A laser triangulation sensor for vibrational structural analysis and diagnostics

The industrial progress has reached a level in which it is necessary to understand the behavior of mechanical components and to monitor their conditions without disassembling them. Nowadays, a suitable methodology is based on vibrational analysis usually performed through acceleration signals measured directly on the system to be tested. However, in the last years, the industrial scenario has deeply changed due to the need for time reduction, in particular, for the control operations at the end of the productive line. The genuine methods based on acceleration measurements, for example, through piezoelectric accelerometers, came into conflict with the industrial need as the sensors used for the quality control have to be easily and fastly mounted and unmounted. A valid alternative is represented by the exploitation of laser triangulation sensors that are able to measure the dynamic displacement in a contactless way, strongly reducing the (un)mounting time. The target of this paper is to highlight pros and cons of the contactless displacement analysis through laser triangulation sensors with respect to the contact one through genuine accelerometers by means of a comparison between the results obtained both for experimental modal analysis and vibrational diagnostics of rotating machines.