KCSC Training
About

KCSC Training

KCSC Training is the training line of KC Service and Consulting LLC, Albuquerque, New Mexico. KCSC's main work is structural dynamics consulting and shaker field service; the course is that work written down in the order a lab meets it.

The Instructor

Kevin Cross

Labs bring me in for test planning and setups, multi-axis and six-degree-of-freedom testing, and new test systems, from procurement and installation through commissioning and operator handoff. I hold an MS in Mechanical Engineering. Before starting KC Service and Consulting I ran vibration and shock testing at Sandia National Laboratories' remote hazardous test facilities, qualifying complete nuclear weapon systems as well as their components. My own test work has been in Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) and six-degree-of-freedom methods, structural dynamics, modal and environmental testing, and mass properties. I also service and repair electrodynamic shaker systems as a factory-authorized Unholtz-Dickie service engineer. This series is drawn from both jobs.

I have presented at the International Modal Analysis Conference (IMAC) and the Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM), and at the Aerospace Testing Seminar, on combined thermal and vibration MIMO testing and on MIMO test design for a published challenge problem. Two remarks of mine on multi-axis testing were published in Sandia National Laboratories news releases:

"Using multiple input, multiple output testing is a much more realistic representation of what those units experience in flight and out in the field."Quoted in a Sandia National Laboratories news release, 2024
"The big selling point is that we can significantly reduce the amount of test time required. We're getting a much better, more realistic dataset, and doing it considerably faster."Quoted in a Sandia National Laboratories news release, 2024
"We by far lead the way here on multiple input, multiple output testing."Quoted in a Sandia National Laboratories news release, 2015

Publications and Press

The quotations and releases are public Sandia National Laboratories material, reproduced with attribution. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. The references are to past employment and imply no current affiliation or endorsement.

Every section is built from my outlines, stories and field practice, and I answer the questions asked from its pages. The full background, publications and federal registration are on the KC Service and Consulting About page.

Independence

KCSC sells no test equipment. I do not represent a shaker, amplifier or controller maker, and no one pays for a mention. Where the course names a make or a model, it is because the point cannot be made without it. Most vibration training comes from the company that sold the controller or the shaker and teaches that product; this course teaches the physics, the machine, the measurement and the judgment on whatever equipment the lab already owns. To be plain about it: most of my field service is on one manufacturer's systems, and the course teaches no manufacturer's product.

How the Material Is Made

  • The figures run in the page. They are built in the course's own figure modules and, where they process data, with Visual Dynamics, an open-source structural dynamics toolset written by Brandon Zwink. Figures made with it are KCSC's own. See Credits.
  • The data is synthetic. Every plot is generated to show the behavior it illustrates, not measured on a customer's system. No lab's data appears in the course. Illustrative data, real methods.
  • The photographs are anonymized. KCSC's own photographs show the machine and never the site or the article. Third-party photographs are used only with permission and are credited.
  • The quizzes are drawn from pools. Each section carries a pool of questions written against its own text, and every attempt draws five of them.
  • AI-assisted. I used AI tools to help draft this material.

Ownership

KC Service and Consulting LLC (Albuquerque, New Mexico) owns the Structural Dynamics Testing in Practice series, the course, its figures and its slides, and publishes them as KCSC Training. Contributions from others are credited on the Credits page and are made under written agreement.

© 2026 KC Service and Consulting LLC.

This page is part of the KCSC Training course and is licensed to one named reader for viewing. It does not print. Lab kit pages print from the Lab Kit menu.