SULEIMANIYAH GAS POWER STATION
4 x 9FE Combustion Turbines [GE]
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July 30, 2025
COUPLING ALIGNMENT PROCEDURE FOR ROTATING
EQUIPMENT
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July 30, 2025
ALIGNMENT WITH REVERSE INDICATOR METHOD
One of the main method is performed in coupling aligment is reverse
indicator method. This method is most reliable and speed method.
Steps of this type of aligment can sort as:
1. Before attempting alignment, it is most important that the dial indicator be
calibrated before any measurements are taken. The dial indicator is operated
by a plunger that moves the hand on the face. Inward movement of the
plunger moves the hand clockwise or in the plus direction. Outward
movement of the plunger moves the hand counter clockwise or in the minus
direction. The face of the dial can be rotated for setting the reading to zero
with the plunger in any position.
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July 30, 2025
Make In most cases, the indicator is attached to the shaft or coupling
using an indicator bar that spans the gap between the two shafts. The
indicator bar represents the projected center line of the shaft to which it is
attached. The dial indicator is used to measure the physical distance from
that projected center line to the true center line of the shaft that the plunger
is riding on. When the indicator dial is zeroed at the top (T) of the coupling
and slowly rotated 180 to the bottom (B), it will read in thousandths of an
inch twice the distance between the two center lines.
2. Size and type bracket to be used will be determined by size and type of
equipment to be aligned. The bracket should be sturdily constructed with a
minimum amount of sag. However, since zero sag is almost impossible to
achieve, the proper allowance should be made for it in your calculations.
3. To determine the amount of sag in a bracket, mount the bracket on a rigid
piece of pipe as shown.
4. Zero the dial indicator at the top of the pipe The sag of bracket will be down
toward the pipe.
5. Rotate the pipe 180 degrees so that the indicator is now on the bottom. The
indicator bracket will sag away from the pipe.
6. The total indicator reading will give you the amount of sag in the bracket and
will always be minus. Record the total indicator reading for later reference.
The indicator reading will be twice the actual bracket sag.
7. Sag is caused by the pull of gravity on the bracket and not by misalignment of
the shaft. The minus reading gives the total amount of sag in the bracket. Use
the total indicator reading to determine the amount of bracket sag and not
one-half of the indicator reading as when determining shaft runout, which will
be covered later.
8. Sag adversely affects the bottom hub readings and consequently vertical
alignment. If the amount of sag is significant, algebraically subtract it from all
bottom hub readings. Bracket sag does not affect horizontal alignment.
9. We are now ready to obtain alignment readings on the equipment. Before you
begin, rope off the area under alignment. Don’t let people unrelated to
operation or alignment inside. Use a shotgun if necessary.
10.First check the support footing of the equipment to be aligned. Check the
shim packs under each foot and replace any carbon steel with stainless steel.
It is advantageous to have at least 125 mils of shims under each foot.
11.The terms mils and thousandths are equivalent and may be used
interchangeably. In other words, 1 mil equals thousandth of an inch.
12.The equipment should be firmly supported and should have no ‘’soft feet’’.
The soft foot is a condition in which one foot of the stationary unit is not on
the same plane as the other feet. A soft foot not only makes alignment difficult
but may cause damage to the equipment.
13.To eliminate the possibility of a soft foot, attach a dial indicator to the support
pedestal and set the indicator button on top of one of the support feet. Zero
the indicator.
14.Now loosen the support nut and read the indicator. If the indicator is deflected
more than 3 mils, move to the adjacent foot and take a reading in the same
manner. If the reading on the second foot exceeds the first reading, the
second foot should be shimmed. Repeat this procedure until you obtain an
indicator reading of less than 3 mils when one foot is loosened and the others
are tight.
15.We Generally, when a unit is to be aligned, one unit component is considered
to be stationary and the others are aligned to it. The component to be
considered stationary is determined by local conditions such as piping,
established centerlines, grades, and accessibility to the unit.
16.Before taking your indicator readings, make a rough sketch of the unit and
obtain the following measurements:
The distance between the support feet.
The distance between the front support feet and the coupling face.
The distance between the face of the coupling hub on the first component and
the face of the coupling hub on the second unit.
17.Now, we are ready to take the indicator readings. On this mock up unit, ‘’A’’ is
considered fixed. Attach the indicator bracket to the shaft of component ‘’A’’.
18.Attach the dial indicator to the bracket so that the bottom will rest on the outer
rim of the coupling hub on ‘’B’’. The indicator should be placed about ¼ of an
inch from the face.
19.With a marking pen, mark this position on the hub rim. This will be the zero
position.
20.You will take a reading on the 0-, 90-, 180-, and 270- degree positions.
Assign a North-South direction to the side positions on the hub to establish
the orientation of the equipment for horizontal alignment.
21.Now zero the indicator at the top of the hub.
22.Rotate both shafts together. Follow the movement of the dial to be sure it
does not change directions.
23.Most dial indicators read positive when the button is compressed and
negative when the button is extended. Thus, a positive reading indicates
runout toward the indicator, and a negative reading indicates away from the
indicator.
24.Record the readings taken at the 90- and 270- degree side position and at the
180- degree bottom position. As you return to the top position, the indicator
should return to zero. Repeat the procedure several times to be sure you
have not made a mistake or that something has not moved. Never accept a
single set of readings.
25.The accuracy of your readings may be verified by algebraically adding the
side readings. The algebraic sum of the side readings should be equal to or
within one or two thousandths of the bottom reading.
26.Correct the bottom reading for sag in the bracket. Algebraically subtract the
total amount of sag (which is negative) from the bottom reading. For example,
if the amount of sag were found to be 3 mils, and the total bottom indicator
reading were found to be minus 22 mils, the corrected reading would be
minus 19 mils. No correction is needed on the side readings since it is
negative on both sides and will cancel out, and thus has no adverse effect on
horizontal alignment.
27.Now, remove the bracket and attach it to shaft ‘’B’’. Using the same
procedure obtain indicator readings from shaft ‘2B’’ to the rim of hub ‘’A’’.
28.Obtain indicator readings for each component in the line; that is, from ‘’B’’ to
‘’C’’ and from ‘’C’’ to ‘’B’’ and so forth.
29.Indicate these readings on your sketch. These are all the data we need to
determine the alignment corrections. There are several methods of
determining corrections from the data obtained. It may be calculated
mathematically method is generally considered to be the simplest method.
30.The board itself is a grid with appropriate scales in both in both inches and
metric units. The zero-zero line presents an extension of the fixed shaft.
31.The horizontal line on the overlay correspondingly represents the centerline
of the shaft to be aligned while the vertical line represent the coupling face.
The procedure for using this device is covered extensively in the instructions
supplied with it.
32.Point-out coupling or shaft end face of stationary equipment at right side of
the graph paper.
33.Remark the distance between the face of the coupling hub from the right side
of graph.
Remark the distance between front support feet to stationary equipment
coupling face.
Remark the distance between outer support feet to stationary equipment
coupling face.
34.Draw a cross directly above the indicator plane of each machine. Cross to
present end view of the coupling.
35.Write dial indicator readings in their appropriate location around the cross.
NOTE:E. Motor coupling readings are obtained by attaching a bracket to
pump coupling.
36.Pump motor coupling indicator readings are obtained by attaching a bracket
to E. Motor coupling.
37.Place a point above or below pump coupling mark, at a distance equal to half
valve at 180º . Because of indicator reading at 180º twice the distance
between two center lines. If indicator reading + 0.22 so actual misalignment is
+0.11 mm.
38.Locate the coupling mark at the indicator plane of E. Motor. Place a mark
above or below the projected center line of pump at a distance equal to half of
value at 180º.
NOTE:While adjusting E. Motor in respect to the pump;
If the offset value is PLUS (+) point-out below the projected line half of the
indicator reading.
If the offset value is MINUS (-) point-out above the projected line half of the
indicator reading.
39.With these two points established the position of E. Motor shaft relative to
pump shaft. This represents the actual position of E. Motor shaft.
X- E. Motor ön ayağına
konulması gerekli shim
miktarı.
Y- E. Motor arka ayağına
konulması gerekli shim
miktarı
40.From the graph, read the adjustments necessary to align the shaft of E. Motor
with shaft Pump . Point ‘’Q’’, which represents the centerline of the inboard
support foot of E. Motor, lies about 15½ units below the projection of the
centerline of shaft pump. We must shim the ‘’Q’’ feet on E. Motor by 15½
mils. Likewise, the ‘’R’’ feet should be shimmed by 24½ mils.
41.At this point we will introduce a theoretical concept regarding possible errors
in reading the graph. This concept is theoretically valid, but many people
argue that in actual practice it may not be necessary, since most alignment
jobs require more than one move and the error will ultimately become
insignificant. If we had a large amount of misalignment at point ‘’Q’’ and a
relatively small amount at point ‘’R’’, making the angle theta large a certain
amount of error would result by reading shim correctons directly below point
‘’Q’’ on the cold target.
42.The length of the shaft between support feet is Q-R, so if this line is rotated
about point R, the are will intersect the actual cold position line at point ‘’S’’.
The line segment Q-R equals line segment R-S, so R-S is the actual length of
the shaft.c
43.Normally we read the shim adjustments at point ‘’T’’, but the line segment ‘’R-
T’’ is actually longer than the shaft section we are interested in.
44.The distance from point ‘’T’’ to point ‘’Q’’ implies that the required shim
adjustments should be Y mm.
45.But reading from point ‘’S’’ to the cold target, we find that the shim adjustment
would be only Y-α mils. Thus the error is α mils. It is not necessary to make
this correction in every instance it should be necessary only when theta is
large.
46.After finishing the graph as per taken dimension this graph will be use full in
order to adjust E. Motor shaft center to pump shaft center at vertical plane.
The vertical lines are drawn from the determined points at graph for front/back
foot dimensions of E. Motor due to coupling center of pump to pump shaft
center. The measurement of vertical lines will give us shim thickness
underneath front/back foot of E. Motor . The measurement of that shim
thickness will close the E. Motor shaft center to the pump shaft center .
The indicator bracket must be free of sag accounted for.
Check the coupling for concentricity.
Standardize with zero at top of the coupling hub.
Standardize recording the readings as viewed from pump.
The algebraic sum of the sides should equal the bottom.
The indicator should start at mid-range and not exceed the total range.
Obtain the readings at precisely 90º degree increments
47.For correction alignment in the horizontal plane put both side (E .Motor &
Pump) indicators at 90º and make them zero. Then rotate shafts to 270º.
According to the indicator readings horizontal alignment will be done by side
movement to left or right side of E. Motor.
