Best practices in machinery installation

Follow these steps to avoid downtime, poor product quality, reduced capacity and high operating costs

R. Keith Mobley, Contributing Editor

Proper machine installation is critical in maximizing reliability and minimizing life cycle costs. Conversely,
improper installation is a chronic source of downtime, poor product quality, reduced capacity and high
operating costs. While installation requirements vary depending on the type of machine and its function,
there are basic best practices that must be followed.

Foundation

Determine whether the support structure (foundation) has sufficient mass and stiffness to permit
the machine to operate in or near a state of equilibrium. Lack of mass and/or stiffness causes
normal operating forces to generate abnormal vibration levels that reduce useful life and increase
the frequency of maintenance.

The foundation must be capable of carrying the applied load without settlement, flexing or
crushing. Foundations for heavy machinery are usually concrete or structural steel structures. For
these installations, an independent concrete pad is poured that has sufficient mass and stiffness
to support the machine-train and absorb the forces generated by normal operations. The total
foundation mass and its related support structures should be at least five times the total rotating
or moving mass of the machine-train.

Some machines must be mounted on a mezzanine. In general, these machines do not have an
adequate support structure. Also, direct mounting on concrete or deck plate floors introduces a
resonance problem. Normal operating forces are transmitted directly into the floor, which acts as
a soundboard and amplifies these energies. In the best case, these amplified energies only result
in higher than normal noise levels. In many cases, they coincide with one or more natural
frequencies of the machine or foundation and can result in serious, chronic problems.

Anchoring

Anchor bolts secure the machine to its foundation. The use of proper methods ensures a rigid,
permanent mating of parts. When machines are anchored to a concrete foundation, J-bolts are
fixed into the concrete as it is poured. Size bolts to ensure adequate holding torque and to
prevent them from loosening over time. Exercise care when selecting the grade of bolt, and
determine if the mounting pattern will be rigid enough to lock mounting plates to the foundation.
The use of hydraulic concrete and straight mounting bolts is not recommended because these
bolts tend to loosen with time.

For machines mounted on mezzanines or upper floors, anchor bolt selection and configuration is
even more critical. In this case, the anchor bolts must perform two critical functions: they must fix
the machine in place so it cannot flex, bend or deflect; and they must isolate the machine from
the foundation to prevent transmission of generated energies into the foundation.

Isolation

Machinery generates energy (vibration) that must be either absorbed by the foundation or trapped
within the machine. Cross talk, in which energy generated by one machine is transmitted into
another machine, is a chronic source of reliability problems. This is especially true in plants
having multiple continuous process lines such as paper machines, high-speed printing and metal
processing lines.

When a machine is mounted on a concrete pad, the pad should be independent from the
surrounding floor. Normally, the pad is formed and poured directly on bedrock and has a ?-in. to
1-in. separation between it and the surrounding floor to ensure isolation. This allows energies
generated by the machine to be absorbed and prevents outside sources of vibration from entering
the machine.

When a machine must be mounted directly on the floor, isolation must be accomplished by using
springs or elastomeric pads specifically designed to absorb or stop transmission of generated
energy. Exercise care when selecting them. Isolators are designed for specific, relatively narrow
bands of frequencies (e.g.,18 to 21 Hz) and will not isolate frequencies outside their functional
bandwidths. When properly sized and installed, they do a good job of protecting machines from
both generated and outside energies sources. Improperly sized or installed, they are absolutely
worthless.

Leveling

With few exceptions, machinery is designed to operate on a true horizontal plane.

Normally, a liquid level is sufficient to level a machine properly, but new techniques such as laser
alignment devices can also be used. The entire machine-train must be level and in the proper
horizontal plane.

The most common failure is the method used to shim mounting feet. Too many plants fail to use
shim packs that provide full footprint support. Shim packs provide a rigid connection between the
mounting feet and the foundation. The surfaces must be flat and parallel to ensure there are no
voids or flexing in the final bolted joints.

Alignment

The final requirement is proper alignment of the machine's driver and driven units. Whereas
leveling ensures that the entire machine-train is level to the earth, alignment ensures that the
common shaft between the outboard driver bearing and the driven unit are in exactly the same
vertical and horizontal planes. Generally, reverse-dial indicators or laser alignment instruments
are used to provide the required alignment adjustments.

Alignment specifications vary depending on machine type. But normally, the shafts must be
parallel and in the same plane within a maximum of 0.001 in to 0.002 in.

Actual installation requirements are provided for new machinery. The information can be found in
the vendor's installation, operation and maintenance manuals. Follow the recommendations to
ensure proper, trouble-free operation. Short cuts or omissions during installation process will
guarantee that a machine becomes a chronic maintenance headache.

One final word, check existing machine installations periodically. Foundations settle, bolts corrode
or become loose, shim packs deteriorate and alignment changes. Periodical inspections will help
prevent many of the problems that result in lost production time, poor product quality and
elevated costs.

Contributing Editor Keith Mobley can be reached via email at rkmobley@aol.com.