Soft Foot

Soft foot check procedure
An essential component of any successful alignment procedure is the determination

and correction of soft foot. A wobbly machine mount causes alignment frustration. The
machine stands differently each time an alignment is attempted, and each set of checking
measurements indicate that the machine is still misaligned. Additionally, when the machine
is bolted down strain is placed upon the machine casing and bearing housings. Essentially
there are two types of soft foot as illustrated in the sketch below.
- Parallel soft foot indicates that the baseplate and machine foot are parallel to each
other allowing correction by simply adding shims of the correct thickness.
- Angular soft foot is caused by the machine feet forming an angle with one another.
This situation is more complex to diagnose and to correct, one solution is to use tapered shims
to fill the angular space between the baseplate and the foot, a more drastic but long-term
solution is to remove the machine and grind the machine feet flat.
Elimination of obvious soft foot
Using a variety of techniques soft foot can be determined prior to alignment
commencing. The following procedures can be used to make sure that each foot is carrying
the same amount of weight.
Dial indicator
With all of the hold down bolts tightened, place a dial indicator on the foot pads as
close to a bolt head as possible, loosen the bolt and read the deflection as shown in the
following figure. Retighten the bolt and move onto the next foot pad and repeat the procedure
for all of the machine feet.
Feeler gauges
Using a set of feeler gauges, loosen one machine foot at a time measure the gap that
appears below the loosened machine foot and record this. Retighten the machine foot and
move to the next foot.
When eliminating soft foot follow these steps:
Having determined the amount of soft foot present it is possible to make adjustments
to the machine according to the soft foot condition diagnosed.
• Check all four machine feet, any foot showing over 0.08 mm correct as
appropriate.
• Examine the largest (or two largest if the same) soft foot with feeler gauges to
determine the type of soft foot. It never hurts to examine the other feet as well,
but concentrate on finding and fixing the largest problem first.
• Correct the condition diagnosed by shimming only one foot if any.
• If all feet are within tolerance commence the alignment.
Examples
This example shows classic soft foot problems with a rock across feet B and D.
Do not shim both feet to eliminate the rock. The best solution would be to shim only one
foot 80/100 mm and to recheck all four feet.
Many additional soft foot problems may be found including bent feet strain
imposed by pipe work or “squishy foot” caused by too many shims under the machine
feet. More examples are shown in the following drawings.
Soft foot example: bent foot – step shim at foot C and recheck all feet
Soft foot example: pipe strain – relieve Soft foot example: squishy foot – re
external forces shim all feet with max 3 shims and
recheck
Vertical Pumps
If a vertical pump is secured with
more than four bolts, loosen all of them
except the four, located at the 3, 6, 9 and 12
o’clock position (see image). On these bolts
take readings.
Check each of these four positions
with a dial indicator or feeler gauges,
loosening only one at a time. If any bolt
position yields a flange movement of greater
than 0.05mm, correct as appropriate. Once
this has been done, simply feeler gauge the
remaining bolt positions with their respective
bolts loose and shim accordingly.
The idea is to eliminate frame
distortion by shimming these four points until
no further movement occurs.
Stress Induced Soft foot- Flange alignment Criteria
One more soft foot condition is the one caused from external forces induced to
the machine. It can be caused from pipe strain or any stresses induced by the external
connections as well as drastic misalignment. Binding at the coupling can also induce
external forces that can result to a soft foot condition.
Before fixing the piping flanges on the machine flanges, planes have to be
aligned in parallel. The difference between the maximum and the minimum distance will
be a “T” misalignment value which should be checked with the acceptance criteria sheet
as shown in the diagram. After each adjustment, check and record the measurements
until an acceptable alignment is reached.
Flange alignment acceptance criteria

Soft Foot

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Soft foot check procedure

An essential component of any successful alignment procedure is the determination

When eliminating soft foot follow these steps:

Stress Induced Soft foot- Flange alignment Criteria

Flange alignment acceptance criteria

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