PCB Piezotronics manufactures the largest selection of sensors and sensor accessory products worldwide. Product lines include sensors for the measurement of acceleration, acoustics, force, load, pressure, shock, strain, torque, and vibration. All sensors are backed by PCB’s Total Customer Satisfaction guarantee.
Engineers and scientists at leading businesses, research institutions, and independent laboratories around the world choose PCB® as their sensor manufacturer. In a global marketplace driven by innovation and development, PCB has a sensor for every stage of product development including
R&D, production variation control, and process monitoring and protection.
At PCB, we don’t just know the sensor business; we pioneered ICP® technology. For over 50 years, every sensor design and assembly is subjected to tight in-house inspection and quality control. That’s why we have impeccable product performance and longevity, the expectation our customers have for every PCB sensor.
The most commonly used technology is ICP® accelerometers. These sensors require ICP® power. Most modern data acquisition, digital control, and portable data systems provide ICP® sensor power. ICP® sensors can be referred to as Voltage Mode output sensors. Our piezoelectric (PE) sensors can be referred to as Charge Mode output sensors. Each directional axis measured requires one channel of the data system or signal conditioner.
A frequently asked question about measurements made with piezoelectric (PE) vibration sensors is related to the measurement parameters. After completing a test and evaluating data, test engineers may observe obvious signs of problems within the data that was collected. Many factors can affect the data from a PE accelerometer including measurement range, the measurand input amplitude, the measurand input frequency content, and the data acquisition sample rate. For example, input amplitude levels that are greater than the sensor’s measurement range will saturate the amplifier. Input frequency content at or near the sensor’s resonant frequency may also saturate the amplifier. The high Q-factor at resonance will cause the sensor to enter an overload recovery state and no meaningful data can be acquired (even with post-process filtering in your DAQ).
To avoid common mistakes, PCB performed testing to highlight the importance of selecting the right sample rate and sensor measurement range to obtain proper results in any application. Background, results, and conclusion of this test can be found in the PCB Tech Note here: https://www.pcb.com/Contentstore/MktgContent/LinkedDocuments/Technotes/TN-30-what’s_wrong_Lowres.pdf
