TABLE OF CONTENTS The "face-and-rim" method is synonymous with the "face-OD" method. It is the second major method of shaft-to-shaft alignment in use today. It is a more general method applicable to other alignment tasks like bearing alignment, gear alignment, and others. It evolved from the machine shop trades and uses fundamental dial-indicator setups for measuring the orientation of any rotating component with reference to a fixed surface. While not the preferred method for shaft-to-shaft alignment, it is a good method for shafts and the recommended method for everything else. It is far more universal in usefulness and has more applications for general alignment tasks.
The measurements for face-and-rim alignment are almost always taken with mechanical dial indicators. Electronic indicators and proximity probes could be used, and there have been commercial systems made and sold with these devices, but they have not gained wide popularity because the umbilical cord to a power supply or signal conditioner wraps around the shaft. No laser face-and-rim measurement system has ever been made, presumably because the face reading would require an interferometer distance measurement. Mechanical dial indicators remain the measuring tools of choice for the face-and-rim method. The basic setup is shown in Fig. 7.1.
A clamp is fixtured to the rotating shaft or a part rigid with it, like the coupling hub. An extension bar is spanned to the other coupling hub where two dial indicators are attached one to take a rim reading and another to...
