Acquiring vibration data is only part of the challenge of vibration measurement; the other part is the analysis of the data acquired. It’s important to understand the types of waveforms associated with vibration analysis, the important differences between them and when it is appropriate to use each type of vibration analysis tool. Here’s a quick overview of some of the basics.

This blog will discuss and compare several different ways to analyze your vibration data. And for a deeper dive, read our handbook on Vibration Measurements.

Accelerometers are widely used to monitor vibration in aerospace, automotive and manufacturing applications. Mechanical engineers often use them to diagnose problems with rotating equipment or assess the stability of structures that are subject to periodic stresses (such as monitoring the vibrations caused by trains/trucks crossing bridges, etc.) They are also often used in monitoring for condition-based maintenance, allowing engineers to examine the vibrations produced by a piece of equipment to assess its health, and monitoring the stresses sensitive equipment undergoes during transportation.

This blog will discuss and compare several different accelerometer types that can be used for vibration measurement. And for a deeper dive, read our handbook on Vibration Measurements.

Light sensors seem pretty simple. They sense the light, just like a thermometer senses the temperature, and a speedometer senses speed. Temperature and speed are easy to comprehend because we sense them in a straight-forward way. But light is very complicated. Temperature and speed are intensive properties, so they don’t depend on the mass or size of an object.  Light can be measured as an extensive property, meaning the total light collected depends on the size of the collector (e.g. a landfill solar array collects more light than a tiny solar phone charger), or intensively by dividing by the area.

But what are light sensors even measuring? Photons? Energy? It’s complicated. The units are important to understand before attempting to understand light sensors.

I was lucky enough to visit the Greater Boston Food Bank, and see how they operate on both their charitable side and their more industrial side. I took some real world vibration measurements from their compressors, and this post describes the basics of how to interpret the data. 

During these cold winter months I warm my living room with a gas fireplace, and I've always been curious about how the heat moves through the room. So, since I have the tools (namely, my company's Slam Stick X Data Loggers), I figured I’d take some recordings, describe my set up, and share what I learned.