Just wondering if anyone on this board is using the Bently Balance Software (successfully) for balancing turbo machinery. On the surface, it seems to be a very powerful balancing software package but is it applicable to real world turbine balancing jobs. Any and all input on the subject matter is appreciated. Thanks, Mike

Yeah, I have used it, and it works fine. What is your question or concern?

Mike,

As Steve said it works fine, but like all software you have to understand how it's designed to be used.

The only real issue I have found is when doing multiplane balancing it's best to setup as single plane and just remember that you are doing multiplane. That's to say, if you place a coupled pair in a rotor, enter it in BB as a single shot in one end and NOT as equal weights in two seperate balance planes 180 degrees out of phase.

Thanks Steve and Zackman for the feedback. We have recently purchased the Bently Balance Program and ADRE 408. The only problem with this combination is that the Balance Program does not import the ADRE 408 data as it does the 208. I recently attended the Bently Balance Training (3 day) and was disappointed in that they spent the last afternoon of the last day to go over the software so not a lot of "hands on". We monitor a number of combustion turbines that run close to the 3rd critical and having a balance program that calculates the balance shots utilizing the ADRE transient and polar plot information is a definite plus. My real concern was that the Bently Field Engineers do not use the program (my perception) for their field balancing applications. Glad to know others in the industry are using the software successfully.