Your One-Stop Shop for Engineering, Electromechanical & Construction Tools
Your One-Stop Shop for Engineering, Electromechanical & Construction Tools
Shim sheets are also the quickest method of fixing gaps, machine base leveling, and soft foot removal- so your assets will run cooler, quieter, and longer. Be it liquid alignment, truing a CNC bed, or the dissimilarity of two metals isolation, the correct choice of shim saves call-outs, and time is money.
Technicians normally grab Pre-Cut Shims straight when a tight shutdown window are involved in order to achieve target heights as fast as possible and keep the production on schedule.
A dependable shim should:
For routine motor alignments, maintenance teams keep ACCUSHIM SHIM KITS A, B, C, D in the crib so stable stacks can be built in minutes during line stops.
A shim sheet is a layer of accurately sized material that bridges geometrical cracks, and secures the geometry under pumps, motors, gearboxes, CNCs, presses, and structural plates. The right shim decreases vibration, increases the bearing life and avoids the phenomenon of the align today drift tomorrow cycle.
Shops tend to punch in microns on the instrument panels of machines, or in light tooling where easy machining is important, using Brass Shim Stock to cut the customs without visiting the machine shop.
Stainless Steel (304/316): Combines stiffness with corrosion resistance for washdown, marine, and outdoor sites. Where documentation and labeled inventory help audits, many plants standardize on Lyon SS Shim Stock for repeatable outcomes.
Brass: Spark-reduced and easy to machine; ideal for instrumentation and fixtures that need stable dimensions. For buyers who want clean labeling across sizes, Lyon Brass Shim Stock is a common choice on job cards.
Copper: Excellent conductivity and heat spreading—use under bus bars, switchgear, or where thermal paths matter. Electrical teams keep Copper Shim Stock handy to maintain low resistance while holding tight thickness.
Phosphor Bronze: Better spring properties and wear resistance than plain brass; useful under vibrating mounts. Reliability engineers add Phosphor Bronze Shim Stock to reduce rework between PM cycles.
Use the ELITE framework to choose quickly and correctly: Environment, Load, Installation, Tolerance, Economics.
Environment. Moisture, chlorides, washdown, and chemical splash point to stainless (316 for harsher chlorides). Indoors and dry? Carbon steel can be fine if protected. Where dissimilar metals meet, add a plastic or PTFE isolator.
Load. Heavy static loads and clamping forces favor metals (stainless/carbon steel) for stiffness and creep resistance. When slight spring behavior helps stability under vibration, phosphor bronze is smart.
Installation. If minutes matter, slotted shims slide around existing bolts without full teardown. If maximum stability is required and disassembly is safe, solid shims minimize slot opening under point loads. Laminated (peelable) lets you fine-tune thickness at the machine and then lock the stack with a cap shim.
Tolerance. Critical geometry demands burr-free edges, tight thickness control, and flatness. Color-coding and labeled packs make QA easier and speed repeat jobs.
Economics. Balance unit price against downtime. Stock fast-use pieces for common frames, keep raw sheets for custom shapes, and avoid tall, wobbly stacks that settle and trigger rework. For custom stainless plates that match awkward base geometries, technicians keep Scarb SS Shim Stock in the fabrication area so one-off shapes can be cut without waiting.
Marine & desalination. Chloride-rich, high-humidity sites punish poor material choices. Stainless stacks with isolation barriers keep alignments true, resist pitting, and protect against galvanic pairs—essential in coastal plants and harbors.
Oil & gas / petrochem. Washdowns, solvents, and heat cycles demand corrosion resistance and solid flatness. Stainless with laminated fine-tuning reduces soft foot after thermal swings, while isolators protect mixed-metal skids.
Construction & MEP. Commissioning AHUs, chillers, and pump sets on tight deadlines benefits from slotted formats for speed and laminated pieces for exact handover heights. Document final stack thicknesses for warranty audits and future PM tasks.
Manufacturing (CNC/press). Die height tweaks, bed leveling, and fixture repeatability all improve with laminated or phosphor-bronze elements. Proper records eliminate guesswork at changeover.
Power & data centers. Copper shims create reliable, low-resistance paths and act as heat spreaders under critical components. Where frames mix metals, dielectric barriers prevent galvanic issues in humid equipment rooms.
Match environment (wet → SS316/304; dry → carbon steel), load (heavy → metal; isolation → plastic/PTFE), and install need (slotted = speed, solid = stability, laminated = fine-tune). Choose burr-free, tight-tolerance stock and use fewer, thicker pieces.
There’s no single “best”—use SS316/304 for corrosion, carbon steel for low-cost stiffness, brass/bronze for spark-safe/machinable or vibration, copper for thermal/electrical paths, and plastic/PTFE for dielectric or anti-galvanic isolation.
Basic rule: shim = measured gap. For level/laser: shim (mm) = slope (mm/m) × distance (m). Example: 2 mm/m over 1.2 m → shim ≈ 2.4 mm at the low end.
Measure with feeler gauges/level/indicator, apply the relevant formula, then build a stable pack (fewer, thicker shims; laminated only to fine-tune). Re-torque and recheck—alignment should hold with low vibration.
Hone material/environment and load It is time to match material to environment and load, select a format that suits your working environment, and set the appropriate tolerance. Have a smart combination in place speed, metals, niche specialty alloys, and your machines will operate in step and reduce vibration and call-backs. In case of neatly labelled brass assortments in commissioning and maintenance, most buyers standardize on Lyon Brass Shim Stock so that the QA sign-offs can take shorter times.
Always choose a trusted supplier of shim sheets like Al Sakeena Building Materials & Electricals Trading for high-quality shim sheets at reasonable prices. Visit or call +971 4 227 1266 for more info.
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