Laser alignment of equipment is crucial to save time and money in manufacturing plants. It helps lower replacement parts costs, decrease downtime, and reduce wear and tear on critical components. Extruder barrel alignment is especially important, as a misalignment of only 0.060" on a screw requires over 9,000 pounds of force and leads to premature failure. Precision Products uses laser alignment on its own CNC and conventional machining centers to ensure proper alignment of chucks and tool holders for making high-precision parts.

1. 2908 N. Dug Gap Rd
Dalton, GA 30720
Phone 706-529-6900
Fax 706-529-5924
WWW.PPIPARTS.COM
Laser Measuring and
Extrusion Barrel Alignment
Laser Alignment Saves Time and Money
In almost all manufacturing plants there is a lot of Ɵme
and money to be saved by having your equipment
properly aligned. An investment in laser alignment helps
you by lowering replacement parts costs, decreased
downƟme, less wear and tear on criƟcal components as
well as lower power consumpƟon.
Extrusion barrel alignment is one of the most common
uses of laser alignment due to the small tolerances that
exist between a screw and extruder barrel. Proper align-
ment barrel relaƟve to the output shaŌ of the gearbox
will dramaƟcally increase the life and output of an extru-
sion line over its life cycle. The larger and longer the ex-
trusion screw is, the more important proper alignment
becomes. For example, a misalignment of .060” on a 4”
24:1 screw requires over 9000lbs force on the screw to
bend it to conform to the misaligned barrel. That
9500lbs of force translates to extra wear on the screw
and barrel which will lead to premature failure. Once the
tolerance between the screw and barrel is compromised
extruder output is reduced and line efficiency and profits
At PPI we also use our 2 axis laser alignment on our own
suffer. In some situaƟons misalignment can even lead to CNC and convenƟonal machining centers. Not only does
screw breakage.
this lower wear and tear on our equipment, it also ensures
Laser alignment is the only way to prevent improper
that the parts we make on our equipment are in tolerance
alignment and it should be done every Ɵme the screw is
removed or when the gearbox is decoupled from the every Ɵme. Using the collimated laser system we are able
extruder. Lasers represent the most accurate and fastest
way to perform this alignment procedure with our de- to align our chucks as well as tool holders to ensure per-
vice capable of measuring less than .001” deviaƟon. That
fect alignment. As an ISO-9001:2008 cerƟfied company we
is one thousandths of an inch.
have included these steps into our machine calibraƟon
A complete laser alignment of a typical extrusion line can
be performed in 8-10 hours or less and the payback on procedures and consider them key to our success in mak-
this small investment in Ɵme is well worth the small ing high precision parts. Precision Products is not just our
cost. Precision offers barrel alignment as well as roller,
coupling and pulley alignment services. name, its what we do.