I just finished a course in vibrational analysis. Very interesting, although it showed me how much I had forgotten from previous schooling. Hope to test and be certified soon, and until then, it's study, study, study. The industrial world is finding out that by monitoring vibration, they can extend the life of machines, and minimize down time by replacing failing machines before catastrophic failures and collateral damage.
Steve
Well, much of the "industrial world" has been aware of that for 30 or 40 yr or so... :)
Which vendor are you using/following/training from?
One "former life" was with CSI, Knoxville, a leader; in their new products group. There we developed the first commercial wireless vibrometer which won a "Product of the Year" award back in early 90s...
A very good friend of mine went into that field. After a couple years he split off on his own and monitored equipment at several large sites. He did quite well, making a decent income with a flexible work schedule.
He just retired near Phoenix.
Karl
I think I've taken one or two adult courses. I took heating, AC, small engine repair. Each one, I've learned a LOT more than expected. And been help to others, too. One time I got to talking with a fellow a couple streets over. He was working on a lawn mower small engine for a neighbor. He was going nuts, could not ind out what was wrong. And oddly enough, it was a problem we learned in my course the year before.
I hope you have a great experience, and use what you learn.
. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus
In the mid 80's I dragged my vacuum-tube spectrum analyzer into work to analyze a vibration problem that had the engineers stumped. It showed the vibration very clearly, but the engineers didn't know how to interpret the results. Mechanical and electrical engineering were separate kingdoms there and fortunately fixing it was their problem, not mine.
Our non-contact position sensor was a little Radio Shack solar cell with the shadow of the test subject falling part way across it.
jsw
If it was complex at all, can't fault 'em too much on that one -- probably didn't even know number of balls/rollers in bearings to have any idea of what all those frequencies could possibly be...
It's tough enough to interpret with a full knowledge of fundamental and all what more without on the fly first time even seen a spectrum...
VAI, and they use CSI stuff exclusively. The new field gathering sensors that are as big as an Etch-A-Sketch are $30k. But, brother, do they ever give you some data that will go through a FFT and give you answer. They are light years ahead of five years ago, and the owner has a patented process that also moved things along a couple of light years on its own.
Steve
Indeed stuff changes rapidly...I've still got pieces-parts of the original wireless vibrometer in its early stages -- it was about the size of a coffee mug in the end...the circuit board was eight double-sided sections hinged to fit around the outer perimeter w/ the battery pack in the center...a nightmare to keep all that crap from shaking around to the point it wouldn't totally wipe out the response of the DUT. But, in the end it worked pretty well for a new kid on the block...
But, they've now done what we told 'em should've done to begin with but were told wasn't acceptable back then -- put the electronics in a separate box and use an umbilical to the accelerometer. DOH!!!
I've not been back to CSi in >10 yr now; the last tech and engineers I worked closely with left not terribly long after I did and the three principals/founders that are my contemporaries that I knew well before CSi was CSi when they were still at UT-K and/or TEC have also all now retired I believe.
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