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TWO-PLANE BALANCING USING PORTABLE DATA ACQUISITION CARD AND

LabVIEW

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Challenges in Higher Education & Research, vol. 7
eds. L. Dimitrov, T. Tashev, R. Deliyski, Heron Press, Sofia, 2009

TWO-PLANE BALANCING USING PORTABLE DATA ACQUISITION CARD AND

LabVIEW

R. Dinov1 , G.T. Nikolov2 , B.M. Nikolova1

1
Technical University of Sofia, Faculty of Telecommunication, 8 Kliment Ohridski, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
2
Technical University of Sofia, Faculty of Electronics and Electronic Technology, 8 Kliment Ohridski, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria

Abstract: The developed virtual balancing system is attended for dynamic high speed rotating shafts and rotors,
and is highly independent of the balancing machinery. For angular measurement a resolver is used, which is
a precise and robust absolute angular sensor. For vibration measurement accelerometers, LVDTs or induction
sensors can be used. For increasing the accuracy a corresponding data processing is used. The proposed system
is optimized for two-plane balancing of rigid shafts, based on the influence coefficients methodology and
satisfies the need to perform off-line and field balancing of equipment.

Keywords: balancing, two-plane balancing, field balancing, influence coefficients, resolver, data acquisition,
virtual instrumentation

1. Introduction were used in large, high-speed balancing and over speed

spin test facilities for multi-plane balancing of flexible ro-
In recent years, the trend in the design of rotating ma- tors. As computer hardware prices dropped, their applica-
chinery has been toward reduced weight and increased tion to more common balancing tasks became feasible.
operating speeds, with the objective of increasing oper- The advantages that a computerized balancing system
ating efficiency and thus reducing cost. However, these provides versus the customary manual system are the many
more efficient designs result in complicating rotor balanc- standard and not-so-standard functions a computer per-
ing requirements. Control of rotor vibration is necessary to forms and records with the greatest of ease and speed. The
maintain reasonable noise levels and to ensure operator, and main advantages, offered by the computerization are:
consumer safety, and machinery survival. In general, the • Simplification of setup and operation;
operating expense of rotating machinery is a direct function
• Reduction of operator errors through programmed
of the success with which rotor vibrations are controlled.
procedures with prompting;
Unbalanced masses in the rotating parts create a cen-
• More precise definition of required unbalance correc-
trifugal force, which causes the unit to vibrate. Balancing
tions in terms of different practical correction units;
consists of determining the amplitude (size) and location
• Statistical data processing of multiple automatic
around the shaft (phase angle) of the unbalance and placing
measurements for increased accuracy;
weights on the rotor to counter the unbalance.
• Proper calculation of correction masses to available
Rotor balancing procedures can generally be divided locations (if an exact angular location is not possi-
into two groups, modal balancing and influence coeffi-
ble);
cient balancing [1]. The modal balancing was developed
• Automatic comparison of initial unbalance with
first in the early 1950s, as at this time very limited instru-
maximum permissible correction, and machine shut-
mentation and computational tools were available and a
down if the initial unbalance is too large;
balancing method was needed that did not depend heav-
• Automatic comparison of residual unbalance with
ily on such tools. Modal balancing fit naturally into these
predetermined tolerances or with angle-dependent
requirements as only simple calculations are required and
family of tolerances;
operator insight is the primary ingredient, rather than large • Translation of unbalance readings from one plane to
quantities, and quality, of vibration data.
another without requiring a new run;
The development of influence coefficient balancing has
• Easy adaptability for operation with different sen-
been made possible by the improvements in instrumenta-
sors, balancing methodologies and number of planes
tion and the introduction of the digital computers. Opera-
ñ only though software means;
tor insight was substituted by the large quantities of high
• Suitable for nonuniform production and for field bal-
quality data as the central component in the balancing pro-
ancing;
cedure.
• Statistical analysis of unbalance and permanent
While analog computers have been in use on hard- record of the balancing operation, including initial
bearing machines ever since such machines came on the
and residual unbalance, rotor identifications, etc. (for
market, it is the application of digital computers to balanc-
quality control and documenting).
ing that is relatively new. At first desk top digital computers

66
 Two-Plane Balancing Using Portable Data Acquisition Card and LabVIEW

2. Phase Angle and Vibration Sensors

The correct data acquisition for rotor balancing requires

a very exact extraction of the synchronous amplitude and
phase information. There are two important aspects to this
data acquisition. The first is the elimination of any nonsyn-
chronous information in the sensor signal through filtering.
The second is the exact indication of the amplitude and
Figure 2. Output voltages of a resolver.
phase of the remaining synchronous component. For this
reason accurate information of the angle position is needed.
There are three more popular methods for angular po- whose ratio represents the absolute position of the input
sin γ
sition measurement: shaft γ = arctan
cos γ
(i) phase reference generator, directly coupled to the
balancing machine drive spindle;
V1 (t) = K1 E0 cos γ sin(ωt + ψ1 ) (2)
(ii) stroboscopic lamp flashing once per rotor revolution;
and V2 (t) = K2 E0 sin γ sin(ωt + ψ2 ) (3)
(iii) scanning head (photoelectric cell with light source).
Because the ratio of the sine and cosine voltages is con-
But all the three methods are not supplying the in-
sidered, any changes in the resolversí characteristics, such
formation needed for proper data acquisition and further
as those caused by aging or a change in temperature, are
signal processing. A suitable solution of this problem is the
ignored.
application of a resolver for angle measurement.
Resolvers are specified to work at frequencies from
The resolver is an analog angular position sensor that is
400 Hz to 10 kHz. Angular accuracies are in range from 5
absolute over a single turn. It has been originally developed
arc-minutes to 0.1 arc-minutes [7].
for military applications and is extremely suitable for safety
The measurement of vibration vectors is generally
critical applications in a rigid and unfriendly environment.
achieved by using appropriate motion transducers, which
The resolver is an electromechanical transducer that
include, displacement, velocity and acceleration transduc-
converts shaft angle to an analog signal (Figure 1). Re-
ers.
solver has an excitation winding on the rotor, which is
For soft bearing balancing machinery, operating not at
magnetically coupled with two identical stator windings
very high speed, the displacement and the velocity sensors
having a 90◦ mutual electrical displacement ñ sine and
are the preferred solution. For hard bearing machinery the
cosine windings.
preferred solution are the accelerometers. For contactless
In general, the excitation winding is excited by a sinu-
measurements, proximity sensors can be used.
soidal voltage called the Reference Voltage (VR ) (see Eq. 1
For the proposed system all the above mentioned sen-
and Figure 2).
sors can be used, after insignificant software changes.
VR (t) = E sin(ωt + ψ) (1)
The induced voltages in the sine (V2 ) and cosine (V1 ) 3. Development of a Virtual Balancing System
windings are equal to VR multiplied by the sine or cosine of
The proposed, practically realized balancing system is in-
the measured angle relative to a fixed zero point (see Eq. 2
tended for two-plane balancing of rigid rotors (shafts). The
and Figure 2). Thus, the resolver provides two voltages
construction of the system is illustrated on the block dia-
gram, shown in Figure 3.
The influence coefficient balancing methodology is in-
corporated. The balancing procedure consists of the fol-
lowing steps:
1. Measurement of the initial unbalances on both planes
ñ A01 Ë A02 ;
2. Measurement of the unbalances on both planes ñ A11
Ë A12 with a test mass mt1 , placed on the first plane;
3. Measurement of the unbalances on both planes ñ A21
Ë A22 with a test mass mt2 , placed on the second
plane;
4. Calculation of the influence coefficients:
A11 − A01 A12 − A02
k11 = ; k21 = ; (4)
mt1 mt1
A21 − A01 A22 − A02
k12 = ; k22 = . (5)
Figure 1. Schematic design of a resolver. mt2 mt2

67
 R. Dinov, G.T. Nikolov, B.M. Nikolova

DAQ

Speed Resolver
Control Unbalance Unbalance
Sensor Sensor

Drive Motor Rotor

Bearing Bearing

Figure 3. Block diagram of two-plane balancing system.

5. . The balancing masses are calculated through the 4. Experimental Results

solution of the system:
In order to proof usability of the presented balance method-

 mb1 k11 + mb2 k12 + A01 = 0 ology and developed virtual system a set of shafts have

 (6) been balanced. The front panel of realized system is shown
 mb1 k21 + mb2 k22 + A02 = 0
in Figure 4. In the left part of the front panels are placed
buttons that exactly follow the introduced balance method-
6. The solution is: ology. Each button corresponds to relevant state of the
A02 k12 − A01 k22 software State Machine, that is shown in Figure 5. In upper
mb1 = part of the front panel is placed informational window, that
k22 k11 − k12 k21
(7) describe the current step of methodology and suggest what
A01 k21 − A02 k11
mb2 = must be done for next step.
k22 k11 − k12 k21 The LabVIEW block diagram that control and coordi-
nate all balancing steps of the virtual system is shown in
7. A test run is made.
fig. 5. Upper case structure of this block diagram contains
For uniform rotors, the influenced coefficients are the the main steps of balancing, and lower case structure is
same, so steps 2 trough 5 can be omitted. used to obtain data from DAQ board.
Good LabVIEW application design can take advan-
tage of software design patterns. Design patterns repre-
sent techniques that have proven themselves and typically
have evolved through the efforts of many developers. In
the absence of any parallel processing the most appropri-
ate is Standard State Machine design pattern (called also
Test Executive State Machine). Moreover, by employing
Standard State Machine architecture the programs become
easier to extend in functionality, to maintain and most im-
portantly allow for the control by a separate program and
consequently automation. This design pattern is selected
for realization of presented virtual balancing system. A
Standard State Machine allows for the code to determine
the next state to execute given data generated in the cur-
rent state. Because this is only a high-level discussion, this
paper only touches on significant features of the developed
Figure 4. The front panel of the virtual system.
source code. The part of this code or so called block dia-
gram that is used to calculate influence coefficients and to
solve system (6) is shown in Figure 6.

68
 Two-Plane Balancing Using Portable Data Acquisition Card and LabVIEW

Figure 5. The LabVIEW block diagram of State Machine.

Figure 6. The block diagram for calculations.

5. Conclusion acquisition board, resolver, pair of displacement sensor and

graphical application development environment.
The experimental results show that the system is ef-
An approach of design, development and implementation
ficient and can be used for various balancing applications
of virtual system for two-plane balancing is considered in
and for statistical manufacturing control.
this paper. The virtual system is based on simultaneous data

69
 R. Dinov, G.T. Nikolov, B.M. Nikolova
The presented virtual system can be easily adapted for
different balancing methodologies, even for flexible shafts
and rotors.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by ¬”ñ“Õñ201/2006 Contract
entitled ìResearch of a Modular Architecture for the Con-
trol of Mechatronic Elastic Multi-Link Devicesî.
References
[1] Darlow M., Balancing of high-speed machinery, Springer-
Verlag, 1989.
[2] Xiaoping Yu, ìGeneral influence coefficient algorithm in
balancing of rotating machinery, International Journal of
Rotating Machineryî, 10:85ñ90, 2004.
70
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[3] Shiyu Zhouand, Jianjun Shi, ìActive balancing and vibra-
tion control of rotating machinery: A Surveyî, The Shock
and Vibration Digest, Vol. 33, No. 4, July 2001.
[4] Krah J., ìSoftware resolver to digital converter for high
performance servo drivesî, Power Conversion Intelligent
Motion, N¸rnberg, pp. 301-308, 2005.
[5] Staebler M., ìMS320F240 DSP Solution for obtaining re-
solver angular position and speedî, Application Report
SPRA605, February 2000.
[6] Sarma S., V. Agrawal, S. Udupa, K. Parameswaran, ìIn-
stantaneous angular position and speed measurement sing a
DSP based resolver-to-digital converterî, Measurement 41,
pp. 788ñ796, 2008.
[7] Data Device Corporation, Synchro/resolver conversion
handbook, Fourth Edition 2009.