Vibration sensor

How important is vibration monitoring, from the smallest parts, through motor turbines, to even electric power plants? What is the reliability, accuracy and number of devices for vibration control? RVmagnetics offers the first multi-sensor of micro-dimensions able to monitor and measure vibrations up to 10 kHz frequency.

The possibilities of vibration monitoring are immense, and due to the magnetic principle of the sensor, also contactless vibration monitoring represents no challenge. MicroWire can be used also as a digital sensor to monitor, whether the vibrations of the object are beyond the tolerance, thus preventing possible damage and informing the customer about the overshot vibration limit.

The MicroWire replaces typical vibration sensors like accelerometers or transmitters while employing a different physical principle. Thanks to its size (30 – 70 µm), glueing on the object's surface is possible without the additional weight change, thus it is not affecting the measurement itself. Due to micro-dimensions and passive character, the sensor’s incor­poration inside of the material without structural damage is also a possible alternative. To monitor several devices, each one can be equipped with its own MicroWire, yet only one (not necessarily) interface is sufficient enough to monitor all of them.

Demonstration of Vibration measurement with MicroWire sensors

In the video we present vibration detection with the MicroWire sensor. It showcases the detection in real-time without any contact between the MicroWire and the sensing system.

The main parts of the demo-kit are:

• the carbon composite holder,
• carbon composite strip with a MicroWire sensor attached
• a weight attached to the composite strip, which position can be changed, to show different frequency spectra of vibrating lamella,
• black-box including the sensing head and electronics, (the size and shape of a final sensing system are tailor-made to meet the spatial limitations),
• tablet containing a custom-designed application communicating with the black-box via Bluetooth, displaying the real-time measurement of the composite's vi­bration spectra.

When the composite is poked, it vibrates with its resonant frequency, together with the MicroWire. The holder is placed above the sensing head, however the MicroWire has no contact with it. The data acquisition device (black-box) detects the vibration of the MicroWire attached to the composite lamella, through its position change in the magnetic field produced by the sensing head. The data is evaluated and the frequency spectrum is calculated and transferred via Bluetooth to the tablet. The customised app depicts the Fourier transformation of the detected vibrations. From the data it is possible to determine the resonant frequency of the composite, altogether with the intensity of the vibrations.

Conclusion:

Our clients' needs are countless, and each case requires specific, custom-developed solution with high resolution, accuracy, as well as clarity of obtained results. With the presented contactless experiment, the feasibility of resonant frequency and vibration intensity detection by a MicroWire sensor has been proved. Other possibilities could include 3D vibration monitoring, vibration monitoring with additional temperature measurement using RVmagnetics’ MicroWire technology, or monitoring of the equipment degradation.