The Lightship Group's engineers are able to quickly diagnose imbalance, determine the severity and, in most cases, perform a corrective in place precision balance immediately. This quick diagnosis and immediate corrective balancing is very valuable to our customers, as they are able to solve their problem immediately without excessive downtime. In addition, by decreasing the excessive forces due to imbalance, the mean time
between failure will increase, reducing overall maintenance costs.
Imbalance is a condition where the center of mass is not coincident with the center of rotation due to a non-uniform mass distribution. All rotors have a residual imbalance that is considered acceptable. Correction is required only when the imbalance force exceeds these acceptable limits.
Operating a machine with excessive imbalance can cause abnormal bearing and machine stress that can lead to equipment failure.
Imbalance is the most common source of machinery vibration and the easiest to diagnose. Imbalance shows up at a vibration frequency exactly equal to the rotational speed with an amplitude proportional to the amount of imbalance.
| Common Causes of Imbalance: |
|---|
| Uneven dirt accumulation on fan rotors |
| Porosity in casting |
| Non-uniform density of material |
| Manufacturing tolerances |
| Gain or loss of material during operation |
