Structural Dynamics Testing in Practice
Volume 1: The Machine
The machine: the shaker system, the facility, and keeping both running. Volume 1 and Volume 2 together are what it takes for a reader straight out of school to start testing.
Volumes 1 and 2 together: the machine, then the test. Start here; Volume 2 picks up where the machine leaves off.
- Edition 2026.1
- About 34 hours
- 68 sections
- 10 chapters
- 243 figures
Early access: $895 instead of $1,295 for individual seats, two per lab, until March 31, 2027. Buy Volume 1
Read One Before You Buy
Section 3.5, Before You Call, is free: the ten-minute check before you call for service. It has the same figures, Decide boxes and quiz as every other section.
3.5 Before You Call Free
About 14 minutes of reading, 3 figures, a quiz of 5.
Prerequisites
None. No calculus. Theory appears where it changes a decision on the floor, and the equations that do appear are read, not derived.
How the Quiz and the Certificate Work
- Every section ends with an open-book quiz: five questions drawn from that section's pool, four correct to pass.
- Retake as often as you need; only the passing attempt counts, and the next section opens when it does.
- Pass every section and the volume certificate is issued, with a verification page anyone can check and a transcript of every chapter score.
- It is a certificate of completion, not a certification. No CEU or PDH credit is granted; a statement of hours is available.
What Is in Volume 1
10 chapters in reading order. Free chapters and sections are marked; reading minutes are per chapter.
Chapter 1: What a Vibration Test Is ForFree
- 1.1Why Hardware Sees Vibration: One Life, Start to Finish Free9 min
- 1.2Qualification, Acceptance, Development, Screening, Margin Free11 min
- 1.3Where the Profile Comes From Free6 min
- 1.4The Standards as Vocabulary, Not Subject Free6 min
- 1.5The Test as a Contract Free11 min
Chapter 2: The Electrodynamic Shaker
- 2.1The Machine in One Line12 min
- 2.2What Is Inside14 min
- 2.3The Limits, and What Enforces Them20 min
- 2.4Impedance, Ratings and Headroom19 min
- 2.5The Armature Resonance20 min
- 2.6Cooling and the Interlocks That Protect the Machine12 min
- 2.7How Shakers Fail9 min
- 2.8Head Expanders and Slip Tables2 min
Chapter 3: The Power Amplifier and Field Supply
- 3.1What the Amplifier Does43 min
- 3.2Gain, Headroom and Clipping23 min
- 3.3The Field Supply24 min
- 3.4Limits, Trips and Indicators31 min
- 3.5Before You Call Free14 min
Chapter 4: Inside the Amplifier: Linear and Switching
- 4.1The Linear Amplifier15 min
- 4.2The Switching Amplifier33 min
- 4.3Linear Against Switching, for the Operator13 min
- 4.4Inside the Cabinets: the Major Components30 min
Chapter 5: Cooling
- 5.1Where the Heat Goes24 min
- 5.2The Small End16 min
- 5.3Air: the Blower, the Ducts and the Building27 min
- 5.4Liquid: Heat Exchangers, Chillers and Loops22 min
- 5.5The Amplifier's Cooling and the Room8 min
- 5.6Interlocks, Monitoring and the Daily Readings20 min
- 5.7The Cooling Side of the Facility, Before the System Arrives6 min
Chapter 6: Head Expanders and Slip Tables
- 6.1The Fixture You Did Not Design14 min
- 6.2Head Expanders27 min
- 6.3Slip Tables: Plate, Driver Bar and the Elongating Mode27 min
- 6.4Bearings and the Overturning Moment26 min
- 6.5The Oil System12 min
- 6.6Isolation, Alignment and the Base19 min
- 6.7Combined Environments and Binding10 min
- 6.8Before the Run7 min
Chapter 7: Fixtures and Mounting
- 7.1The Fixture's Job17 min
- 7.2Shapes: Plates, Cubes, Tombstones and Overhang29 min
- 7.3Materials, Making and Handling22 min
- 7.4Joints, Bolts, Torque and Temperature35 min
- 7.5The Survey and the Modal Map21 min
- 7.6Dynamically Representative Fixtures10 min
- 7.7Mounting the Article16 min
- 7.8Before the Run11 min
Chapter 8: Keeping the System Running
- 8.1What Wears, and in What Order16 min
- 8.2The First Ten Minutes on a Machine17 min
- 8.3What a Multimeter Can and Cannot Tell You23 min
- 8.4The Baseline23 min
- 8.5The Early Warnings21 min
- 8.6Inspection Intervals9 min
- 8.7The Operator's Maintenance13 min
- 8.8What the Service Engineer Looks At13 min
- 8.9When to Call, and What to Have Ready12 min
- 8.10Commissioning, and the Second Baseline11 min
Chapter 9: The Facility
- 9.1Standing Up a Lab: the Order of Operations20 min
- 9.2The Electrical Service19 min
- 9.3Chillers, Air Handling and Compressed Air14 min
- 9.4Structure, the Floor and Isolation28 min
- 9.5Layout, Lift Paths and Access23 min
- 9.6Ownership and the People in the Room15 min
- 9.7Safety at the Facility Level17 min
- 9.8Lockout, and Proving It Dead11 min
- 9.9Remote Operation for Hazardous Articles13 min
- 9.10The Risk Analysis, and Seeking Help16 min
Chapter 10: The Machine's Side of the Plan
- 10.1The Critical Items, Chapter by Chapter33 min
- 10.2Before the Equipment Goes In14 min
- 10.3Before the Article Arrives50 min
Also included, open to every seat from the first day: Glossary and Units.
Self-Paced Online or a Dedicated Week
For a whole lab: a week at your site, built around your systems and the tests you run, with seats on Volumes 1 and 2 for everything else.
| Row | Self-Paced Online | Dedicated Week |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Read online, one section at a time, with the figures live in the page and a quiz at the end of each section. | Five days at your lab, on your own system. The online course is the pre-work, so the week goes to review and hands-on time instead of lecture. |
| Time | About 34 hours at your own pace, within 12 months of first sign-in. | Five days on site, after the pre-work. A minimum completion is set per block and shown on the team page; the default is half of the volume's sections passed before day 1. |
| Who It Suits | One person, or a team of any size buying seats. | A whole lab. Cap of 12 people, with hands-on groups of 6. More than 12 means a second week. |
| What It Includes | Every section, figure and Decide box, the lab kit print pages, the quiz, the question box, the transcript and the certificate. | A seat for every attendee, review targeted by the quiz results, hands-on work on your system, Q and A on your machine, and the in-person certificate. |
| Price Basis | Per seat, from the published price table. Team tiers from 4 seats. | Always quoted. Quotes are valid 30 days. Domestic travel is included in the week. Every week is priced for its site: the days on site, the preparation for your equipment and procedures, and a seat on Volumes 1 and 2 for every attendee. |
| Certificate | The volume certificate of completion, with a public verification page, and a transcript with every chapter score. | The volume certificate, earned online, plus the in-person certificate recording the dates, the lab and the hands-on work on your system. |
Seats for a Lab
A new engineer or technician needs both halves before they are trusted at the console: the machine, and the test. Volumes 1 and 2 give them that in the order the work meets them, with a quiz on every section and a transcript for your training file. The dedicated week at your lab puts the hands on.
- Tiers in one line: $1,295 each for 1 to 3 seats, a lab pack of 4 for $4,780, $1,095 each from 5, $995 each from 10, and 9 seats includes the tenth.
- Hand out seat codes, or invite each person by name and email. One named person per seat.
- The team page shows progress and quiz scores per seat, never answers.
- Exports in CSV, spreadsheet and PDF for ISO/IEC 17025 and AS9100 training files.
- Renewal $295 per seat keeps your people on the current edition; corrections and new editions are free while a seat is active.
- Invoice against a purchase order from $5,000, net 30. Below that, card only.
About This Volume
How Long Does a Seat Last?
A seat covers one volume for 12 months from the first sign-in. Renewal after that is $295 per user a year, and the renewal window stays open for 90 days after the seat expires.
What Does a Seat Cost?
A single seat is $1,295. Five or more seats are $1,095 each and ten or more are $995 each. A 4-seat lab pack is $4,780. Quotes are available on request for any order.
Can I Pay by Invoice?
Orders from $5,000 can be paid against a purchase order. A quote is valid for 30 days.
What Is the Refund Policy?
A seat can be refunded within 14 days of purchase if less than 20 percent of the volume has been completed. Unactivated team seats can be refunded within 30 days.
Can a Seat Be Reassigned?
A team manager can move a seat to another person within the year if the first holder has completed less than 25 percent of the volume.
What You Receive at the End
A sample. The real certificate carries the holder's name, the edition, the hours, the average quiz score and a verification code.
Two Volumes to Start Testing
Volume 1 is the machine, Volume 2 is the test; together they give someone new to the lab what it takes to start testing, under supervision the first time. Volume 3, multi-axis testing, is for the advanced user. A seat on one volume buys the other at $1,095 for 90 days after it opens.
Volume 1 Available now
The Machine
The machine: the shaker system, the facility, and keeping both running. Volume 1 and Volume 2 together are what it takes for a reader straight out of school to start testing.
10 chapters, 68 sections, about 34 hours
Volume 2 Available now
The Test
The test: instrumentation and data acquisition, the tests you will see, sine, random, shock, mixed-mode, time waveform replication and specialized tests, the control loop, planning, data analysis and data quality, running the test, and writing the report. Volume 1 and Volume 2 together are what it takes for a reader straight out of school to start testing.
16 chapters, 122 sections, about 51 hours
Volume 3 Coming soon
Multi-Axis Testing in Practice
Multi-axis and MIMO testing as a practice, for the reader who already runs tests and is moving to multi-axis work.
7 chapters planned. Slated for 2027.