Choosing a Good Quartz Accelerometer is Easier to Maintain

As industrial equipment is generally digitalized and interconnected, Industry 4.0 has been realized and is helping to transform production tools. It is like a game-changer, making the production chain more flexible, supporting the manufacturing of customized products, while maintaining profitability. In addition, digital and industrial Internet of Things connections are also of great benefit to maintenance. After using sensors, especially quartz accelerometers, you can analyze the running state of the machine, instead of replacing worn parts at regular intervals. In the framework of predictive maintenance, operators need to intervene only when some early warning symptoms occur. This analysis of machine health is called condition-based monitoring (CbM), which can control the maintenance cost compared with the systematic maintenance system based on the usually very conservative fixed schedule. In addition to the more flexible maintenance operation plan, it can also detect problems at the early stage, so that operators can arrange the downtime of the machine accordingly. This is obviously much better than the downtime outside the production line.

Vibration analysis: the importance of sensors

The manufacturer uses a variety of parameters to determine the time to start the maintenance operation, including vibration, noise, temperature measurement, etc. Among the measurable physical quantities, vibration spectrum measurement can provide the most information for the root causes of problems in rotating machines (engines, generators, etc.). Abnormal vibration may be caused by ball bearing failure, shaft deviation, imbalance, excessive looseness, etc. Each problem has its own unique symptoms, such as the vibration source of rotating machines.

Vibration measurement with accelerometer

Vibration measurement can be carried out using an accelerometer placed near the monitored element. This kind of sensor can be piezoelectric or MEMS type. The latter has more advantages. It can not only provide better response at low frequency, but also has small size.ER-MA-5 High Accuracy MEMS Accelerometer is an inertial sensor, which can measure the linear acceleration due to gravity. MEMS accelerometer has the characteristics of small volume, light weight and low energy consumption that can be widely used in vibration detection, attitude control, security alarm, consumer applications, motion recognition and status recording. Accelerometers are combined with gyroscopes and magnetometers to create IMU (inertial measurement units).

When the ball bearing breaks down, every time the ball touches the crack, or touches the defect position of the inner or outer ring, it will hit, cause vibration, and even cause the rotating shaft to shift slightly. The frequency of impact is determined by the rotation speed and the number and diameter of the ball.

But this is not all! Once the fault occurs, the impact mentioned above will sometimes produce audible sound, namely shock wave, which is characterized by low energy spectral component and relatively high frequency, usually greater than 5 kHz, and always far more than the basic rotation frequency. Only low-noise and high-bandwidth accelerometers can measure the spectrum line corresponding to the first fault signal. These accelerometers can provide some valuable information for problems that cannot be detected by products with low frequency response or high noise. As the problem worsens, the low energy spectral components continue to increase. At the later stage, the entry-level accelerometer can detect the vibration, but at this time, it will become urgent to solve the fault, and the maintenance team needs to respond in a short time. In order to avoid being caught off guard, it is very important to use low-noise, high-bandwidth accelerometers to detect when the initial abnormality occurs.

ER-QA-03A High Performance Quartz Accelerometer bandwidth is 800~2500Hz, the volume of 25.4X30 mm, weight 80G，with high reliability is mainly used in inertial measurement and test systems in the aerospace and aviation fields. It can carry out static test and dynamic test, which is a standard vibration sensor.

Ericco is a manufacturer of quartz accelerometers, providing various acceleration solutions. The products can be customized. If you want more technical data and quotations, please feel free to contact us.
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