That’s A Bad Sign

A manufacturing operation in western North Carolina recently purchased a Fixturlaser GO and shaft alignment training. This company is going through a multimillion dollar expansion. We decided, as part of the training, to check some alignments of recently ‘installed and precision aligned’ machinery.

Heres Your Shaft Alignment Sign

Here's Your Sign

Tags like these were placed on the machines that were supposedly precision aligned. There’s just one little problem. Of the machines we checked, 50% were misaligned. Most of them were not out by a tremendous amount, but they were out of tolerance. What’s so dangerous about aligned equipment, anyway?

Here’s an example:

Fixturlaser GO Before

Before the 'real' alignment

Fixturlaser GO After

After the 'real' alignment

The machine was both base bound and bolt bound. Yet, the mechanics using their new GO from VibrAlign corrected the misalignment in less than 1 hour!

The “Danger” part of the sign was correct!

Don’t trust a handmade sign!

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About the Author

Stan Riddle

Stan Riddle joined VibrAlign in 2008. He has 30 years experience in aligning industrial machinery. Stan began his maintenance career working as a machinist and millwright for companies such as Weyerhaeuser, R.J. Reynolds, and Tyco Electronics. He also has over 25 years experience in Predictive Technologies, such as vibration analysis, thermography, oil analysis, and ultrasonic inspection.


He is a certified Level III Vibration Analyst with the Vibration Institute, and is a Past Chairman and Board Member of the Piedmont Chapter.


Stan and his wife live in Yadkinville, NC where he enjoys wood carving, fishing, and anything else outdoors.


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