Vibration energy harvesting to power condition monitoring sensors for industrial and manufacturing equipment

To enable self-sustaining long-lasting wireless condition monitoring sensors, a small mechanical vibration energy harvester using electromagnetic transduction was constructed and used to harvest vibrations from large industrial pump motors and machine tool. The prototype harvester was roughly the size of a cube with 2.5 cm long sides. Power ranging from 0.2 to 1.5 mW was harvested from 15 to 30 kW water pump motors. For a machine tool, metal cutting vibrations and rapid jog events were explored as possible harvestable sources of energy. Power ranging from 0.9 to 1.9 mW was harvested during facemilling operations, and it was shown that rapid jog events could be harvested. The power levels harvested from the pump motors and machine tools are sufficient to provide the time-averaged power requirements of commercial wireless sensor nodes, enabling sensor nodes to overcome the finite life of replaceable batteries.