The Dytran model 5860B is an IEPE impedance head, consisting of a 100 mV/lb force sensor and a 100 mV/g accelerometer within the same housing, designed to simultaneously measure driving force and resultant acceleration at the point of force applied to a test article.

One method to excite a larger test object is to vibrate the structure using an electrodynamic shaker attached to the test object by a stinger and an impedance head. The driving point impedance may then be accurately measured over various frequencies of interest. Output signals from the impedance head may be then fed to a spectrum analyzer, and with appropriate software, may be used to compute the dynamic impedance function. Dynamic impedance is defined as Force/Velocity. The force is read out directly from the 5860B and a single integration of the accelerometer signals yields velocity. Computations are made by an appropriately programmed spectrum analyzer and the dynamic impedance function displayed graphically.