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 [...]
Two Ways to Measure Stamped Sheet Metal Thickness
Two Ways to Measure Stamped Sheet Metal Thickness Solar, Semiconductor Measurement of Ungrounded Targets Thickness, Metrology Description Learn how to measure stamped sheet metal thickness with MTI's Digital Accumeasure, a high-precision capacitance measurement system with nanometer accuracy and stability. Problem High silicon steels are alloys of iron and silicon that are easily magnetized and demagnetized. They can be supplied as sheet metal with a very thin dielectric coating. As this application note explains, precise measurements of stamped samples with a dielectric coating of ~ 10µi were needed. Solution MTI’s Digital [...]
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 [...]
Wireless Measurement of Very Small Gap Changes Inside Rotating Machinery
Solar, Semiconductor Measurement of Ungrounded Targets Thickness, Metrology Description Description This application note describes how to use capacitance for the non-contact, wireless measurement of very small gap changes (distances) between a device and a grounded target. It uses the textile industry as an example, but any industry that uses machinery with continuously rotating drums or motors can benefit from this approach to remote measurement. Capacitance is highly accurate and can support the use of probes that are wireless. In our example, a capacitive sensing system from MTI Instruments eliminated concerns about establishing and maintaining [...]
MTI’s Accumeasure HD Amplifier vs. SmarAct’s PicoScale Interferometer GalleryMTI’s Accumeasure HD Amplifier vs. SmarAct’s PicoScale Interferometer
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MTI’s Accumeasure HD Amplifier vs. SmarAct’s PicoScale Interferometer
MTI's Accumeasure HD Amplifier vs. SmarAct's PicoScale Interferometer Research & Development Piezoceramic, 1-3 Pzt / Polymer Composite And Pvdf Film Amplitude Description This application note compares MTI's Accumeasure HD amplifier to SmarAct's Picoscale interferometer in terms of resolution and accuracy for very small displacement measurements. Specifically, this comparison focuses on minimum expected resolution and the effects of noise on accuracy. High resolution interferometers are widely regarded as the instrument of choice for the type of measurements described in this application note, but MTI's technology provides exceptional accuracy and stability. Moreover, the [...]
Ideal Charge Amplifier for Piezoelectric Sensor
Ideal Charge Amplifier for Piezoelectric Sensor Aviation (Turbine Engines), Automotive Research and Development, Industrial Manufacturing Vibration Monitoring: Turbine Engines; Vehicle Testing Pressure Monitoring: Combustion Engines; Pumps, Turbines Amplitude Measurements:  Acceleration, Vibration, Pressure Description Ideal Charge Amplifier for Piezoelectric Sensors Piezoelectric sensors, such as accelerometers for turbine vibration measurement and pressure transducers for combustion dynamics monitoring (CDM), generate a high-impedance charge output. This output requires proper conditioning and amplification before it can be transmitted over system cabling to measurement instrumentation. This is where a charge amplifier for piezoelectric sensors also known [...]
Vibration and Balancing Systems: The Spectrum Plot
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). On the y-axis is amplitude, measured in units of velocity, inches per second pk, or IPS pk. Figure 1: Basic Spectrum [...]
Radar Altimeter
Radar Altimeter Customer Case In this RADAR application the customer has pulses coming in at 1660 Hz. For every pulse they need to capture 500 samples which, at that rate, will amount to 1.7 Megs of data every second. The experiment will be running for at least a few minutes. They would then like to log all the captured data to the PC host memory. The final requirement is for the system to be on the PCI bus. By having the system on the PCI bus, the customer can stream the data directly to the PC's memory, which is [...]
Capacitive vs. Eddy Current Sensors: A Comparison for Non-Contact Measurement
Capacitive vs. Eddy Current Sensors: A Comparison for Non-Contact Measurement Capacitive vs. Eddy Current Sensors: A Comparison for Non-Contact Measurement Manufacturing Ev Battery Production Thickness, Distance This application note from MTI Instruments compares two widely used types of non-contact sensors: eddy current sensors and capacitive sensors. It covers their basic operating principles, provides a quick comparison, and offers guidance for selecting the right sensor for your application. Capacitive Sensors: Operating Principles and Applications Capacitive sensors use electric fields to measure the distance between the sensor face and the target surface. These sensors are particularly effective [...]
Ultra High-Speed Radar
Ultra High-Speed Radar Customer Case This application requires the acquisition of very fast analog signals at relatively slow sample rates for a long period of time. In other words, the input bandwidth requirement is very high (1 GHz), but the sampling rate needs to be no more than 5 or 6 MSPS. The most important requirement is that the acquisition must go on, without any breaks, for many hours. The customer does not need very high dynamic range. In fact, a 4-bit A/D converter will be sufficient. The customer has already identified a 4-bit A/D chip from TRW which [...]