Patent ID: 8245576

Claim:
A method for monitoring acoustic emissions from machinery, comprising: (a) mounting at least a first acoustic sensing device relative to a first surface mounting region of the machinery thereby to expose said first acoustic sensing device for a selected exposure period to sound waves propagating through said first surface mounting region, wherein said first acoustic sensing device comprises a piezoelectric transducer having a mounting face immovably secured to an inner contact surface of a housing and extending longitudinally within said housing from said inner contact surface to terminate in an unrestrained free end portion, said piezoelectric transducer operative upon exposure to sound waves propagating through the first surface mounting region of the machinery to stress longitudinally within the housing and produce corresponding detection signals; (b) coupling said first acoustic sensing device with measuring instrumentation along a first communications interface; (c) transmitting an initial set of detection signals from said first acoustic sensing device to the measuring instrumentation along said first communications interface, said initial set of detection signals corresponding to sound wave levels propagating through said first surface mounting region which are detected by said first acoustic sensing device during a first sensor initial reading interval; and (d) displaying perceptible output correlated to the initial set of detection signals received from the first acoustic sensing device during the first sensor initial reading interval.