Eugene Vogel
EASA Pump & Vibration Specialist

On occasion, service centers are asked to balance fan blades that are designed for an overhung mounting. The fan blade may be received mounted on the shaft, or without any shaft. The decision has to be made about how to mount the rotor in the balancing machine. One solution is to fabricate a mandrel to balance the fan blade between the machine pedestals. The other alternative is to mount the fan blade on the end of the shaft in an overhung configuration, with the fan blade outboard of both balancing machine pedestals. This would be the more expedient method if the fan blade is already mounted on the shaft in the overhung configuration.

As long as the fit of the fan blade to the shaft doesn’t change (when using a mandrel), it can be mounted in either configuration for balancing without affecting the results. If the fan blade is balanced in one configuration, it is balanced for the other. 

How the fan blade is mounted doesn’t change the balance, as long as the fit to the shaft doesn’t change. So the question is, “Which is easiest?” Often it is easiest to mount the rotor in the overhung configuration, but balancing in that configuration presents some challenges. Those challenges are addressed here.

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