An Examination of the various accelerometer transducer types

Posted by eliteinternet on July 19th, 2022

Vibration is still among the first signs of a machine's health in the realm of mechanical maintenance. The first step in preventing vibration from disrupting the production environment is to understand why vibration happens and how it shows itself.

Vibration measurements are performed to generate the data required for generating meaningful and substantial conclusions from the system under evaluation. The aforementioned information can be quite useful in both lowering and removing the vibration. Accelerometer transducers, preamplifiers, processing equipment, and display apparatus are some of the components found in a typical vibration measurement system.

In vibration testing and analyses, transducers are required to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy. This apparatus' role, which is to cause a mechanical vibration, is to produce an electrical signal. Accelerometers and velocity pickups are two transducers that have been mounted on the vibrating gadget. A common transducer that does the task of producing an output signal inversely proportional to the acceleration of the vibrating instrument is the accelerometer.

Since they are responsible for transforming mechanical energy into electrical energy, the transducers are typically utilized in vibration measurement and analyses. As a result of mechanical vibration, they accomplish this by producing an electrical signal. Transducers include any installed or connected velocity pickups and accelerometers that are used to measure vibrations in a structure.

A proportional electrical output signal to the vibrating object's velocity is produced by velocity pickups. The peak represents the sensitivity of the velocity pickup because of the cyclical nature of the vibrating mechanism's velocity. Therefore, it is a measurement of the voltage generated at the point of maximum speed. The equipment's native frequencies are extremely low, and it is calibrated to determine vibration frequencies greater than the pickup's natural frequency. Since these velocity pickups are sensitive but robust enough to withstand a harsh industrial environment, they are regarded as useful transducers.

An output signal is generated by the accelerometer. The acceleration of the vibrating mechanism is inversely correlated with the size of this electrical signal.

Sensor cables and spectrum analyzers are typically used as the processing and display equipment for vibration data. The aforementioned analyzer may be a straightforward tool that calculates the value of the vibration displacement or it may be a tool that instantly analyses the entire vibration frequency range. These analyzers are possibly the most crucial tool for measuring vibration. They often fall into one of two categories: tools with continuous bandwidth or constant bandwidth percentage. They often have a graphical display of some kind to provide thorough frequency information.