Pipeline Testing
Pipeline Testing Customer Case The customer wants to test pipelines for corrosion and cracks. They intend to use a small robot which they can send into the pipeline. This robot's purpose is to test the pipe by ultrasound and magnetic field for cracks, corrosion and other damage. The customer is using 2 different types of transducers, one for ultrasound and one for the magnetic field. They are sending a pulse with a magnetic field generator, capturing the received signal, rotating the transducer 1/2 degree and then sending another pulse and capturing signal again. After a complete 360 degree rotation, [...]
Vibration and Balancing Systems: The Spectrum Plot
Vibration and Balancing Systems: The Spectrum Plot Aviation / Aerospace Engine Balancing Vibration Description The Spectrum Plot: Types of Aircraft Vibration One of the least understood features of the PBS series of vibration analyzers is the spectrum function. The spectrum functionality is a more difficult function to understand, but once mastered, technicians can quickly develop an extremely in-depth understanding on what is going on in an engine during a test. Figure 1, below, shows a basic spectrum from the PBS system. On the x-axis is frequency, measured in Hz (per second). [...]
Plasma Coating of Airplane Parts
Plasma Coating of Airplane Parts Customer Case The customer produces plasma coating for airplane parts. They need to count the number of plasma particles on these parts so that they can adjust the plasma torch to be less or more powerful in order to obtain the required thickness of plasma coating. Using a particle detector, they are able to measure temperature, speed and quantity of particles. These parameters are used as feedback to control the plasma coating process. GaGe Case Solution The customer requires a scope card that has both high-resolution and a fast sampling rate. At the time [...]
Gas Turbine Monitoring
Gas Turbine Monitoring Customer Case A customer who designs and develops turbo-machinery uses automated data-acquisition and reduction routines. The complete system can sequentially scan up to 144 pressures, 40 electrical signals, and 50 temperatures. It can also acquire and analyze dynamic pressure/vibration signals as well as the scanned steady-state data. They do precise pneumatic traversing for high-performance radial-flow stages. Using a computer-controlled data-acquisition system, the detailed internal pressures and temperatures can be acquired and processed. Laboratory data files are generated, which can be directly used to process the impeller-cover static pressure data. The data can also be automatically processed [...]
Thickness Information of Composite Materials
Thickness Information of Composite Materials Industrial Thickness Information Of Composite Materials Thickness Description Introduction: Composite materials consist of two or more materials which include a substrate or base material such as paper, cotton cloth, or glass cloth along with a resin or adhesive such as epoxy, melamine, or silicone. To make a thermoset laminate, the base material is coated with the adhesive so that layers of material can be pressed under heat and pressure into sheet form. The Problem: Composite material thickness needed to be verified prior to forming or [...]
Capacitance Probe Detects Water Contamination in Oiling Systems
Capacitance Probe Detects Water Contamination in Oiling Systems Industrial, Research & Development Capacitance Probe Detection of Water Contamination Metrology, Tolerances Description [Application Note 12218]  The adverse effects of water in oil are well known. Negative consequences include higher viscosity reduced load carrying ability hydrolysis (the formation of acids, sludge, and varnish) foam formation and air entrainment additive depletion corrosion on metal surfaces loss of lubrication film strength leading to increased wear cavitations filter plugging Problem As oil system reliability decreases, maintenance and repair activities increase. Corrective action must be taken [...]
Avionics Bus Monitoring
Avionics Bus Monitoring Customer Case The requirement is to monitor anomalies on an avionics bus that controls systems aboard spacecrafts. The customer will know typical rise times, and therefore, will look for anomalous high-voltage pulses that may occur due to sunspots or cosmic rays. An A/D card with at least 12-bits of vertical resolution is required to capture anomalous glitches for characterization. The required sampling speed is 50 KHz, on two simultaneous channels that monitor two bus lines. The input signal bandwidth is typically 4 KHz. The customer would like to write his own data acquisition application programs in [...]
Digital Capacitance Sensor Provides Closed-Loop Piezo Positioning Control
Digital Capacitance Sensor Provides Closed-Loop Piezo Positioning Control Consumer Electronics, Industrial Closed-Loop Piezo Positioning Control Positioning, Robot Guide Description [Application Note 40418] 21st century electronic manufacturing requires fast, precise positioning of miniature components. For many assembly lines, process control has moved from mm to micron, or even sub-micron, accuracy. Keeping pace with the demand for greater precision requires piezoelectric positioning actuators and/or voice coil motors with closed-loop feedback control. Challenge Traditionally, analog feedback from capacitance sensors has enabled the closed-loop control of conventional positioning stages. Harnessing the extreme accuracies achievable [...]
Signal Generator Calibrates Strain Gauge Electronics
Signal Generator Calibrates Strain Gauge Electronics Industrial, Automotive, Transportation, Research & Development, Civil Engineering Calibration of Strain Gauge Electronics Amplitude; Bending, Tensile & Compression Description [Application Note 31218] The strain gauge has been in use many years and is the fundamental sensing element for many types of sensors, including pressure sensors, load cells, torque sensors, and position sensors. The majority of strain gauges are metallic foil types, available in a wide choice of shapes and sizes to suit a variety of applications. Foil type strain gauges feature a pattern or [...]
Signal Generator Simulates Eddy Current Probe
Signal Generator Simulates Eddy Current Probe Industrial, Power Generation, Automotive, Power Generation, R& D, Solar Simulation of Eddy Current Probe Gap, Amplitude, Displacement, Positioning, Thickness Description [Application Note 31218] Non-contact eddy current probes can be used to measure the position, or position change, of conductive targets in real time. Typical monitoring applications include shaft runout and/or vibration. Probe setup requires an oscillator demodulator circuit. This circuit converts the probe’s magnetic field readings into output voltages proportional to the gap between probe and target. Portal signal conditioning electronics are then used [...]