Shaft balancing
ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ
Car owners are familiar with such a problem as shaft imbalance. We will talk about what causes its occurrence and what methods of elimination exist in this article.
Shaft balancing: what is it and when is it needed
Depending on the specific part that needs “treatment”, there are crankshaft balancing and cardan shaft balancing.
Crankshaft balancing
Before considering the concept of balancing crankshafts, let’s start with the features of the device of an internal combustion engine. One of its main parts is the crankshaft (crankshaft), which differs in individuality for each model of the technical tool. The crankshaft affects the remaining elements of the system with its vibration and other mechanical loads. To reduce them, such a mechanical operation as balancing the crankshaft is performed. As a result of its implementation, three characteristics of the crankshaft are improved at once:
- reliability;
- performance;
- operability.
Crankshaft balancing is most often performed on long-running mechanisms. But sometimes newly acquired equipment also needs professional maintenance.
What signs indicate that it is time for an important part of the power unit to go to the shaft balancing machine? In the event that you notice that the gear selector and the engine at idle begin to twitch. Possible reasons include the following:
- Errors in the manufacture of mating parts in the factory.
- Heterogeneous composition of materials from which the crankshaft elements are made.
- Misaligned parts.
- Poor-quality installation of the crankshaft.
- Part not centered enough.
- Natural wear of the crankshaft.
PTO shaft balancing
The imbalance of cardan shafts is detected by characteristic unnatural vibrations. Possible reasons could be:
- manufacturing defects of certain parts;
- sloppy repair;
- shaft deformation.
To find out the exact causes of imbalance, specialists use a cardan shaft balancing machine.
Crankshaft balancing methods
Several methods are used to balance the crankshaft:
- Shaft balancing by static method. It involves the use of special knives, on which they lay and begin to rotate the crankshaft. The degree of imbalance is determined by the position of the part: if the upper part weighs less than the lower one, weights are attached to it and measurements are taken, gradually making an additional load on the way to achieving equilibrium. Having achieved this state, drill a hole for the counterweight on the opposite side of the crankshaft.
- Shaft balancing by dynamic method. In this case, the crankshaft is fixed on the so-called «floating beds» and spun up to a certain number of revolutions. At this time, a beam of light directed at the crankshaft scans it and displays the heaviest point that causes shaking. In order to achieve balance at the found point, they get rid of excess weight.
- Do-it-yourself shaft balancing. When balancing the crankshaft at home, determine the heaviest point as follows:
– install two plates in the shape of the letter “T”, set them to a level and put a part on top of them;
– in case of imbalance, the crankshaft starts to roll;
– when the heaviest one is on the bottom, it indicates the place where there is excess metal;
– the metal is gradually removed until balance is reached.
Please note that it is not possible to repair and balance cardan shafts at home. You can order a specialized service at the enterprise «Dnepropetrovsk Foundry and Machine-Building Plant». Here, the balancing of various types of shafts is carried out qualitatively and with a guarantee. The plant has all the necessary modern equipment for shaft balancing and experienced specialists, under whose control the technological process is carried out. After a procedure called “shaft balancing”, the price of which is available to all customers, the power of the engine itself and the equipment as a whole increases.
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