An unbalanced centrifuge is a recipe for disaster. Centrifuges spin at very high speeds, and they do so for hours on end. Some facilities run their centrifuges 24/7, only pausing for CIP procedures and the occasional service visit. When a bowl starts to get off balance – and they always do at some point or another – they continue to get more and more off balance as time goes on.
And the further from balanced an industrial centrifuge becomes, the more inefficient and dangerous it becomes. So, what do you do? You get your bowl balanced.
How to Balance a Centrifuge
First, know that requiring bowl balancing is a normal thing a working centrifuge will need on occasion. As various components wear as the equipment runs, bowls become unbalanced. When our technicians perform minor and major centrifuge service, they look for signs of bowl wear, document it, and report it to our customers.
Because having a balanced bowl is essential for safety, it’s important that we apprehend the bowl and balance it before any serious issues result. Here's a step-by-step look at our bowl balancing process.
Prior to Balancing
Before being balanced, we need to ship your bowl to our facility in Indianapolis, IN. But, you can still keep things running at your facility with the use of our Rental Bowl Program. With your bowl safely back at our facility, we inspect the bowl fully, complete any necessary repairs, and set the disc stack pressure.
During Balancing
Next, we bring the bowl assembly into our balancing equipment which allows us to determine how many grams of runout are on the bowl and where those grams of runout are located. Using this data, we mill the bowl to correct the existing grams of runout. After achieving a dry balance on the bowl, we fill the bowl with water and reinsert it into the balancing unit.
Balancing the bowl while it is filled with water helps to replicate how it will balance when it is filled with material. Once a wet balance in dual planes is achieved, the bowl is balanced and finished with the remanufacturing process.
After Balancing
During the final steps, we prepare the documentation, which will be sent back to your facility. We clean the bowl completely and prepare it for shipment. When the newly remanufactured bowl returns to your facility, we will swap it out and ship our rental bowl back.
Bowl balancing is an essential component of centrifuge maintenance. In order to be compliant with safety measures, an operating centrifuge must fall within certain ranges. Our bowl balancing services not only ensure your bowl is within normal ranges, they also keep your facility up and running with the use of our rental bowl program.
