Vibration Training Course in Gothenburg, Sweden

Kvalitest (Crystal Instruments’ Distributor for Sweden & Finland) organized a vibration training course for their customers in Gothenburg, Sweden from April 18-19, 2018.

The course presenter was Mr. José Luis López from Advensys. Mr. Lopez has extensive experience in the field of vibration testing and provides training courses all over Europe.

The training included an overview of theoretical concepts needed to understand the physical basis behind vibration testing and the equipment required. The testing technicians were provided with the opportunity to understand and perform tests according to relevant standards.

Jordi Gargallo - Europe Sales ManagerApril 28, 2018Non-applications

Announcing DIRA representing Crystal Instruments (Data Acquisition Products) in Spain

Dira is a Spanish company dedicated to offering digital solutions for predictive maintenance. Dira has been testing rotating machinery by operating the CoCo-80X in Route and OnSite mode with very successful results. Dira has confirmed that the CoCo-80X capabilities are sufficient in detecting mechanical failures such as: unbalance, misalignment, looseness, gear box defects, etc. The CoCo-80X has built-in electronic filters to envelope detect which are very useful to detect bearing failures in early stage.

Jordi Gargallo - Europe Sales ManagerApril 25, 2018Dira, SpainNon-applications

Vibration Tests for Seismic Qualification

Earthquakes are one of the most destructive forces of nature with the potential to cause devastating life and property losses. In addition to buildings and structures, equipment damaged by earthquakes may directly or indirectly generate hazards for people or the environment. For the safety of employees and the public, equipment designed to perform safety measures (e.g. shut down a reactor) or to function under certain levels of earthquakes for specified periods of time should pass a seismic qualification or a verification of earthquake resistance.

Tim Hsiao - Senior Product ManagerMarch 28, 2018Environmental Testing

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Vibration Control vs. Single Shaker Vibration Control

Vibration testing has been carried out since the 60’s of the 20th century. Concurrently, vibration control systems evolved into the current network-based 4th generation systems. During the last several decades, single shaker vibration testing has been performed for a wide range of industries and has contributed to the progress of modern industries. Many products have been qualified through single shaker vibration control testing to ensure their survival through launching, operating or transportation environmental conditions.

With the development of multiple shaker table systems, the availability of Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) controllers and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) vibration control started emerging a couple of decades ago. Due to the readiness of standards, (e.g., Mil STD 810G, Method 527 and IEST DTE 022 working group recommendation) MIMO Testing has gained a huge momentum in the past decade. The increased usage of multiple shaker testing systems has been adopted by not only our military and defense industries, but also NASA, automotive, and many other commercial industries as well.

Jeff Zhao, Ph.D.March 27, 2018Environmental Testing

IMAC 2018

Oh my! We now have both EMA and OMA!

Crystal Instruments is routinely a proud supporter of IMAC and 2018 proved to be no different. IMAC XXXVI had a broader focus in topics with the tagline being “It’s not just modal anymore.” The conference took on a note of more general-purpose data acquisition while still maintaining a strong academic focus on the modal analysis principles. The 2018 conference saw more topics including shock, and non-linear mechanics.

Brady Hiob - Sales EngineerMarch 22, 2018Non-applications

Announcing New Distribution Agreement with Kvalitest Nordic Ltd. for Finland and Sweden

Crystal Instruments (CI) is proud to announce a distribution agreement with Kvalitest Nordic Ltd. for the distribution of our products in Finland and Sweden. Kvalitest Nordic Ltd. has offices located in Muurame, Finland and in the cities of Västerås and Gothenburg in Sweden.

Jordi Gargallo - Europe Sales ManagerMarch 15, 2018Non-applications

Announcing New Distribution Agreement with Akron for BeNeLux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) Region

Crystal Instruments (CI) is proud to announce a distribution agreement with Akron (located in Belgium) for the distribution of our products in the BeNeLux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) region.

Jordi Gargallo - Europe Sales ManagerMarch 15, 2018Non-applications

Small Sat Symposium 2018

Small satellites have gained popularity because of their miniature size and their multitude of data acquisition techniques. With a current market value close to $9 billion in manufacturing as well as an average growth of over 12%, the Small Satellite industry is one of the fastest growing and lucrative sectors of technology.

Anastassia Tolpygo - Application EngineerMarch 5, 2018Non-applications

Remote Condition Monitoring (RCM)

Remote Condition Monitoring (RCM) by Crystal Instruments is designed for the remote monitoring of equipment or structures that are inaccessible to configure within a local network. Common applications and examples of remote condition monitoring include the monitoring of vibrations during the transportation of equipment, monitoring vibrations on bridges and structures close to rails or roadways, and monitoring vibrations caused by rotating windmills on the ground.

Sandeep Mallela - Director of EngineeringFebruary 20, 2018Machine Condition Monitoring

Introducing EDM Multi-Shaker Control (MSC) Feature

In the recent EDM 7.0 release, Crystal Instruments introduced Multi-Shaker Control (MSC) in EDM software as a new feature. The EDM MSC function enables users to view and monitor multiple shaker tests from one PC station. The user can observe the testing status, view individual signals from different shaker systems, and send commands to each controller from one centralized application. The MSC feature is especially useful for production applications, increasing efficiency and simplifying control processes. Up to 12 controllers can be accessed simultaneously.

Matt Chen - Senior Application & Sales EngineerFebruary 15, 2018Environmental Testing

Announcing Crystal Instruments’ Italy Distributor: Belotti Sistemi S.r.l.

Crystal Instruments (CI), a leading manufacturer of vibration testing, condition monitoring, and data acquisition solutions, is proud to announce the selection of a new distributor for our products in Italy.

Belotti Sistemi S.r.l.is located in Peschiera Borromeo, Italy, in close proximity to Milano, Belotti is a historic Italian group with a market history dating over 110 years old.

Belotti’s sister company, Centrotecnica, offers complementary solutions. Together, both companies provide a 360º service for vibration analysis, shock analysis, and more. They are considered an authority in the world of vibration and testing for the Italian and European markets.

Jordi Gargallo - Europe Sales ManagerJanuary 22, 2018Non-applications

14 New Desktop Icons Introduced for EDM 7.0 Release

In the next few days, we will launch the largest software release in Crystal Instruments’ company history: the EDM 7.0 software release. After spending over 10 months in development, including major software restructuring, bug fixes and feature enhancements, we are proud to unveil a grand new look for our EDM software.

In EDM 7.0, users can now run multiple EDM applications in parallel on the same computer. For example, while one EDM instance is activated to run a 64 channel Spider controller, another EDM instance can run in dynamic analyzer mode to acquire real-time data using the Spider-20, while a third instance can be activated to conduct post analysis. Running multiple instances of EDM on one PC will allow users to conduct sophisticated tests with greater efficiency.

James Zhuge, Ph.D. - Chief Executive OfficerJanuary 19, 2018Non-applications

The 3rd Annual SmallSat Symposium | February 5th - 8th

Crystal Instruments (CI) is proud to exhibit and help support Silicon Valley’s SmallSat Symposium. The symposium will be held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. This year is anticipated to be a banner year with over 800 participants expected to attend. Organizations and companies from across the country and around the world will hear from 120 speakers focused directly on the small sat industry.

Modal Testing Excitation Consideration

Overview
There are several modal testing methods that consider different types of excitations used. Commonly known methods include Hammer Impact testing and Modal Shaker testing. Please note that Operational Modal Analysis utilizing Ambient Excitation will not be discussed here.

Hammer impact testing uses an Impact Hammer to excite the structure under test. The impulse force applied to the structure is categorized in the broadband range excitation because it contains energy up to a certain frequency range. The hammer impact test is quick to set up and to carry out, and thus is widely used. However, it does have its limitations and there are some concerns to be considered.

Modal shaker testing utilizes a modal shaker to excite the structure under test. Users can select from a list of waveform types to excite the structure under test. This testing method is usually applied to complex or large scale structural testing. Compared to the hammer impact test, it is easier to duplicate. On the other hand, the modal shaker testing method requires more hardware (i.e., modal shaker(s), stinger, more input and output channels from the dynamic signal analyzer). This test setup requires an experienced user.

Jeff Zhao, Ph.D.January 18, 2018Structural Dynamics Testing

Announcing Crystal Instruments Europe

Crystal Instruments (CI) is pleased to announce the opening (effective November 2017) of its first European sales office. Crystal Instruments chose Barcelona, Spain as the European sales office location after considering its excellent business infrastructure and high quality facilities. These advantages, in addition to a cosmopolitan environment and access to hard working local and international talent, are greatly appreciated by Crystal Instruments.

Crystal InstrumentsNovember 8, 2017Non-applications

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