The Less Vibration the Better

Hello, and welcome back to our blog. Here at Industrial Cooling Solutions Inc., we specialize in the construction and upkeep of industrial cooling towers and, as a result, we come across a lot of issues that crop up in the cooling tower industry. One of the most common issues that we run into has to deal with vibration. Anyone who deals with industrial machinery knows that vibration, unless it is specifically asked for, is hardly ever a good thing for machines to experience and can cause a lot of issues if not properly addressed. In relation to industrial cooling towers, vibration issues most commonly occur within the tower’s fan system. In today’s post, we are going to go over a few ways that you can make sure your fan system experiences as little vibration as possible. Continue reading below to learn more.

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Is Your Cooling Tower Fan Running Properly?

Traditionally, rotating equipment is mounted at grade and uses the mass of a foundation and grout to reduce vibration and provide both support and stiffness to the rotation apparatus. Unfortunately, cooling tower fans are elevated several feet above a basin a basin of water and are most commonly held in place with support beams made of wood or fiberglass. This means that cooling tower fans do not get the benefit of a solid base to help reduce vibrations and must instead be tightly calibrated to reduce vibrations as much as possible. Below, we have listed a few steps that can be taken to help make sure that a cooling tower fan vibrates as little as possible.

• Tighten Everything: When it comes to the structures responsible for holding a cooling tower fan in place, it is important to make sure that everything is held together as tightly as possible. Making sure the structure is as stable as possible be reduces the amount of movement that the fan can experience. Before beginning any other type of calibration work, make sure that the bolts holding the fan are as tight as possible as well as the bolts that hold the mounting structure to the tower. Additionally, it is important to check the bolts that hold the fan to the rotator. If these bolts have become compromised, the fan is more likely to become damaged.

• Inspect the Fan: Once you have made sure that the structure holding the fan is as secure as possible, take a moment to assess the fan. Each blade of the fan should be securely fastened and angled in the same way. If you notice that any of the blades have become damaged, assess the situation to determine whether the blade can be repaired or if it is time to replace the blade altogether. If a single blade on the fan is warped or damaged, it can cause the entire fan to wobble as it rotates. While these wobbles might be tiny in the scheme of things, over time they can cause serious damage to the machinery designed to rotate the fan.
• Inspect Gearbox and Driveshaft: While inspecting the fan blades is an important part of ensuring that the cooling tower fan experiences as few vibrations as possible, neglecting to check the mechanisms that actually rotate the fan can lead to issues as well. Without a properly functioning gearbox, the fan inside of a cooling tower will not properly rotate, causing myriad issues in terms of functionality and efficiency. When inspecting the gearbox and driveshaft, make sure to note any signs of wear that may have cropped up since the last inspection. While these components are designed to operate under heavy use for long periods of time, they are still machines and will become compromised if they are not properly taken care of.

If after performing a maintenance check on your cooling tower fan system you find that there are some issues that need to be addressed, contact the experts at Industrial Cooling Solutions Inc. today. We offer a wide range of cooling tower maintenance services and we also provide a variety of cooling tower replacement parts. With years of experience in the cooling tower industry, we are more than qualified to assist in the replacement of key components in cooling towers and we are certain that we can handle any issue that you may be experiencing.