Short setup notes for the instruments on this site. They are written for a shift that still has to run, not for a classroom.
A-01 · AlignSense AL12
Setting a coupling with a dual-axis laser
Offset and angular error have to be read together. If a millwright chases one plane while the other is still open, the coupling is “aligned” on paper and still chewing a seal. A dual-axis pair clamps on the boss, warms for a short count, and prints two numbers that stay live while shims go in and a jack bolt turns.
Soft foot is checked before the first shim stack. Feet that rock will throw the laser as soon as the hold-down bolts come down. Once the feet are honest, horizontal and vertical are brought into the allowed band in the same stoppage. When both sit inside spec, the coupling is signed off and the next lot can run.
The kit is meant for dirty floors: vacuum-pump skids, handler bases, and rotary frames that will not wait for a shop alignment bench. Keep the heads out of the oil mist as far as the bracket allows, and do not treat a single good reading as a closed job until the bolts are torqued and the readout is checked once more.
A-02 · VibeSense VM40
Reading vibration before a bearing writes off a shift
A gearbox that still sounds “normal” can already be writing a trend. The operator hears the last ten percent of a failure. A four-channel logger bolted on the housing, the motor, and two fan pedestals will show the first ten percent if last week’s envelope is still on the desk.
Channels have to stay independent. A noisy abatement fan will mask a quiet handler column if the traces are summed or if one sensor is used as a stand-in for the machine. Mount on a clean face, same stud or magnet each time, and compare like with like. When amplitude climbs while the tone has not changed, schedule the next AlignSense pass or the next bearing change against that number — not against a feeling on Friday afternoon.
The VM40 is a monitoring instrument, not a laboratory analyzer. Leave it through the shift. Do not take the tool down for a full inspection unless the envelope has already named the reason.
A-03 · finished diameters
Why an optical micrometer belongs on finished diameters
A contact probe marks ground or turned stock. The mark is small, and on a rough mill it does not matter. On a finished diameter that still has to sit in a bearing or a seal, the mark is the start of a debate about whether the part is still in band.
A light curtain does not touch the surface. The part can rotate, the reading stays a diameter, and the tolerance band stays honest. Use it where a micrometer would leave a witness or where the operator would otherwise “kiss” the part with a caliper and call it close enough. Keep the window clean. Oil film and mist will read as size.
This note is the dimensional half of the same job as alignment: name the number, then grind or reject. For a specific optical head, write to the desk.
A-04 · WaferSense APS / ALS
Cassette pitch named in millimetres, not in “it looks high”
A handler teach that has drifted is usually argued in the language of the last wafer that scraped a tooth. The Auto Pitch Sensor rides in the cassette the same way production stock does, runs the same pick-and-place path, and returns slot pitch and seating as a trace. Tight slots and wafers riding on the tooth become a known correction before the next lot.
Level is a separate check. The ALS / ALSR pair is built as a wafer so a stage or an end-effector can be leveled without a cable feedthrough through the chamber door. Use the dimensional drawing when a fixture or a keep-out has to be confirmed.
N-02 · desk note · 04 Sep 2026
Rotary runout without the language of “it feels true”
A spindle that “feels true” is not a measurement. Park a runout gauge, name the microns, and only then argue about bearings, chucks, or a bent shaft. Repeat the same indicator position after a tool change. If the number moves and the feel does not, trust the number.
Keep this note next to vibration monitoring: runout is a setup check; the VM40 is the watch that follows. Matching a gauge to a spindle family still goes through the communications desk.
