Use of Laser Targeting in Precise Machinery Surveys

Precise machinery surveys, incorporating laser targeting, can now be carried out in near real time using an electronic theodolite system. Within the Industrial Alignment Project, a cooperative research and development effort involving the Department of Surveying Engineering at The University of Calgary, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and 14 industry partners, an electronic theodolite system has been developed and applied in a number of precise machinery surveys. In this paper the electronic theodolite system is described, including the computer programs for data collection, network adjustment, and geometric form fitting. Possibilities for laser targeting are then discussed, followed by a detailed description of three different applications. The first application is the alignment of a test rig, the second the alignment of a rotary cement kiln, and the third the surfacing profiling of a granulator tire and trunnion. These three examples of the use of laser targeting in precise machinery surveys is indicative of the wide variety of potential applications in this field.