News & Articles

When NASA's X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft exceeded the speed of sound for the first time on June 5, 2026, it marked a historic milestone in the agency's mission to revolutionize supersonic flight. The aircraft reached approximately Mach 1.1 at 43,400 feet over Edwards Air Force Base, advancing NASA's effort to demonstrate low-boom supersonic technology that could one day enable faster commercial air travel over land.

Crystal Instruments was proud to participate in the recent AIAA AVIATION Forum, one of the aerospace industry's premier events for researchers, engineers, manufacturers, and technology leaders.

Crystal Instruments Eastern Regional Sales Manager Brian Zatzkin will be presenting at NoiseCon 2026 in Long Beach, California to share the story of how GPS-synchronized distributed data acquisition turned a mystery of cracking windows into a landmark structural acoustics dataset.

Crystal Instruments is pleased to announce that Mark Zemlicka has joined our team as Lab Manager for our Huntington Beach Contract Testing Lab. Mark brings a depth of experience and a leadership style that makes him an excellent fit for the hands-on, customer-focused environment of our testing operations.

Crystal Instruments HALT Testing Lab is equipped with two Qualmark chambers (OVS 3.0 Typhoon HALT and OVS 2.5 HALT) and provides highly experienced HALT testing services.

HASS development utilizes (vibration, thermal, and electrical, etc.) limits found in HALT, so the values derived therein are a prerequisite for profile development.

How mature is my product?

• How do we test it?

• How many should we test?

• Fixturing and instrumentation

• What if failure occurs?

HASS uses the Operational Limits identified within HALT Testing to define a profile. Unlike HALT, HASS is performed with an autonomous profile and functionality is most often only determined pre- or post-testing.

HALT (Highly Accelerated Stress Testing) is a reliability testing method that when facilitated correctly has proven to provide a level of robustness and ruggedization rarely achieved by any other traditional methods of testing.

From delicate avionics and batteries to propulsion systems and payload mechanisms, every subsystem must withstand dynamic loading throughout the drone's operational life.

Crystal Instruments recently visited the Malaysian Space Agency (MYSA), where our high-channel-count dynamic measurement systems are supporting vibration testing applications for satellite programs. During the visit, our Europe Sales Manager, Jordi Gargallo, met with MYSA engineers together with our regional distributor, LOGICOM Instruments Pte Ltd, to review their current testing workflow and discuss future collaboration opportunities.

At our Santa Clara headquarters, the Crystal Instruments engineering team has constructed an 8-shaker MIMO vibration test system to demonstrate advanced multi-input multi-output (MIMO) control capabilities. This tabletop platform integrates eight coordinated shakers arranged around a central test structure, allowing us to reproduce complex excitation patterns and investigate sophisticated vibration control strategies.

For engineers needing to verify performance against rigorous requirements, CTP ensures adherence to complex standards like MIL-STD-810H Method 520.5 Combined Environments. The new Combined Test Procedure (CTP) feature in EDM 12.1 allows users to synchronize temperature, humidity, and vibration testing in a single, unified workflow.

Traditional SoR control methods, whether single-axis sequential testing or multi-axis TWR waveform replication, have significant limitations in representing true multi-directional vibration environments. The development of Crystal Instruments’ real MIMO Sine-on-Random control overcomes these barriers by integrating advanced adaptive MIMO algorithms with independent control of sine and random components

Air cooled 60 kN electrodynamic shaker is capable of testing medium to large size assemblies up to 1000 kg on the bare armature, with even more load support utilizing the head expander (with pneumatic load support) or the high pressure slip plate.

Crystal Instruments introduces Ruby, an advanced wireless vibration sensor designed for industrial condition monitoring. In our latest product video, we showcase how Ruby delivers high-precision vibration measurement, flexible deployment, and scalable monitoring across the plant floor.

SANTA CLARA, CA — Crystal Instruments, a leading manufacturer of vibration control and machine monitoring systems, is proud to announce the official release of the Ruby Wireless Sensor. This innovative hardware represents a significant leap forward in structural health monitoring (SHM) and industrial diagnostics, offering a high-precision, cable-free solution for demanding engineering environments.

This white paper provides an in-depth comparison of three primary methods for machine vibration monitoring: permanently installed wired data acquisition (DAQ) systems with IEPE accelerometers, handheld vibration analyzers, and modern wireless sensor networks.

Modal testing involves collecting frequency response functions using either an impact or shaker excitation technique. Impact testing is often performed due to the ease of the test setup and simplicity of the measurement process. But larger structures may not be adequately excited with single impact excitation locations as the test progresses.

The EDM 12.1 release introduces Live Frequency-Domain Animation to help users visualize and interpret structural vibration data during testing. With this enhancement, users can now observe Operational Deflection Shapes (ODS) in real time while running Random, Sine, or other data acquisition or modal tests.

Modal analysis of a cantilevered plate was successfully performed using the Luma-600 laser vibrometer. The results align with expectations and confirm the effectiveness of the Luma-600 as a non-contact vibration measurement tool for accurate and efficient modal testing.

To ensure aircraft safety and flutter-free operation within safe flight envelopes, high-channel-count Ground Vibration Testing (GVT) systems are widely employed for structural analysis. These systems facilitate seamless data acquisition, analysis, and post-processing to assess the dynamic behavior of aircraft. However, traditional GVT approaches often involve extensive cabling, complex test setups, and time-intensive data processing, making them cumbersome and resource-intensive.

We’re proud to announce the release of EDM 12.1, the latest version of Crystal Instruments’ Engineering Data Management software suite. This update brings major hardware innovations, advanced testing capabilities, and significant user experience improvements across all major product lines — including single-axis and MIMO vibration testing, combined environmental testing, dynamic signal analysis, and modal testing.

Today, President Trump signed an executive order advancing the development of supersonic flight. We’re proud and excited to contribute to this bold initiative with our cutting-edge Ground Recorder System!

CI presented solutions for environmental vibration testing, structural testing, and dynamic signal analysis at the 2025 Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo.

We successfully completed the VIB-101 vibration operation training course last week. It’s one of our vibration testing training courses offered at our North Carolina facility.