From Vibration Guesswork to Structural Insight

Surface Vibration ≠ Machine Health

Most condition-monitoring systems rely on accelerometers mounted on the outside of machines.
But surface vibration is fundamentally limited — it is:

  • Contaminated by environmental and structural noise

  • Filtered and damped by the machine housing

  • Delayed in revealing early mechanical damage

  • Influenced by mounting torque and external forces

  • Unable to sense internal load paths or stiffness changes

Installed Where Forces Flow

Piemacs sensors mount inside joints, interfaces, flanges, bolts, clamps, and housings — the actual load paths of the machine. Here, the sensor directly measures:

  • Internal strain energy

  • Micro-slip between components stiffness changes

  • Torque and load variations

  • Early indications of mechanical loosening structural

  • Resonance patterns

The Advantages of Measuring Structural Strain

  • Detects failures at their origin — bearing outer-race spalls, preload loss, shaft imbalance, gear mesh anomalies

  • Noise-immune — only sees internal structural energy, not environmental vibration

  • Insensitive to mount torque & alignment

  • Extremely broadband — from mHz structural drift to >20 kHz high-frequency events

  • No resonance peaks due to zero-mass architecture

  • Captures stiffness degradation long before vibration amplitude changes

  • Stable, repeatable baselines ideal for AI/ML models