Summertime…birds chirp in the warm early mornings, crickets sing late into the evening haze, and the Vibration Institute holds their Annual Training Conference and Expo! This year’s exhibition was hosted by VI as well as Reliabilityweb.com, the world’s most trusted source of the latest reliability and uptime maintenance news and information in the Predictive Maintenance and Reliability Industries. As organizers of the expo, they even hosted numerous interesting live-streamed interviews with industry professionals right on the exhibit floor.
Read morePower System Stabilizer
Stability is an important part of ensuring operability of power generation systems. Large transients can cause power systems to become unstable and can eventually lead to blackouts. Power systems need to be designed to withstand large disturbances and maintain stability under changing operating conditions. Devices such as the generator automatic voltage regulator (AVR) and power system stabilizer (PSS) are widely used to manage these system instabilities. These control devices can be attached to power generation systems to help improve stability.
Read moreMIMO Stepped Sine Testing Technique
The EDM Modal MIMO Stepped Sine Testing option provides multiple Stepped Sine excitations to measure Frequency Response Functions (FRFs). The MIMO Stepped Sine test runs with one frequency at a time, thus providing a high signal-to-noise ratio of sine excitations. The drive voltages can be specified, or input forces are controlled to provide the proper excitation levels for the structure under test. During MIMO Stepped Sine testing, a multiple number of sweeps with different phase conditions are implemented to make the MIMO FRF measurement possible. This process is equivalent to the randomized phase situation of MIMO FRF testing using uncorrelated random excitation methods. An accurate sine tracking filter provides leakage-free response spectra. A system identification step prior to the stepped sine test helps control excitation levels.
Read moreImproving the Flagships - Spider-81 and Spider-81B
In 2010, Crystal Instruments introduced the fourth generation of vibration controllers, the Spider-81 and Spider-81B. Through continuous revisions in the past years, these flagship models have improved and evolved into the most reliable vibration controller offered in the market. Now in 2018, Crystal Instruments is proud to announce a new edition of the Spider-81 and Spider-81B.
Read moreWhole Body Vibration Measurements Help Obtain Vibration Emission Data
What is WBV used for?
Many industrial workers are subjected to whole-body vibration on a regular basis, which can have a noticeable effect on their health. Employers are expected to provide an accurate risk assessment of whole-body vibrations resulting from use of their equipment. WBV measurements are therefore necessary to provide access to vibration emission data. The availability of accurate vibration emission data is essential to the process for employers completing a vibration risk assessment.
Automotive Testing Expo Stuttgart 2018
For the third year in a row, Sentek Dynamics and Crystal Instruments attended the Automotive Testing Expo in Stuttgart, Germany. This event is regarded as the world’s largest vehicle, component, validation technology, and services exhibition that featured more than 400 exhibitors with over 9,000 attendees. It was very exciting to have the opportunity to interact with the industry and display our products to a global audience.
Read morePatented Technology & Improved Hardware Extends Spider System Dynamic Range to 160 dB
Crystal Instruments pioneered the concept of using Dual ADCs at each input channel. With the two ADCs working in parallel and set to different voltage ranges, Spiders system can measure low amplitude variations within a high amplitude input signal with great amplitude resolution and accuracy.
With advancements in electronic components and manufacturing, electronic components with lower noise have evolved. Crystal Instruments integrated the advances in electronics into the Spider systems to achieve an additional 10 dB in dynamic range, extending the dynamic range of Spider systems to 160 dBFS. An experimental analysis highlighting this new achievement is published in this article.
Read moreESTECH 2018 Review
Crystal Instruments (CI) recently attended IEST’s ESTECH 2018 conference in Orlando, Florida. This conference is for leading professionals in product reliability, nanotechnology facilities, environmental testing, and controlled environment rooms (clean rooms). From various working groups, seminars, and classes, ESTECH is a great opportunity to meet and understand the changing demands in industry, academia, and government.
Read moreOperational Modal Analysis
Experimental modal analysis (EMA) is based on forced excitation tests during which Frequency Response Functions (FRFs) are measured. However, real world loading conditions often differ considerably from those used in lab testing. Since all real-world systems are to a certain extent non-linear, the models obtained under real loading will be linearized for much more representative working points. Additionally, environmental influences on system behavior, such as pre-stress of suspensions, load-induced stiffening or aero-elastic interaction, will be taken into account.
Read moreCrystal Instruments Achieves ISO 9001:2015 Certification
Crystal Instruments is proud to announce that we have successfully achieved ISO 9001:2015 accreditation by TÜV SÜD America Inc. TÜV SÜD is one of the world's leading testing, certification, and inspection providers.
ISO 9001 is the world’s most widely recognized standard for quality management systems. It helps organizations meet the expectations and needs of their customers. The new ISO 9001:2015 standard has several benefits over the 2008 version. It puts greater emphasis on leadership engagement and helps address organizational risks and opportunities in a structured manner. Supply chain management is addressed more effectively.
Read moreAutomotive Testing Show and Conference, Mexico 2018
Automotive production is one of the most dynamic of industries in Mexico. The country has become a global player in both the automotive OEM and auto parts sectors. Many leading motor companies have made their move towards manufacturing in Mexico, so the need for vibration testing and instrumentation has increased as well. Conferences and trade shows have seen an uptick as a result, with a generation of intrigued engineers fiercely researching the possibilities and specialties of the testing and simulation industry throughout the country.
Read moreMultiple Shaker Table Systems
There are many different shaker table arrangements based on various types of MIMO testing applications. The Multiple Shaker Table System ranges from Multiple Exciter Single Axis (MESA) to Multiple Exciter Multiple Axis (MEMA) with 2 to 6 shakers involved (e.g., three axis translational shaker table, four-poster, 6 DOF Multi Axis Shaker Table (MAST), etc.)
Multi-Exciter Single-Axis (MESA) is a type of application in which multiple exciters provide dynamic input to a test item along a single axis. For cases in which two exciters are driven to a common specification with respect to both phase and amplitude, the output may be described basically in one axis of excitation. For cases in which two exciters are driven to independent magnitude and/or phase specifications, the output may need to be described in terms of a forward axis and aft axis and, perhaps, a rotational axis about the test item’s center-of-gravity (CG).
Read moreCrystal Instruments International Sales Meeting - Europe
During the second week of April, Crystal Instruments hosted an International Sales Meeting for our European distributors. With 4 employees from CI, we had over 28 people in attendance in Barcelona, Spain. Our attendees consisted of our partners in Europe: Belotti Sistemi, Akron, Kvalitest, dBVib, ViaXys, ADM, DIRA, Alava Ingenieros, MotionTech, EmTEST, THP, AcSoft, VibroAkustik, Amtest – TM Kft., Kistler Eastern s.r.o., ProgramTeh, Sartorom, Ecspdm, and Dynamic-TM.
Read moreVibration 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.
Read moreAnnouncing DIRA representing Crystal Instruments (Data Acquisition Products) in Spain
Crystal Instruments and Dira Serving the Spanish Territory
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 VDC (vibration data collector) 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.
Dira highlights Crystal Instruments’ full support by Mr. Jordi Gargallo (European Sales Manager) and Trung-Duong Nguyen (Application Engineer) to install and to use the software. The customized support offered to the clients by Crystal and Dira is appreciated by the end users of this technology.
With Crystal Instruments’ full support and commitment, Dira will offer complete predictive maintenance solutions in combination with a high level of technical service oriented to the digital transformation of the plant maintenance.
Read moreVibration 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.
Read moreMultiple-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.
Read moreIMAC 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.
Read moreAnnouncing 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.
Read moreAnnouncing 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.
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