Ask Our Experts
Dynamic Balancing Arbor Services
Impellers are an essential component in a wide range of commercial and industrial pumps and are subject to often enormous amounts of vibration as they rotate to increase the flow and pressure of a fluid. Impellers typically move water. Blower impellers specifically move air. It’s important to ensure that the impellers in your pumping systems are serviced and maintained. Impeller balancing is best handled by the impeller balancing and blower impeller balancing professionals at Hi-Tek Balancing.
What is impeller balancing? Impeller balancing is the procedure by which mass distribution of a rotor is checked and adjusted to ensure that vibration on the bearings is at a frequency that is within the specified limits of the service speed.
There are two basic types of unbalance for impellers and blower impellers: single-plane and two-plane. Imagine a bicycle wheel with a weight added to the rim. When spun, the wheel would wobble as it tried to rotate evenly around the axle. When stopped, the wheel would rotate until the weight rested at the bottom. This kind of unbalance is known as force or static unbalance.
Two-plane unbalance comes into play with cylindrical impellers. In this case, think of a car’s wheel rim with weights added to the rim on each end, but offset from each other by 180 degrees. This would cause the wheel to wobble as it tried to spin around its axis.
Impeller balancing and blower impeller balancing at Hi-Tek Balancing can quickly and accurately correct both types of unbalance. In single-plane unbalance cases, a skilled, experienced operator would carefully remove the additional weight or, if necessary, add a counter-weight directly opposite the unbalancing weight. Impeller balancing for two-plane unbalance requires two corrections weights to be added at an axial distance from each other.
These descriptions of unbalance and impeller balancing are, of course, highly simplified here. In reality, the process of impeller balancing is a sophisticated, extremely precise process designed to provide results that meet strict International Standards Organization (ISO) guidelines with regard to a number of different kinds of equipment.
For more information about impeller balancing and blower impeller balancing, or to schedule an appointment, contact the impeller balancing specialists at Hi-Tek Balancing.
