Extruders are critical to the plastics industry. Proper alignment of the feed throat and the barrel are critical to long life of the barrels and screws.

A laser transmitter is installed on the gearbox output shaft and adjusted to represent the center of rotation of the gearbox out to within 0.5 mils or better (0.0005”). A detector inserted into the feed throat and output end enables the data to be collected in under 5 minutes.

Position adjustments are made “LIVE”. Typically, the barrel can be alignment to within 0.001” of the OEM or customer specification, horizontally and vertically, with respect to the gearbox output shaft. Self centering detector shuttle allows quick and precise measurements of the barrel relative to the gearbox center of rotation.