Digital Laser Sensor Combines Speed, Convenience and Accuracy with Ethernet Capability
MTI’s Microtrak™ 4 is a high-speed digital laser sensor that’s easy to setup, convenient to use, and dependably accurate. Use this compact, non-contact metrology system for measuring height, flatness, thickness, alignment, vibration, and more. Made in the USA by MTI Instruments, the Microtrak™ 4 is ready to use right out-of-the-box and provides fast, reliable, repeatable measurements for targets with very dark or very shiny surfaces. Applications include machine maintenance and turbine engine balancing. The Microtrak™ 4 doesn’t require an external controller or a separate power supply. Instead, this 1D laser displacement sensor runs right on your computer, includes a [...]
Optical Scanning of Drive Media
Optical Scanning of Drive Media Customer Case The customer's application is optical scanning for drive testing. The goal is to identify burnt or damaged spots on the disk. The scanning system is generally used in Quality Control, Head-Disk Interaction and Failure Analysis. There is a need for continuous acquisition during the spiral scan. The speed of the disk is 10,000 RPM and the requirement is to capture 65,000 to 80,000 samples each revolution. A single channel is needed for the acquisition at 10 MegaSamples/second or greater. High vertical resolution will aid in measuring the properties and ultimately the degradation [...]
Position, Displacement, and Vibration Measurement with Precision, High Resolution, and Flexibility
The MTI-2100 Fotonic™ sensor uses advanced fiber optics and electronics to precisely measure position, displacement, and vibration. This high-resolution, non-contact metrology system supports a wide range of interchangeable fiber-optic probes and works with almost any surface, including metallic, composite, plastic, glass, ceramic, or liquid. Made in the USA by MTI Instruments, the MTI-2100 Fotonic™ features a modular design and supports application-specific requirements in R&D, quality, and process control. With its dual channel capabilities, the MTI-2100 Fotonic™ sensor allows users to make simultaneous measurements, such as for structure dynamics and modal analysis. All probe modules have two distinct operating ranges [...]
Disk Drive Track Scanning
Disk Drive Track Scanning Customer Case The customer is trying to digitize an 83 millisecond long signal coming out of a disk mounted on a rotary motor. This corresponds to one full revolution of the disk. The analog signal coming out of the Device Under Test (DUT) is of approximately 2 MHz bandwidth. Currently, the customer is sampling at 10 MSPS and would like to increase the oversampling to get better time resolution. At present, they are using a CompuScope 225 - 1M, which has sufficient memory to digitize the entire revolution in on-board memory at the 10 MSPS [...]
How the Aviation Industry Solves Vibration and Balancing Challenges
The aviation industry spends significant amounts of time and money on problems caused by engine vibration. Imbalance, the most common cause of engine vibration, happens because of bird strikes and other impacts, but also because of natural wear and corrosion that redistribute mass. In turn, out-of-balance parts can result in cabin noise, metal fatigue, and cracked turbine, fan, or compressor components. In the most extreme cases, catastrophic engine failure may result MTI Instruments, a worldwide supplier of precision measurement solutions, makes equipment for monitoring vibration levels and balancing rotors. For maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) crews who want to [...]
MEMS-Based High Throughput Screening
MEMS-Based High Throughput Screening Customer Case The customer needs to do frequency analysis to determine the resonant frequency of an oscillating micro-fabricated device. They will use a Laser Doppler Vibrometer to monitor the physical oscillation. This is an instrument that looks at the light reflected from the surface of a moving part to determine the velocity or relative position of the part. Analysis of the motion as a function of the driving frequency determines the resonant frequency. Upon excitation at the resonant frequency, the motion is at its maximum. The expected resonant frequencies are on the order of 1 [...]
Automatic Accelerometer Calibration System
Automatic Accelerometer Calibration System Customer Case The customer's Automated Accelerometer Calibration System provides NIST traceable calibration of most accelerometer types, whether self-generating piezo-electric or accelerometers requiring current or voltage excitation. The output of the accelerometer can be charge or voltage, single- ended or differential, AC or DC coupled, isolated or grounded. In building the automatic calibration system, the need is for optimum versatility with regards to the data acquisition card. LabVIEW is the desired control software, and Signal to Noise Ratio and high vertical resolution is of utmost importance for the small variations that occur in Vibration and Shock [...]
Direct Digital Outputs for Precise Sensor Measurement Without Programming
MTI’s Digital Accumeasure converts highly reliable capacitive electric field measurements into highly precise 24-bit digital readings. This digital capacitance displacement gauge interfaces with DASYLab, data acquisition (DAQ) software from Measurement Computing with tools and functions for application development without programming. By interfacing MTI’s Digital Accumeasure with DASYLab, you can get precise sensor measurements without sacrificing speed, reliability, or ease-of-use. The Digital Accumeasure connects to DASYLab through a Modbus interface. Because MTI’s precision measurement technology has direct digital outputs, you can directly import digital displacement values instead of lower-resolutions analog values. In other words, instead of converting measurements to analog [...]
Deep PCI Capture of Fast Charge-Couple Device (CCD) Array Data
Deep PCI Capture of Fast Charge-Couple Device (CCD) Array Data Customer Case A customer wants to digitize data from a 256x256 infrared charge-couple device (CCD) array. The array data is clocked at 4 MHz through two output channels. Exactly two clock cycles occur between 12-bit line signals, and a dozen or more clock cycles occur between successive frames. The customer wants to digitize the data for a minute or more. Since light level signals from the array can vary widely in amplitude, 12-bit resolution is required. GaGe Case Solution The customer will use the CompuScope 512/PCI with the External [...]
Medical
Medical The following example case studies demonstrate how GaGe products and services have been successfully applied in various data acquisition medical applications. We encourage you to contact us and discuss your application in more detail with our engineering team. GaGe can provide tailored custom hardware and software solutions to meet specific application requirements. Did You Know? GaGe Digitizers in Medical Applications View Article Did You Know? GaGe Digitizers in Imaging & Ultrasound Applications View Article Did You Know? GaGe Digitizers in Cancer & Diagnostic Applications View Article Did You Know? [...]


