Technology

Vibration monitoring sensors are key to any effective predictive maintenance strategy. Think of them as part of an industrial nervous system with the job of converting changes in vibrations to electrical signals that provide the data you need to monitor the health of your machinery. Vibration sensors come in several forms. They can be stand-alone components that you place on the machinery being observed.

They can be parts of more sophisticated vibration monitoring equipment, such as handheld vibration analyzers. More importantly, however, vibration monitoring sensors are often part of complicated predictive maintenance systems, which allow for complete, comprehensive, and remote online monitoring of systems and machines to prevent disruptions in operations.  

In this article, I discuss how vibration monitoring sensors, such as our DS-R35 , can be used in an effective predictive maintenance strategy. I also discuss the various types of vibration monitoring sensors and the best-in-class vibration sensors that we provide here at G-TECH Industrial Inc.

How do Vibration Sensors Work?

Vibration sensors work by recording data associated with the vibrations of moving or rotating parts in a machine. This data can be vibration amplitude, frequency, or intensity, and the machines or machine parts that produce such vibrations include: 

• Motors
• Fans
• Pumps
• and more.

Every moving or rotating component in a machine or equipment has what can be described as a vibration signature. An established healthy vibration pattern, which occurs when a machine is operating optimally, is called the baseline. After determining this baseline, you and your maintenance team can use vibration sensors to continually collect data on the vibration of the machine. 

Think of vibrations as the pulse of your equipment or machines. In the same way that a professional doctor can check a patient's pulse or heartbeat and determine if that patient is sick or healthy, vibration sensors allow you to monitor or determine the "health" of your machine. If the vibration pattern in your machine changes from the baseline that has been established, it's likely that your equipment suffers from a fault. 

Properly designed vibration monitoring sensors can detect the slightest changes in your machine vibrations, giving you and your maintenance teams time enough to make repairs and changes before machine breakdown or failure. They are able to monitor vibrations on a continuous basis and inform you of any notable changes in the condition of your machine in real-time.

Wireless sensors also have the additional advantage of being able to transmit data wirelessly to devices, such as a PC, laptop, tablet, or even smartphone. They can also be incorporated into a sophisticated predictive maintenance program that relies on analytical software, such as G-TECH's Health Monitoring System . Such software can be used to analyze vibration data over time and allows you to make intelligent predictions regarding the health, performance, and maintenance needs of individual machines or all the machines in your plant or lines of operation. 

Vibration Sensors vs. Accelerometers

Vibration sensors are often mistaken for accelerometers. While these two devices may have similar functions, there are fundamental differences. Vibration sensors, as the name suggests, are designed to detect namely vibrations and the parameters associated with them. 

Accelerometers, on the other hand, do more than measure and collect vibration data. They are used to detect the following phenomenon: 

• Vibration
• Tilt,
• Linear motion, and
• Structural resonant frequency.

Accelerometers, such as G-TECH's ArmourG 3-axis, can be used to monitor sophisticated equipment, such as robotics, because of the range of phenomena that they are capable of detecting.

However, whereas the phenomenon measured by vibration sensors is limited to vibration, they are more diverse in the parameters they cover, which include acceleration, velocity, and displacement. On the other hand, accelerometers only detect acceleration. The table below provides a summary of the differences and similarities between the two.

Application Areas for Vibration Sensors 

Vibration monitoring sensors have a wide range of applications in modern industry. Any industry that uses sophisticated machinery that needs to be maintained would benefit from vibration sensors. Because of the nature of heavy industry and operations, vibration sensors often need to balance toughness with precision. 

This means that they should be designed hardy enough to withstand tough industrial conditions or conditions out in the field, while being sensitive enough to collect minute units of data accurately. There are several areas in industry and other fields that stand to benefit from the combination of these unique features. These areas include:

1. Ground Applications
2. Motor and Industrial Applications
3. Robotics

For ground applications, vibration monitoring sensors can be used for earthquake detection and monitoring, ground stability assessment, traffic vibrations, and structural health monitoring (ie, bridges, dams, and buildings). Motor applications refer to machines being used in typical industrial contexts and cover tasks such as anomaly detection and predictive maintenance, fault diagnosis, machine condition monitoring, and R&D. 

Robotics is the newest and most exciting area of ​​application for vibration sensors. Vibration sensors in robotics are used mainly for condition monitoring to prevent anomalies such as mechanical damage, misalignment, or component failures. The data collected from vibration sensors are often used in combination with monitoring software and AI to effectively monitor the health of robots in industrial environments and to carry out R&D. 

G-TECH's Best-In-Class Vibration Monitoring Sensor

G-TECH manufactures some of the best-in-class vibration monitoring sensors on the market. When we manufacture our predictive maintenance tools and devices, we aim to blend simplicity of design and reading with complexity in functional delivery. In short, our tools and sensors do the hard work of collecting and interpreting data, while you and your maintenance team deal with our easy-to-read and intuitive interface. 

The DS-R35 is a testament to this philosophy of simplicity in design. It's a vibration Sensor that blends toughness with cutting-edge precision, while doing so in style. This means that it allows you to accurately monitor machine health under the most dynamic and difficult industrial and operational conditions. 

It's tough. It's accurate. It's reliable. With its IP67 rating, it was built for the harshest industrial environments. The IP67 rating is a testament to that fact. The DS-R35 also has an up to 5kHz high frequency response, reflecting its sensitivity.

It's ideal for vibration monitoring in the following areas:

• General machine health
• Wind turbines
• Equipment in the energy industry
• Industrial automation processes
• Robots and automation equipment
• Rail transport

With G-TECH's DS-R35, you get a vibration sensor that can help you avoid surprises in your operations and move one step closer to ZERO Downtime in your operations. To learn more, check out the catalog on our product page .