If your business uses rotating machinery as part of your operations, you need to be aware of vibration. Excessive vibrations can cause high levels of noise, as well as significantly reducing the life of the bearings and other components if the problem is left for too long. Therefore, it’s important to take action to remove the causes of vibration, leaving the machinery operating as smoothly and quietly as possible. The ideal result is unobtainable, as there will always be slight vibration remaining. In these cases, you need to reduce the imbalance to a level that will not have an effect on bearing life and also reduce noise levels to an acceptable level. This process is called dynamic balancing, and aims to fix the problems caused by displacement of the mass centre line from the true axis as a result of mass eccentricity.

Balancing is the addition or removal of weight to the unit that allows the mass centre line to move closer to the true axis. The simplest form of balancing is static and involves placing the unit onto low friction bearings. Once this is done, it is allowed to rotate and fall into place with the heaviest point at the bottom. Following this, material is removed and the unit is gently rotated again until the newly allocated heavy point falls into position. This process is repeated until there are no obvious heavy points remaining. A more advanced method of balancing is mounting a unit onto a specialised balancing machine, connecting bearings to sensors that detect the heavy point whilst being rotated. This method increases sensitivity, providing a more accurate balance.

Vibrations can have a large effect on your machinery and vehicles, which emphasises the importance of regular balancing. Without it, you may find that you spend thousands of pounds repairing your machinery that you would have avoided with balancing. We been specialising in dynamic balancing and vibration analysis for many years, delivering service for clients in all industries. We can help you to make your equipment as vibration free as possible.