Process plants around the world depend on millions of rotating machines: compressors, pumps, blowers, fans, presses, generators, mills, mixers, and so on through a long list. The maintenance department is generally pretty busy keeping these machines together, repairing them, and making sure they are available for production.
The diagnostics of machine problems have been steadily improving since the electronics revolution, and catastrophic failures are getting fewer every year. Yet there is still a gap between the sophisticated diagnosis of vibration and alignment issues, and the understanding of how best to solve intractable and recurrent problems.
It has been stated frequently that a large percentage of the installed base of rotating machinery is operating in a less-than-optimal alignment condition. This percentage could be as high as 70% of all operating machinery. Mis-alignment causes excessive vibration, increased power consumption, reduced output, and wear and tear on components. But the major cause of mis-alignment – grout failure – is very rarely diagnosed. During the last 35 years or so our group of companies has regrouted and repaired the foundations for thousands of rotating machines in all types of industrial plant. Invariably, alignment is a found to be miles out, and the grout severely degraded. Using the techniques developed and refined in various Alphatec operations around the world, we are able to machine to a condition which is close to original, or even better in cases where "original" was actually sub-standard.