Accelerometers, Force Sensors, Preamplifiers, Microphones, Torque Sensors, Pressure Sensors, Load Cells, Modally Tuned®, ICP®, Impact Hammers, and Signal Conditioners
Motorsport encompasses more than just Formula 1 and NASCAR automobiles vying for first place glory as they power around a track at speeds topping 220 mph/350 kph. The Motorsport industry also entails the racing of motorcycles, trucks, water craft, snowmobiles, go carts, and even lawn mowers. Whatever it is that’s racing, these vehicles are high performance, finely-tuned, engineering marvels designed to win. Drivers, and the owners of these vehicles, continually seek to better understand and improve materials, components, and systems, as well as to ensure safety. This is accomplished by engineers spending painstakingly long hours in the design labs and testing tracks around the world.
In an industry where fractions of a second can mean the difference between victory and defeat, every effort is taken to gain and maintain a competitive advantage. To this end, motorsport companies routinely test and analyze current and newly developed materials, components, systems, and technologies to get increased efficiency and the highest performance achievable. When seconds count, nothing should go into a vehicle unless it adds to its performance. In order to verify positive performance, motorsport companies typically conduct tests and studies including:
- Ride & handling
- Powertrain development
- Component & system performance
- Vehicle and powertrain NVH
- Modal analysis
PCB® Piezotronics offers a complete line of sensors and instrumentation for the motorsport industry. Models 3711A03 and 3711A05 single axis DC response accelerometers are designed exclusively for data acquisition systems commonly used in the motorsport industry. Titanium housed and hermetically sealed, these units offer a single-ended 2.5V offset output signal for each channel with power and ground leads, and are ideal for use in both lab and test track situations.
Series 5300D TORKDISC® in-line rotary torque sensor systems have high torsional stiffness, are compact and low weight, and are used in powertrain development where axial space is at a premium, as it is in most motorsport vehicles.
New triaxial ICP® accelerometers, with a temperature coefficient of less than 0.0125% / °F (0.02% / °C), are titanium housed and hermetically sealed 10 mm cubes that have a 10 mV/g sensitivity, a measurement frequency to 10 kHz, and an operating temperature range from -65 to +325 °F (-54 to +163 °C). These sensors provide precision amplitude data for test applications with large thermal shifts such as powertrain vibration testing, powertrain NVH, certain vehicle systems NVH tests, road load data acquisition, and durability testing in climatic chambers.
PCB® also offers an extensive range of single and triaxial ICP® accelerometers; prepolarized and externally-polarized microphones; ICP® preamplifiers and array microphones; ICP® force sensors; ICP® quartz force rings; instrumented impact hammers; and ICP® sensor signal conditioners for use in numerous additional motorsport measurement scenarios.