning circuit for receiving and conditioning the vibration data, the rotation data, and the angle data;
• an analog to digital converter for receiving the vibration data and converting it to digital vibration data, and for receiving the rotation data and converting it to digital rotation data, and for receiving the angle data and converting it to digital angle data;
• a power supply for supplying power to the balancing instrument;
• an operator interface through which a technician inputs commands and set-up data into the balancing instrument;
• a memory comprising:
• a data storage memory where the digital rotation, vibration, and angle data gathered from the rotation, vibration, and angle sensors is held;
• and
• a procedure storage memory where operating procedure menus and analysis routines for the balancing instrument are held;
• a processor for receiving, processing, and analyzing the digital rotation, vibration, and angle data, based upon and responsive to the set-up data and the commands, for producing output data that selectively includes information corresponding to angle data;
• and
• a display for receiving and displaying at least a portion of the output data and selectively including information corresponding to angle data.

A portable, hand-held, battery-powered balancing instrument of the type used with a host computer for in-situ field balancing procedures in which reference runs are used to determine initial balance conditions, trial runs are performed with weight added to a rotor having measurement planes being balanced, and trim runs are performed after trial runs, comprising:

• at least one vibration sensor for producing vibration data;
• a rotation sensor for producing rotation data;
• a data port comprising:
• a vibration sensor communications port for receiving vibration data from at least one of the vibration sensors;
• and
• a rotation sensor communications port for receiving rotation data from the rotation sensor;
• a conditioning circuit for receiving and conditioning the vibration data and the rotation data;
• an analog to digital converter for receiving the vibration data and converting it to digital vibration data, and for receiving the rotation data and converting it to digital rotation data;
• a power supply for supplying power to the balancing instrument;
• an operator interface through which a technician inputs commands and set-up data into the balancing instrument;
• a memory comprising:
• a data storage memory where the digital rotation and vibration data gathered from the rotation and vibration sensors is held;
• and
• a procedure storage memory where operating procedure menus and analysis routines for the balancing instrument are stored;
• a processor for receiving, processing, and analyzing the digital rotation and vibration data, based upon and responsive to the set-up data, menus, analysis routines, and the commands, for producing output data;
• a display for receiving and displaying at least a portion of the output data, said processor and display being responsive to menus stored in said data storage for displaying;
• only those steps necessary to complete a given balancing procedure based upon the set-up data, listed in order to be performed,
• prompts for data that must be manually entered,
• confirmation information for the data that is automatically gathered,
• check-boxes indicating which steps have been completed,
• views of the rotor, vibration sensor, and rotation sensor corresponding to the set-up data, and
• the vibration sensor and the rotation sensor in the proper measurement planes, and relative to a reference located at top dead center on the rotor.