Vibration Control and Isolation: A Comprehensive Guide for Engineers

[An Introduction To Vibration Analysis – Part 4] Welcome to the fourth part of our ongoing introduction to the world of vibration and acoustic measurement and analysis. In this post,…

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Vibration Measurement Techniques: A Comprehensive Guide

[An Introduction To Vibration Analysis - Part 2] Introduction This post on vibration measurement techniques is the second in our series, introducing vibration analysis. Future posts will continue the exploration…

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Measure Vibration – Should we use Acceleration, Velocity or Displacement?

When using vibration data, especially in conjunction with modelling systems, the measured data is often needed as an acceleration, as a velocity and as a displacement. Sometimes different analysis groups require the measured signals in a different form. Clearly, it is impractical to measure all three at once even if we could. Physically it is nigh on impossible to put three different types of transducer in the same place.

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What Type of Accelerometer Should I Use? IEPE, Charge or Bridge-based?

What type of accelerometer should I use? What are the advantages/disadvantages of a charge mode accelerometer, an IEPE accelerometer and a bridge based accelerometer?

There are so many types of accelerometer that is often difficult to know what type of accelerometer to use. An IEPE accelerometer will have a high pass filter at about 5Hz. The charge type will, by it’s nature have what is effectively a high pass filter at about 0.1Hz. Therefore neither type will show DC levels. The charge type will usually have a lower frequency bandwidth than the IEPE type. Charge accelerometers can be used at higher temperatures however. (more…)

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How do I balance a shaft?

“How do I balance a shaft?” seems like a fairly straightforward question, but there are a number of things that we need to understand first. Here we look at a number of key concepts that need to be understood in order perform balancing.

What does balance mean?

Well broadly speaking to balance a shaft, mass must be added or removed at certain angles. The concept being that the centre of gravity and rotational centre of the shaft will be equal when the shaft is balanced. (more…)

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New Hammer Impact Software – Preview coming soon

After listening to customer feedback, we have completely re-engineered the DATS Hammer Impact software. The new version will ship with the next DATS update (not the soon-to-be-released V7.0.23). In the meantime you will be able to download and preview the new package. You will of course need a P8000 system and a DATS licence with the Hammer Impact option enabled. (more…)

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How Do I Get An XYZ Resultant Waterfall

A user has three signals captured using a triaxial accelerometer and asked “What is the simplest way to get the XYZ resultant from run-up file?” He had tried forming a resultant of the raw time histories, but didn’t fully understand the resultant time history.

Of course, the correct way of processing the data is to calculate the individual waterfalls from the x, y & z data and then calculate a resultant waterfall. (more…)

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What is Source Contribution Analysis (or SCA)?

How do you measure the causes of a noise or vibration with respect to several sources? Which source is causing what part of the response?

For example, how does the noise inside the cabin of a vehicle relate to the engine noise or wheel hub noise and vibration? (more…)

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