Abstract: In an industial installation which is inaccessible during operation, acoustic-emission testing of each measurement line is performed by means of at least one transducer and a preamplifier which is connected to an acoustic signal processing unit by means of a signal transmission line and a supply line. A potentiometer circuit placed on the supply line produces a variation in the supply voltage and remotely operates a relay for switching the measurement line to testing means comprising a local pulse generator connected between the transducer and the preamplifier.

Abstract: An apparatus for measuring acoustic emission is activated only at critical periods which are determined by detection of the background noise from a reference level. An acoustic emission transducer continuously transmits a signal to a detection circuit which delivers the top modulation envelope of the background noise to a comparator at a reference level delivered by a control unit.When a mean level of the background noise does not exceed a threshold reference level the AE is sampled at a low rate, f. When the background noise exceeds the threshold reference level the data sampling unit is activated to sample AE at a much higher rate F. Therefore AE is sampled at a high rate only when the pump or other machine under test is running and at a low rate when the article under test is not operating. The AE testing device also includes a frequency spectrum correlator which allows background noise to activate the increased sampling rate only if the noise is in a given frequency range.