Application Summary
Because today’s new high-efficiency engines demand engine parts made to tighter tolerances than ever before, the parts in turn require even more precise equipment to make them. A company that manufactures equipment for engine component production (i.e. pistons, crank shafts, valves) for the OEM market needed a way to analyze and improve the precision of its equipment. For this type of machinery, vibration dampening is critical to the quality of the manufactured part, so engineers needed to measure the effects of various dampening techniques. Another critical area is uneven or excessive pressure during stamping, which would ruin both the die and the parts. Accelerometers and strain gages were mounted in the appropriate places on the equipment.

Potential Solutions
At first, the machinery manufacturer considered using a digital storage oscilloscope (DSO) with an external signal conditioner. This approach was rejected as being too bulky and difficult to program. The engineers also considered using a plug-in board data acquisition system with a desktop PC, but it lacked the portability that the engineers needed to move the system around the machinery.

IOtech’s Solution
The engineers selected IOtech’s WaveBook data acquisition system for their application. To measure vibration, the system included a WBK14 eight-channel dynamic signal conditioning module. To measure strain, the system included a WBK15 multi-purpose isolated signal conditioning module which accepts any combination of up to eight 5B modules.

The speed and flexibility of the WaveBook system allowed the engineers to use one system for both strain and vibration applications. The WaveBook provided the high sample rates needed for vibration work across multiple channels, plus several channels used for strain measurements. Because the system was compact (the system has the same footprint as a notebook PC), it was easy to carry onto the factory floor or to ship to a customer. Furthermore, the WaveBook attaches to a PC using a common parallel-port connection, allowing it to be easily attached to any PC, such as the PC at a customer site. DASYLab^® software, also available from IOtech, was selected for its FFT capability and ease of set-up.