We all know the routine. A coupling fails right when its needed. We replace the coupling insert, and tell the supervisor, “We do this all the time! Why don’t we align this machine, so we don’t have to replace the coupling so often?”

To which we hear, “We don’t have time! Just get it back together. We’ll make it right at the next outage.” But you seldom do…

Frustrating, I know! So how can we put an end to the cycle?

Save the failed couplings. They can add up-in more ways than one!

1. Record your time. Depending on the coupling type, replacing the insert may only take a few minutes to an hour or so. But after you do a few, that time really adds up. Especially when, if you had time to properly align the machine the first time, you wouldn’t keep replacing inserts!
2. If seals, bearings, packing, or anything else has to be replaced as a result of the misaligned machines-they count too!
3. Do the math. A good alignment can often be completed in an hour. Count your labor rate, and see what the real cost of precision alignment is. Compare the cost of alignment with the cost of several coupling insert failures, and the time spent “patching it together”.

You’ll quickly see that often it’s less expensive to “make it right” than it is to “make it run”!