All,
We posted this on the other forums a while back and thought it would be of help over here as well to further understanding on turbochargers and reliability.
"It has came to our attention that there is some confusion in the arts of turbocharger balancing methods so we felt we'd take a moment to share our viewpoint on VSR balancing. We will not be discussing intricate details in the arts of proper VSR CHRA balancing, but wanted to give more of a high level overview of what it entails.
Being concerned about providing customers the best possible quality in each and every turbocharger we took delivery of a new VSR balancing machine last summer and have been very pleased with this machine to say the least.
We all know that performance is great but what makes it even better is reliability. The bottom line is that consumers need turbochargers they can count on, one that has been bench tested to perform, and it needs to be done prior to shipping. This could save countless amounts of headaches and costs down the road.
For those who may not know VSR stands for Vibration Sorting Rig. This is an expensive and delicate piece of equipment that gives visibility of a CHRA's performance under conditions they are subjected to when bolted to an engine. During bench testing the final assembled CHRA is bolted to a fixture and is injected with pressurized/heated oil and then a large supply of air is applied to propel the rotor through the entire operating RPM range that the unit will be subjected to in application (ie. 0-170k RPM). The entire RPM range is plotted on a graph along with a vibration intensity measurement at each point during acceleration of the rotor (measured in G's), and calculations are performed to help the operator determine where the rotor components can be lightened by very minute grinding techniques to lessen the mechanical vibration.
This essentially is a way to determine whether a turbocharger is assembled correctly and allows the VSR operator to have ultimate control over the balance of the turbo cartridge assembly. As one can imagine, "vibrations" in mechanical components suggest that the device is imperfect and subject to larger wear in shorter amounts of time. Large amounts of vibrations mean poor performance, slow spool, oil consumption, audible noise, and at times a quick failure. A smooth operating unit that does not vibrate means exceptional lifespan, quick spool, low oil consumption, and superb performance. It is also worth mentioning that no amount of "robust" hardware can compensate for a poorly balanced center section.
VSR's also indicate how well each CHRA is balanced by comparing the performance to a predefined OEM threshold. OEM thresholds are typically very high which can be acceptable for non high performance, but can lead to short turbocharger life if or when they are pushed harder than what they were intended.
Also keep in mind that even IF a cartridge was dynamically VSR'd, it doesn't mean that it was done proficiently. Ideally each CHRA will be at balanced to what we refer to as "the balance floor", "flatlined", or at least very close to it. The report shows the performance and illustrates to what caliber the CHRA was precisely balanced. They can not always be absolute perfection and it should not be expected, unfortunately, but turbocharger manufacturers should be diligent in achieving as close to perfection in each unit as possible.
Beware of manufacturers who do not have the cutting edge technology employed, as ultimately the product could suffer in reliability especially when pushed to the products outer limits. Some manufacturers maintain that they utilize the technology but they do not. Some others can VSR but NOT dynamically, and usually at too low of a speed to get the product quality high enough to survive. CHRA VSR Dynamic Balancing performance and analysis reports should ALWAYS be provided to confirm.
As always many things can cause a turbocharger to fail, sometimes outside of their control but this is an absolute safe way to ensure the product is built to exceptional standards.
Below is a sample of a VSR report for visual reference.
Thanks,
Rob
PS- Would like to take a moment also to give a big thank you to Jesse @ Pure Turbo for helping us along and furthering the understanding in the art of VSR balancing!"
We posted this on the other forums a while back and thought it would be of help over here as well to further understanding on turbochargers and reliability.
"It has came to our attention that there is some confusion in the arts of turbocharger balancing methods so we felt we'd take a moment to share our viewpoint on VSR balancing. We will not be discussing intricate details in the arts of proper VSR CHRA balancing, but wanted to give more of a high level overview of what it entails.
Being concerned about providing customers the best possible quality in each and every turbocharger we took delivery of a new VSR balancing machine last summer and have been very pleased with this machine to say the least.
We all know that performance is great but what makes it even better is reliability. The bottom line is that consumers need turbochargers they can count on, one that has been bench tested to perform, and it needs to be done prior to shipping. This could save countless amounts of headaches and costs down the road.
For those who may not know VSR stands for Vibration Sorting Rig. This is an expensive and delicate piece of equipment that gives visibility of a CHRA's performance under conditions they are subjected to when bolted to an engine. During bench testing the final assembled CHRA is bolted to a fixture and is injected with pressurized/heated oil and then a large supply of air is applied to propel the rotor through the entire operating RPM range that the unit will be subjected to in application (ie. 0-170k RPM). The entire RPM range is plotted on a graph along with a vibration intensity measurement at each point during acceleration of the rotor (measured in G's), and calculations are performed to help the operator determine where the rotor components can be lightened by very minute grinding techniques to lessen the mechanical vibration.
This essentially is a way to determine whether a turbocharger is assembled correctly and allows the VSR operator to have ultimate control over the balance of the turbo cartridge assembly. As one can imagine, "vibrations" in mechanical components suggest that the device is imperfect and subject to larger wear in shorter amounts of time. Large amounts of vibrations mean poor performance, slow spool, oil consumption, audible noise, and at times a quick failure. A smooth operating unit that does not vibrate means exceptional lifespan, quick spool, low oil consumption, and superb performance. It is also worth mentioning that no amount of "robust" hardware can compensate for a poorly balanced center section.
VSR's also indicate how well each CHRA is balanced by comparing the performance to a predefined OEM threshold. OEM thresholds are typically very high which can be acceptable for non high performance, but can lead to short turbocharger life if or when they are pushed harder than what they were intended.
Also keep in mind that even IF a cartridge was dynamically VSR'd, it doesn't mean that it was done proficiently. Ideally each CHRA will be at balanced to what we refer to as "the balance floor", "flatlined", or at least very close to it. The report shows the performance and illustrates to what caliber the CHRA was precisely balanced. They can not always be absolute perfection and it should not be expected, unfortunately, but turbocharger manufacturers should be diligent in achieving as close to perfection in each unit as possible.
Beware of manufacturers who do not have the cutting edge technology employed, as ultimately the product could suffer in reliability especially when pushed to the products outer limits. Some manufacturers maintain that they utilize the technology but they do not. Some others can VSR but NOT dynamically, and usually at too low of a speed to get the product quality high enough to survive. CHRA VSR Dynamic Balancing performance and analysis reports should ALWAYS be provided to confirm.
As always many things can cause a turbocharger to fail, sometimes outside of their control but this is an absolute safe way to ensure the product is built to exceptional standards.
Below is a sample of a VSR report for visual reference.
Thanks,
Rob
PS- Would like to take a moment also to give a big thank you to Jesse @ Pure Turbo for helping us along and furthering the understanding in the art of VSR balancing!"