Suitability of MEMS accelerometers for condition monitoring: An experimental study

With increasing demands for wireless sensing nodes for assets control and condition monitoring; needs for alternatives to expensive conventional accelerometers in vibration measurements have been arisen. Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) accelerometer is one of the available options. The performances of three of the MEMS accelerometers from different manufacturers are investigated in this paper and compared to a well calibrated commercial accelerometer used as a reference for MEMS sensors performance evaluation. Tests were performed on a real CNC machine in a typical industrial environmental workshop and the achieved results are presented.