Page 10 - Shock and Vibration Overview

Sensor Selection

Vibration Meters
Vibration meters offer real time vibration analysis in a handheld unit so that
maintenance decisions can be made quickly in the field. They either wire to a traditional
accelerometer or some even, like the one shown in Figure 2, incorporate the

accelerometer into the unit cutting down on wiring requirements and complexity.
Vibration meters typically don’t allow the user to log long duration events (they may
give you access to the last couple thousand points for some analysis); but they give RMS
and peak-to-peak levels in real time. They also will typically have an algorithm to rate
the overall vibration of your bearing or machine. Vibration meters can be a bit pricey at
around $1,000 which sometimes won’t include the cost of the accelerometer (the Fluke
805 is over $2K that has the embedded accelerometer). If you are looking to do some

more in depth vibration analysis or any shock testing, a vibration meter is probably not
your best option. But for that quick go/no-go vibration testing of a piece of machinery, a
vibration meter is unbeatable. Fluke is the leader in hardware and software for vibration
meters; here is their vibration testing homepage.

Figure 2: The Fluke 805 vibration meter incorporates an accelerometer directly into the main
electronics handheld unit to cut down on complexity and wiring.

Data Loggers
An often overlooked option for shock and vibration measurement is to use a data logger
that combines the accelerometer with the data acquisition system, power, and memory

into one package. This is the preferred option for engineers who need ease-of-use and
portability. Apps on your smart phone can be considered simple data loggers but they
tend to have a maximum sample rate of 100 Hz and poor data quality. Higher end data
loggers like Midé’s Slam Stick X effectively bridge the gap to the more expensive shock

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