8:00 a.m., Tuesday, May 19th thru
2:00 p.m., Thursday, May 21st, 2009

Holiday Inn - Buffalo Airport
4600 Genesee St.
Cheektowaga, NY 14225
716-634-6969

$625.00 USD per Person, Includes:
Printed Seminar Materials
All Meals
Sightseeing Tour of Niagara Falls

Holiday Inn - Buffalo Airport
4600 Genesee Street
Cheektowaga, NY 14225
716-634-6969

Sleep Inn - Buffalo Airport
(Adjacent to and within walking distance of the Holiday Inn)
100 Holtz Drive
Cheektowaga, NY 14225
716-626-4000

About the Seminar

At this seminar, participants will learn to:

• Understand the physics and operating characteristics of dynamic force, pressure, and acceleration transducers and constraints associated with their use;
• Interface transducers effectively with intended test environments;
• Condition transducer signals to maintain their fidelity through selection of appropriate cabling, amplifiers, analog filters, sampling rates, DAQs, etc.;
• Document extraneous measurands (strain, temperature, ionization products of a detonation, magnetic fields, etc.) that superpose as noise on the desired transducer response;
• Apply corrective action for elimination of these noise levels;
• Validate that final, recorded signals contain only the desired (force, pressure, or acceleration) data;
• Perform “back of the envelope” checks to assure the bandwidth of the recording system did not impose constraints on recorded data;
• Perform sensor and system calibration, data analysis, and data utilization.

The seminar will also include in-house demonstrations by PCB® staff of sensor component manufacturing, as well as sensor assembly, testing, and calibration.

About the Speaker

Patrick L. Walter, Ph. D., Measurement Specialist, PCB Piezotronics and Professor, Texas Christian University (TCU), will serve as seminar facilitator. Dr. Walter was employed for 30 years at Sandia National Laboratories, with the majority of his tenure spent managing flight, field, and laboratory test activities. The commonality of his work activities involved testing in hostile environments. In 1995, Dr. Walter joined the Engineering Department of TCU, where he teaches and has served as Chair. Dr. Walter also holds the position of Measurement Specialist at PCB®, where he consults on dynamic force, pressure and acceleration measurement, primarily for aerospace and defense applications.

Dr. Walter’s technical articles and papers have appeared in numerous publications. He has served on and chaired various United States Department of Defense and Department of Energy committees, is active in many professional societies, and teaches Measurement System Engineering through TCU’s Extended Education Department. He is a licensed professional engineer.

Who Should Attend

This two and a half day program is geared toward senior technicians, test engineers, engineering analysts, and test facility managers whose work depends on acquiring valid data.

Program

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Breakfast (provided)

Welcome message

Lecture #1: Program Introduction
Measurements for test vs. controls
Impedance considerations: electrical, acoustic, mechanical
Differences between the design/analysis and measurements problems

Lecture #2: Introduction to Structural Dynamics
Structural loads, response, and modeling

Lecture #3: Measurement System Requirements: Linearity, Flat Amplitude Response, Linear Phase Response
Basic guidelines for all measurement system design
Case studies

Lunch (provided)

Lecture #4: Dynamic Transducer Models
Dynamic models for force, pressure, and acceleration transducers

Lecture #5: Signal Types and Acquisition
System requirements for measuring deterministic vs. random data
Data sampling and aliasing

Lecture #6: Data Filtering
Terminology
Differentiators/integrators
Detailed analog filter selection criteria

Demonstration: Accelerometer Calibration

Dinner (provided)

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Breakfast (provided)

Lecture #7: Dynamic Force, Pressure, and Acceleration Measurements
Transducer physics, cables, signal conditioning, and calibration

Lecture #8: Validating Time-varying Transducer Signals: Help for the Analyst
Rules of thumb for assessing data
Data validation
Case studies

Lecture #9: Analyzing and Using Shock and Vibration Data
Examples of how the acquired data impact design
Measurement system requirements

Lunch (provided)

Lecture #10:
Measurement System Design: Dynamic Force, Pressure and Acceleration
Interfacing to the test environment

Application examples

Lecture #11: The Future: Smart Transducers, Wireless Transmission
Demonstration: Basic Piezoelectric Sensor Measurements

Wrap-up, questions and answers

Dinner and Tour of Niagara Falls (provided)

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Breakfast (provided)

Transport to PCB Piezotronics factory

Demonstrations by PCB® staff of sensor component manufacturing, as well as sensor assembly, testing, and calibration.

Lunch (provided)

End of program

Transport to Holiday Inn or Airport Terminal

About the Event

The seminar will begin Tuesday, May 19th at 8:00 a.m., and will conclude on Thursday, May 21st at approximately 2:00 p.m. The cost is $625.00 USD per person. Class size is limited to the first 40 paid registrants. To reserve your space, contact us at mktg@pcb.com.