Field Balancing with Balanset-1A, Step by Step: The Complete Guide

0 The Essentials — Eight Rules That Decide Everything

If you remember only these, most balancing jobs will succeed

1 How It Works — Theory in Plain Terms

Five minutes of theory that explain every “oddity” of the procedure

What unbalance is

An ideal rotor has its mass distributed evenly, and its center of gravity lies exactly on the axis of rotation. A real rotor always has a “heavy spot”: weld build-up, wear, caked-on dirt, manufacturing inaccuracy. As the rotor spins, this extra mass pulls it toward its own side — once per revolution. The result is vibration exactly at the rotational frequency: it is called the componente 1× (“one-x”), or once-per-revolution vibration. The job of balancing is to add (or remove) a weight so that it compensates for the heavy spot.

Three numbers on the screen: V1s, V1o, and F1

The influence coefficient method — why a trial weight is needed

The instrument knows nothing about your machine: neither the rotor mass, nor the stiffness of the bearing supports, nor the effect of the belts and frame. So it is impossible to calculate a weight from the initial vibration alone. The procedure is built as a “question to the machine”:

1. Run 0 — measure the initial vibration vector (amplitude and phase) with no weights.
2. Run 1 — install a peso de prueba of known mass at a known location and measure how the vector changed. This is the “question”: the system answers how sensitive it is to the weight and which way the phase shifts. The answer is called the coeficiente de influencia.
3. The rest is arithmetic: knowing the response to a known weight, the instrument calculates what weight, and at what angle, will fully compensate the initial vector.

Why it doesn’t work “in one shot” — nonlinearity

The instrument’s calculation assumes the system is linear: add twice the mass, and the vibration changes twice as much. A real machine is nonlinear: play, support compliance, friction, aerodynamics. To put it plainly, in Nikolai’s words: you add 100 g and the vibration rises by 10 mm/s; you add another 100 g and by the calculation it should be +20, but it comes out +34 or +14. The instrument draws a straight line, but reality is a curve.

Two practical consequences follow:

• The “half rule”: install 1/2 of the calculated mass and check with a trim run. If it dropped by exactly half, the system is linear — go ahead and add the rest. If it “drifted”, move in fractional steps (details in the “Balancing” section).
• Balancing is an iterative process, not a single precise shot. Two or three trim runs are normal, not a sign that something went wrong.

Two standards — cause and effect

Balancing involves two different sets of quantities, and they are constantly confused:

• g·mm and G grades (ISO 1940 / ISO 21940-11) — la causa: how much excess mass sits in the rotor itself, and at what radius. This is a property of the rotor, independent of where it is installed.
• mm/s (ISO 10816 / ISO 20816) — la efecto: how hard the machine shakes. It depends on the supports, foundation, and resonances.

In the field you work in mm/s; g·mm is needed on balancing machines and when a standard requires a report with a G grade. The software has an ISO 1940 tolerance calculator — see the “Trim Runs and Evaluating the Result” .

2 Preparation: Safety and Mechanics

Half an hour of inspection saves a day of balancing

Seguridad

• Do not stand in the rotor’s plane of rotation during runs — a weight that comes loose flies exactly there. Above 2,000 rpm, move the table with the laptop out of the way too.
• Attach weights so they are guaranteed not to come off at operating speed: “a weight that flies off is a real projectile.” Magnets used as weights always fly off at operating speed.
• Standard guards on the rotor and belt drives stay in place; keep tools away from rotating parts.
• Do not balance a rotor with cracks, damaged blades, or visible runout — repair it first.
• Do not run at a speed where the machine behaves unstably or goes into resonance.
• Do not place the tachometer near a fan’s intake airflow — there have been cases where it got sucked into the impeller.

Machine inspection: the diagnostic sequence

Balancing removes only unbalance. Everything else — cracks, bearing play, loose fasteners, misalignment, resonance — it does not fix — and often masks. A proven search order: 1) bearings → 2) cracks → 3) bolts → 4) resonance.

• Rodamientos: remove the belts and rock the shaft with a pry bar or crowbar in two directions 90° apart. The slightest play means replacement first (both bearings at once), balancing afterward. Do not take “the bearings are new” on faith — check for yourself.
• “Egg-shaped” bearing seat: the shaft sits tight in one direction and has play in the other — the seat is worn out of round. A case from practice: restoring the bearing seats brought vibration down from 120 to 2 mm/s before any balancing.
• Grietas in the housing, welds, brackets, disks, and blades — inspect and weld them up before balancing: inconsistent stiffness = no repeatability in the readings.
• Pernos y elementos de fijación on the housing, bearing supports, motor, coupling, and foundation — tighten everything. A “forest” of harmonics in the spectrum is the typical signature of loose fasteners.
• “Soft foot” and seating on the base: no stray shims, no rocking of the frame, and the machine is not “just sitting on the floor” (either anchored to concrete, or on vibration isolators/rubber/a pallet).
• Built-up material on the rotor, bent or missing blades/knives/hammers. Knives and hammers must be a full set; replace worn ones in pairs, opposite each other.
• Eje doblado: if suspected, check the journals with a dial indicator between centers. The telltale sign in practice: weights in one plane do not help on either side.
• Rub marks where the rotor has touched stationary parts; the condition of belts and pulleys (a cracked pulley throws the balancing off).
• “Stop/start” test: if consecutive measurements are stable but they change after a stop and restart, debris (sand, water) is shifting inside the rotor or free-swinging hammers are changing position. Clean it out / allow for it.
• Room for weights: there is a solid, accessible, and marked-up surface in each correction plane (and access to the far side if there are two planes).

3 Device, Connection, and Software

Channels, tachometer, firmware, settings — everything you need before the first measurement

Kit contents and channels

• Balanset-1A: USB unit, two sensores de vibración (accelerometers), tacómetro láser, cinta reflectante, soporte magnético, scale, carrying case. The whole kit is powered from the laptop’s USB port — no batteries at all.
• Sensor 1 → connector Ch-1 (X1 on older housings) → plane 1; sensor 2 → Ch-2 (X2) → plane 2. Single-plane balancing uses channel 1. The tachometer goes into the Tacho connector (X3). Each channel is calibrated individually — do not mix them up.
• Channel colors are the same throughout the software: Ch-1 — dark red, Ch-2 — blue, tachometer — purple.

The tachometer takes three presses to turn on

Connecting to the computer

1. Connect the sensors and the tachometer to the unit, and the unit to the computer’s USB port. The order is not strict: the software finds the device on its own at any time.
2. Start the software and wait for the green status line at the bottom of the main window: USB module found on COMx. The device shows up in the system as an “Arduino Due” COM port.
3. A blinking yellow line means the device has not been found (it is still searching); orange means the cable is unplugged or the port is taken by another program. Clicking the status line itself triggers an immediate reconnection attempt.
4. If the cable gets pulled out during a session, just plug it back in: the connection and the live data stream recover on their own, but an interrupted measurement has to be repeated.

Software: versions and the two “eras” of the interface

• The 1.71/1.72 line — the old classic. As of today, we recommend updating to 2.x: a stable release is already out, and it has run-down plots.
• The 2.x line — a rewritten core: continuous data stream, run-down (coast-down) plot, bump test, orbits, adaptive measurement, auto-updates, session recovery. Current 2.3.x versions require device firmware 5.5.0+ — with older firmware, measurements are blocked and the software itself offers to update it (15–30 seconds, do not disconnect the cable).
• Caution: the hotkeys differ between generations! In the new edition: F6 — Balancing, F7 — Charts, F8 — Reports. In the old one: F6 — Reports, F7 — Balancing, F8 — Charts. Go by the button labels — the key is always printed right on the button.
• There are two balancing forms — Classic (separate windows for 1 and 2 planes) and Moderno (a single window with run cards and a live signal). Select it under F4 – Settings → Balancing form. The math is the same — use whichever is more convenient.

Calibration coefficients — don’t lose them!

Small things that save the day in the field

• Session recovery. The software autosaves every balancing step. After a crash or an accidental close, answer “Yes” to the recovery prompt and all runs come back. The Menu → Restore Session button also works manually. Careful: Nuevo rotor deletes the saved session permanently.
• COM port error / PurgeComm Error 22 after Windows 11 updates is a known widespread problem: update the software to version 2.x (the bug is fixed only there), unplug and replug the cable, and restore the session if needed.
• Instalación: use the setup wizard without deselecting the database components and drivers; Windows will ask for a restart — do not agree until the installation is complete; do not put the program folder in OneDrive; get past the SmartScreen block via “More info → Run anyway”.
• Interference from the VFD (variable frequency drive): ferrite rings on the cables (first of all on the output cables to the motor), tightened coupling nuts on the sensor connectors (the shield runs through them — a loose nut gives 50 Hz pickup), and run the laptop on battery power. The VFD itself is useful, though: it is a convenient way to change the rpm smoothly and move away from resonance.
• F12 in any window saves a screenshot to the Documents\Bs1A\Screenshots folder: handy for the report and for questions to support. To send a report to support, use F1 – About → Report a problem… (attach the screenshots and the full log).
• Spares: the tachometer is the most fragile part, so carry a spare; the sensors are nearly indestructible; the weak spot is the cables and connectors.

4 Mounting the Vibration Sensors

Half of the machines that “won’t balance” are cured by mounting the sensors correctly

Where and how to mount

• Strictly radial — perpendicular to the axis of rotation; the measuring axis passes through the magnet. Never on the end face of the machine: that is axial vibration, and the balancing “won’t work.” Real case: a mulcher “would not balance” twice while the sensors sat on the end face; they were moved to the top — immediately 5 and 7 mm/s and quiet. “Sometimes it all comes down to the basics.”
• Only on a rigid, solid part, as close to the bearing as possible — the bearing support, the frame, next to stiffening ribs. Not on loose covers, not on sheet-metal guards, not on parts separated by a gasket or rubber. If the signal is “ragged,” does not look like a sine wave, or the overall vibration is far higher than the 1× component, the sensor is sitting on a part that is moving on its own — relocate it.
• On rigidly mounted machines (bedplate, foundation) the vertical stiffness is often so high that the signal is “drowned out” — mount the sensor horizontally: the machine is more compliant in that direction. On soft/spring supports, mount it on top. Changing the sensor orientation is a legitimate way to get away from resonance, but after that the whole procedure starts over.
• Contact only through the magnet, over its full face: the sides of the sensor must not touch the housing. Do not put a flat magnet on a cylindrical surface — the contact is only a single point, and the sensor rocks. There is an M4 thread under the magnet: in awkward spots, mount with a stud or an adapter; on aluminum housings (the magnet does not hold) use a long cable tie looped around or an M4 bolt.
• Not on the spring element of the balancing stand: the spring deforms and distorts the signal. The sensor goes on the moving part of the support, as close to the bearing as possible.
• Cables: never pull the sensor by its cable, and route the cables so they cannot get wound onto the rotor (this is the most common way a kit dies). Tighten the “bell” coupling nuts on the connectors: the shield runs through them, and a loose nut picks up 50 Hz mains interference.
• Welding with the sensors installed is allowed — leave the sensors alone, but disconnect the machine’s/tractor’s ground so the welding current does not flow through the electronics.

Quick check of sensors and channels

1. Open the Vibration Meter and shake the sensor by hand: a sine wave with an amplitude of about 30–100 mm/s should appear on the chart. A steady 0.0X mm/s is the noise floor: the sensor, cable, or connector is dead.
2. Localize the fault by swapping: swap the sensors at the instrument connectors, then at the machine. If the “zero” follows the sensor, the sensor/cable is at fault; if it stays on the channel, it is the connector or the instrument channel.

5 Tachometer and Reflective Mark

The mark is the phase reference: anything that disturbs it disturbs the calculation

The Mark

• Uno mark on the circumference, 10–20 mm wide (wider at high speed: at 14,000+ rpm the tachometer misses a narrow mark). The white reflective tape from the kit works best.
• The background around the mark must be matte and dark. Blacken a shiny shaft with a black marker or cover it with matte tape, otherwise the tachometer will count glare as marks.
• Where to stick it: on the hub or the shaft — on a part that rotates strictly at the rotor speed. Not on a blade (otherwise the instrument will see all four blades). If the rotor is behind a gearbox, the mark goes on the rotor itself, not on the input shaft.

The Tachometer

• Switching on: ON → AUTO → LASER; distance to the mark 10–500 mm (usually 20–50 cm); if there is glare, tilt the beam about 45° to the surface.
• Speed reading 2–3 times higher than actual? The laser sees “extra marks”: shiny spots, bolts, holes, welds, oil stains. Diagnosis is simple: 8695 / 2856 ≈ 3, so there are three “marks.” Sand or cover the shiny spots, change the angle and distance.
• Sun and bright daylight blind the photocell — even without direct sun. Symptom: you walk up to the tachometer (blocking the light) and it works; you step away and it stops. Cure: shade it any way you can — a piece of cardboard, a hand, a rag, an umbrella. “Nothing works better than a simple piece of cardboard.”
• The “12 or 6 o’clock” trick: if the implement on the tractor’s hydraulics slowly sags, aim the beam at the top or bottom point of the circumference — as it sags, the laser simply stops seeing the mark (which is obvious) instead of shifting the phase unnoticed.
• “Tachometer failure” even though the speed reading is correct — the tachometer filter is too strict for a machine with “floating” speed (belt drive, agricultural machinery). Standard cure: set Tacho unevenness = 200 (older versions) or loosen the Tacho filter en F4 – Settings (newer versions: Auto / Fine 1% … Rough 20%). But if you can, remove the cause of the instability first instead of loosening the filter.
• Above ~45,000–60,000 rpm the tape starts coming off and itself introduces unbalance — switch to a Hall sensor (it connects to the instrument).
• Checking the tachometer without a machine: point it at a lit mains-powered incandescent lamp: a working unit reads about 6,000 rpm on 50 Hz mains or about 7,200 rpm on 60 Hz mains (the filament flickers at twice the mains frequency).

6 Before Balancing: Vibration Meter, Spectrum, Resonance

Three checks that decide whether balancing is possible at all

Check 1. A minute in the Vibration Meter: stability

1. Open the Vibration Meter: F5 – Vibration Meter. Bring the machine up to operating speed.
2. Watch for a minute. The readings must repeat: amplitude scatter within 10–15%, phase within 10°. In newer versions a colored bar under the values helps: green STABLE means you can measure, orange UNSTABLE means you cannot.
3. If the readings “wander” more than that, it is too early to balance: the cause is resonance, unstable speed or a mechanical problem. The instrument will mistake random fluctuations for the effect of the trial weight, and the calculation will be garbage.
4. If the readings are unstable, you can increase the averaging (Promedios: 32 by default, 64–128 when unstable), but remember: averaging hides the symptom rather than curing the cause.

Check 2. Vo versus Vs and the spectrum

Compare V1o with V1s (see the theory). If the 1× component is only a small part of the overall vibration, open the Analyzer (F7 – Charts, F8 in the old version) and look at the spectrum:

Check 3. Resonance

Resonance is when the running speed coincides with a natural frequency of the structure. At resonance and near it (±20–30% of speed) balancing is impossible: the readings jump, the phase flips, and the instrument keeps asking for weights “all the way around” the rotor.

• Signs: vibration changes several-fold with a speed change of only 100–200 rpm (5 mm/s becomes 15 mm/s); the phase flips by ~180° as you pass through the peak; the structure reacts sharply to small things (a rag, a prop).
• Run-down (coast-down) plot is the main tool for finding it: Vibration Meter → Run-down tab → bring the rotor up to speed → F9 → switch off the drive and let it coast down freely. The program plots amplitude and phase versus speed: resonance = a peak plus a phase flip. Balance on a “plateau” well away from the peaks.
• Prueba de impacto (Bump test) is for machines that cannot be run up through resonance: with the machine stopped, enable the Prueba de impacto (Bump test) tab (checkbox in F4 – Settings → Experimental), press Start and strike with a rubber mallet (or a hammer through a wooden block — never bare steel) next to the sensor, not on it. The spectrum peaks are the natural frequencies; handy conversion: 1 Hz = 60 rpm.
• Stepped sweep: start from the minimum speed and go up in steps of 50–100 rpm, holding each step for half a minute and taking 3–4 measurements — a table of amplitude and phase will show the danger zones and the “valleys” where balancing is safe.
• How to get away from resonance: change the operating speed (sometimes a shift of 200–300 rpm is enough); change the stiffness — stiffening ribs, angle brackets, a prop (a classic case: a fan would not balance for 9 days; the fan housing was propped up with a jack and it balanced right away); change the measurement direction of the sensors. After any change, start the procedure over.

What speed to balance at

• At operating speed — the speed at which the machine actually works. “In theory a rigid rotor can be balanced at low speed, but in theory there is no difference between theory and practice, while in practice there is”: always verify the result at operating speed.
• Do not pick the speed “where it shakes the most” — it shakes the most at resonance, and that is exactly where you cannot balance.
• Vibration above 30–50 mm/s? Balance in two stages: first a rough pass at minimum speed (500–900 rpm), then the whole procedure again at operating speed. With very heavy vibration the casing “deforms like jelly” and the influence coefficients drift.
• If the machine has three speed settings, start with the lowest — at the highest one the sensors may overload.

7 Balancing: Planes, Trial Weight, Runs

The full procedure — from choosing the mode to installing the correction weights

One plane or two

• L/D < 0.5 — one plane (Nikolai plays it safe and uses 1/3 as the limit). A disk, a pulley or a narrow impeller behaves like a “pancake”: one mass is enough.
• L/D ≥ 0.5 — two planes. On a long rotor the ends can pull in opposite directions (couple unbalance) — a single mass cannot fix that.
• Use two planes even on a narrow rotor if it runs at 2,800–3,000+ rpm or needs grade G 2.5 or finer.
• A sign to watch for on site: you balanced in one plane, and vibration at the second bearing support stayed high — switch to two.
• The cost: one plane takes 3 runs (Run 0 → Run 1 → trim run), two planes take 4 (Run 2 is added).
• A hint after balancing: if the weight angles in both planes coincide, the unbalance was static; if the weights ended up at 0° and 180° in different planes, couple unbalance dominated.

Trial weight: mass and location

• Rough mass estimate — 0.5–2% of the rotor mass. There is only one acceptance criterion: after the trial run the 1× amplitude must change by 20–30% or the phase by 20–30° (with “wandering” readings — by 50% or more, but no more than twofold). If the change is smaller, increase the weight by a factor of 1.5–2 and repeat the run. The program itself rejects a response that is too weak: Peso de prueba demasiado pequeño.
• A weight that is too heavy is harmful too — it pushes the system into nonlinearity and is dangerous. Case in point: on a crusher with vibration below 1 mm/s the customer welded on 3–4 kg — vibration got sharply worse; 1 kg turned out to be ideal. The closer the rotor is to balance, the more sensitive it is to every gram.
• Where to put it: wherever it is convenient. That point becomes the angular zero for its plane. In two planes the weights do not have to be on the same line. Mark the spot with chalk or a marker — after a series of runs it is easy to lose track of.
• The trial weight is moved, not added: after Run 1 it is removed and moved to plane 2 for Run 2. Do not install both trial weights at once — the instrument will not be able to separate the planes. And be sure to remove the trial weight before installing the correction weights — people forget this all the time. If it cannot be removed (welded on) — tick Leave on rotor and the calculation will account for it.
• Weigh the trial weight and enter its mass exactly — one of the few numbers that must be accurate. The installation radius can be entered approximately (see below).

Procedure in the program (Modern form; the steps are the same in Classic)

1. Preparation. Tab F2 – Single-plane o F3 – Two-plane → F6 – Balancing (F7 in the old version). Choose the number of planes before the first run, enter the trial weight mass (Masa, g) and radius (Radius, mm) for each plane; check the units indicator: it should read “g”, not an orange “%”.
2. Run 0 — initial measurement. Bring the rotor up to operating speed, wait for a stable tacho signal and press F7 Run. The card records the amplitude, phase and speed. Stop the machine.
3. Run 1 — trial weight in plane 1. Install the weighed trial weight (its location = 0° of plane 1), run the machine at the same speed, press F7 Run. Check the response (20–30%). Stop, remove the weight (unless Leave on rotor is ticked).
4. Run 2 — trial weight in plane 2 (two-plane only). Same as before: weight in plane 2, run, measure, remove.
5. The calculation happens automatically after the last trial run: the plane columns show the mass (g) and angle (°), plus the action — add or remove mass. Open Show Polar — the polar plot shows the weight location and an arrow for the direction of rotation.
6. Install the correction weights — following the “half rule” (below), measuring the angle from the trial weight location of that plane in the direction of rotation, at the same radius.
7. Run T — trim run. Start the machine and press F7 Run. The program shows the residual vibration and unbalance and compares them with the tolerance (green — within tolerance, red — not). Then come the trim iterations (section “Trim Runs and Evaluating the Result”).

F5 Back button undoes the last step; Menu → New Rotor is a full reset (it also deletes the autosaved session!). Errors the program catches on its own: trial weight too small, readings did not change (“did you actually install the weight?”), sensor overload (clipping), unstable speed between runs.

Measuring the angle — this is where mistakes happen most often

8 Correction Weights: What to Use and How to Attach Them

Welding, bolts, clamps — and how much the weld itself weighs

Welding — the main method

• Tack welds first, full weld at the end. Tack the weight in at least 3–4 places with welds of 1 cm or longer — that is enough for the trim runs. Weld it fully only after the result is confirmed, and then do one more trim run: welding adds mass.
• A weld weighs 30–100 g, and with generous welding up to 300–400 g. A useful trick: on the final step, install 50–100 g less than calculated “to allow for the weld”, and after full welding grind a little off with an angle grinder if needed, or add a small counterweight on the opposite side.
• Material: mild low-carbon steel (high-carbon steel cracks under impacts) and electrodes rated for impact loads. Handy to carry: 20×20 mm square bar, wide body (fender) washers (up to ~100 g), large nuts. Bring a scale rated to 2 kg — weights for a mulcher can exceed a kilogram.
• Weights must not protrude beyond the outer diameter if anything runs over it (a belt, a roller).

Without welding

• Washers on the knife mounting bolts (combine harvesters) — no welding at all; washers on aluminum rivets on the back plate of a fan impeller.
• Pipe clamps on a driveshaft + thread locker; clips on blades — only spring steel with serrations (ordinary ones fly off).
• Adhesive automotive wheel weights — only on the inner surface of the rim (centrifugal force presses them on instead of tearing them off), and wrap tape over them. On small parts, heat-shrink tubing and reinforced (filament) tape help out.
• Do not use magnets as weights — at operating speed they fly off, guaranteed.

Common sense about quantity

• Do not remove old and factory weights — the instrument accounts for them automatically (they are already “built into” the initial vector). Remove them only when there is physically no room left for new ones.
• It is fine if the rotor ends up “bristling like a hedgehog” — what matters is that the vibration is gone. It is easier to add a new weight than to move an old one.
• A small calculated mass on a large machine can be ignored: “a stuck twig weighs 10 g.” On heavy rotors, weights under ~50 g are pointless.

9 Trim Runs and Evaluating the Result

Trim runs, when to stop, and what counts as “good”

Fine-tuning (trim iterations)

• After the trim run, no new trial runs are needed — the influence coefficients are already known. The program calculates an additional weight; install it (following the “half rule”) without removing the weights already in place, and repeat the trim run. Usually 2–3 iterations are enough.
• Watch the trend. If the vibration keeps dropping, even a little — continue. If it went up — stop: do not keep piling on weights, look for the cause (angle? mechanics? resonance?). It helps to compare every run against Run 0 in the log: sometimes the best result was at an intermediate step — you can go back to that weight configuration.
• The trim stage is endless by nature — the instrument will always suggest one more small weight. You choose when to stop, based on the tolerance. The closer you get to zero, the more the calculated mass and angle “wander” — near zero only noise remains; a warning about measurement scatter at low vibration is normal, not a fault.
• A healthy machine balances in 4–5 runs. Hitting “zero” on the first try happens only on laboratory stands. But if you have already done many runs with no result — that is a diagnosis: look for a mechanical cause.
• Repeatability check: remove the weights — the vibration should return to the initial level. If it did not — something inside the machine is shifting (sand inside, loose hammers, a bearing spinning in its seat); there is no repeatability.

Three different “tolerances” — do not mix them up

Approximate overall vibration zones

Broadband vibration on bearing housings, mm/s RMS (the historical ISO 10816-3 classification; a guideline, not a verdict — the support type changes the limit):

Nikolai’s field rules of thumb: anything below ~5 mm/s is a good result; for agricultural machinery on soft supports, up to ~7 is acceptable; below 2 mm/s — “a coin stands on its edge” (by the way, that is the best way to show the customer the result — and the best content: “shaking → weights → silence → coin”). For a heavy rotor on a light frame, push it below 1 mm/s. Fans have their own separate standard, ISO 14694.

ISO 1940 tolerance in the program

1. In the balancing window, click ISO 1940… (in older versions — Calcular).
2. Enter the rotor mass (kg) and the operating speed; choose the grade: G 6.3 — fans, impellers, driveshafts, agricultural rotors (the general-industry choice); G 2.5 — high-speed and precision machines; G 16 — rough agricultural units and crushers. A sense of scale: an 80 kg rotor at 3,000 rpm — G 6.3 ≈ 800 g·mm, G 16 ≈ 2,000 g·mm per plane.
3. Click “OK” — the tolerance is entered into the Tolerancia field; with two planes, each plane gets half. After the trim run the program shows PASS/FAIL.

• Residual 1× is below the set tolerance (in the program — green field / PASS)
• Readings repeat from run to run (amplitude and phase)
• Overall vibration V_Σ meets the standard or the agreed limit
• Weights are fully welded/secured, and one more trim run has been done after final welding
• The spectrum is not dominated by other defects that require repair
• The trial weight position is marked on the rotor (useful for re-balancing), the report is saved

10 Rebalancing, Archive, and Reports

The second time around, the same rotor is balanced with a single measurement

Saved influence coefficients

Influence coefficients — the “character” of a particular machine — are saved to the archive automatically by the Balanset software with every balancing job. Re-balancing the same rotor (or one of the same type) requires no trial runs:

1. Open the archive: F8 – Reports (F6 in the older version), select the record with a check mark in the Coeff column and press F5 – Apply coefficients (it must be F5 — the “OK” button does not load the coefficients!). Or from the balancing form: Menu → Load Coefficients.
2. Perform only Run 0 — the correction is calculated immediately.
3. Install the weights and do a trim run. The angle is measured from the trial weight position of the original balancing — that is why you should mark it on the rotor permanently.

Archive and reports

• Every balancing job is written to the archive automatically (you will be asked for the rotor name when closing the window). The archive lives in Documents\BalSoft\Bs1A and survives updates; to move it to another PC, just copy this folder.
• Report: the Report button in the balancing window or from the archive (F9 – Report). Export — PDF, HTML, RTF; the templates in the ReportTpl folder can be branded for your company.
• Vibration Meter and run-down plot reports — via the Report button in the corresponding Vibration Meter tabs: handy to attach to a “before/after” defect report.

11 Troubleshooting: Problems and Solutions

Symptom → what to check. The search filters all tables in this section

Balancing does not converge

Tachometer and RPM

Sensors and channels

Software and communication

Program messages

12 Typical Machines: Specifics and Pitfalls

From hands-on experience with ~1000 machines: what to check and what to expect on each type

13 Referencia

Hotkeys, mini glossary, useful program functions

Main window hotkeys

In the balancing windows: F7 — run the current step, F5 — one step back, F10/Esc — close. In the Vibration Meter and the Analyzer: F9 — Measure/Stop/Live.

Program functions people often overlook

• Run-down (coast-down plot) and Prueba de impacto (Bump test) — finding resonances (section 6).
• First trial weight estimate — an estimate of the mass and side of the first trial weight from Run 0.
• Fixed positions / Circular groove / Drill — placing weights on blades, three weights in a groove, balancing by drilling (section 8).
• Manual Input — manual entry of amplitude and phase (transferring data from another instrument or from an old session).
• Change corr. planes — recalculating the weights into other planes if they cannot be placed in the calculated ones.
• Mirror on the polar plot — the view “from the other side of the machine.”
• Calculators: ISO 1940 tolerance, trial mass; reports with brandable templates; unlimited archive; the program can be installed on as many computers as you like — no licenses, no subscriptions.

Mini glossary

15 Where to Go Next

The rest of the Balanset-1A documentation and tools

• Kit Balanset-1A — what is in the case, price and delivery.
• Manual de operación — the official software manual this guide is based on.
• Software de balanceo para Windows — vibration meter, one- and two-plane balancing, spectra, reports.
• Balancing theory — static and couple unbalance, G grades, the formulas behind the numbers.
• Residual unbalance calculator y vibration velocity limits — ISO 1940-1 and ISO 10816/20816 in one screen.
• Quick answers y el full knowledge base — the questions support gets most often.
• When balancing does not reduce vibration — misalignment, looseness, resonance and bearing defects.
• Technical forum y direct support — send your spectra and photos and get an answer.