VertiZontal with Fixturlaser Dials App

Thanks for getting the Fixturlaser Dials app!
We hope you will find it useful.

Some basic information before you jump into it. There are only two settings in the App.

• Autosave: Tick the box if you want the final result to automatically be saved to your camera roll. Leave it empty if you want to create the screen dump yourself.
• Metric (mm) or Imperial (inch): Not much to debate, pick your choice and you are good to go.

If you have any questions or suggestions about the app, or about shaft alignment in general, please use our support forum. We are happy wo help you out with your alignment, and you may be able to help out other fellow aligners.

Walkthrough of the Fixturlaser Dials App

• After the Fixturlaser Dials app is started the first time you are presented with a choice.
• Select if you are working in metric (mm) or imperial (inch) dimensions

Enter some data

The screen shows you your machine.

• Position yourself in front of the machine so that the moveable machine is on your right and the stationary machine is on your left.
• As you can see on the screen there are some dimensions that needs to be filled in. Press the tape measure icon in the lower right corner of the screen.

Enter the distance between the two dial indicators

• The screen now shows you where to take the measurement.
• Measure between the two dial indicators probes.
• Enter the dimension on the screen keyboard.
• Press the green check mark at the screen’s lower right corner.

Half or not?

• Now the App wants you to enter the dimension between the center of the coupling and the dial indicator probe resting on the moveable machine.
• It automatically halfs and enter the dimension you entered on the previous screen.
• If that is correct you can just press the green check mark in the corner, or  if that is not correct you measure and enter the correct value before pressing the green check mark.

One foot at a time

For calculation of foot values we need some additional measurements.

• The screen shows you that you need to measure the length between the dial indicator probe on your moveable machine to the center of the moveable machine’s front foot bolt.
• Enter the value and press the green check mark.

What is between your feet?

• The final dimension to enter into the App is the one between the bolt centers of the front foot and rear foot.
• When done, hit the green check mark.

Give your baby a name

• Wehter you have ticked the bos Autosave or not, you will need to give the result file a name.
• You can just leave it as its default value “Machine Name”, or enter a name of your choice.
• Hit Done when you are that, done.

Time for some action

Now we have entered all the required data and are ready to let the dials do some work.

• On the screen you can now review your entered dimension.
• At the lower right hand corner of the screen you can see three different icons.
• The one that is highlighted is the next default step, but you may hold your horses just for now.
• At the far right you have the tape measure, in case you found a measurement that is wrong you can touch this icon to go through your measurements again.
• The icon to the left of the hightlighted one – looking a bit saggy – is where you go to enter your bar sag. (Yes, you will have bar sag) Go Here – to find out how you measure and enter your bar sag values.
• Now you can hit that green icon.

Synchronize your clocks

• Rotate the both shafts until the dial indicators are in the 9 o’clock position.
• You can rotate one shaft at the time, but be careful with the dial indicator probes!
• When in the right position, zero your dials by rotating the scale until the dial points to zero.
• Press the green check mark when ready.

Doing a one-eighty

• Turn the shafts 180 degrees to the 3 o’clock position.
• Make sure that you notice in which direction the respective dial is moving, + or -.
• When you are in the right position, press the green check mark.

Half’n half

• Now, remembering the direction of travel for the respective dial (+/-), half the displayed value on each of the dial indicators.
• Be careful not to move the indicators position, or turning the shafts.

Enter the S value

• Enter the value that the S (stationary machine) indicator shows.
• Press the green check mark when done.

Enter the M value

• Enter the value that the M (movable machine) indicator shows.
• Press the green check mark when done.

Back to the top

• When the values are entered you are asked to rotatethe shaft back to the 12 o’clock postion.
• You can also continue your rotation all the way round to reach the 12 o’clock postion.
• Note! Make sure that you control the coupling backlash!
• When in the position, press the green check mark.

The final S value

• Read off the value from the S (stationary machine) dial indicator and enter it with the keyboard.
• Press the green checkmark when done.

The final M value

Enter the value from the M (movable machine) dial indicator and press the green check mark.

We have a result

The screen now shows you the result – how your movable machine is positioned relative to your stationary.

On the top you see the machines vertical position with the coupling values at the left.

The result numbers at the left represent this:

• The angular error in vertical direction (mm/m)
• The parallel offset in vertical direction (mm)
• The angular error in horizontal direction (mm/m)
• The parallel offset in horizontal direction (mm)

The symbol with the red background shows you the direction of the error. The default tolerance is set to what is industrial standards for a 1800 rpm motor. The results that would have been within that tolerance would have a green background. Our result is way out, so we need to do some correction. In just a minute.

The values at the right shows the feet positions of the movable machine.

• At the top we can see that the machine is low on both the front fet and the rear feet, but a lot more so on the rear feet.
• At the bottom illustration we see a top view of our machine and the front feet are just a little bit too close to us while the rear feet is too far away from us. We need to correct this too.

If you find the result unbelievable, or strange, you can re-measure by pressing the re-measure icon at the bottom of the screen. If you are ok with the result, go ahead for correction by hitting the green shining shim right hand corner of the screen.

Vertical correction

This is crystal clear!

• The screen shows you what to do to make the vertical correction.
• Just unbolt your movable machine and add or remove the shims according to what the app tells you. In our case we will need to add some shims.
• Choose shims to get as close to the displayed numbers as possible.   Buy your shims here!
• When done, we need to make the horizontal corrections.
• Press the highlighted icon at the lower right hand corner.

The horizontal correction

• Rotate the shaft so that the dial indicators are in the 3 o’clock position.
• Adjust the moveable machine on the front feet keepin an eye on the M (moveable machine) dial indicator.
• Move the machine until the dial points to zero.
• Press the green check mark when done.

Correcting horizontally, some more

• Now look at the S (stationary machine) dial indicator while adjusting on the moveable machine’s rear feet.
• The target is to correct it until the dial gets to zero.
• Jacking bolts are great to have…

Final corrections

As you probably already seen things are not moving exactly as you want.

• Keep on correcting the front feet and the rear feet until both the dial indicators show zero.
• When done, bolt down the machine while keeping an eye on the dials.
• Carefully tighten the bots cross-wise not to accidentally move the machine, or introduce any tensions.
• When done, re-measure again to confirm the result.

Did you notice that you only loosened and tightened the moveable machine’s bolts once? We call this the VertiZontal Alignment Method. And you just performed it. Congratualtions!