The acoustic emission (AE) technique is concerned with the detection of structure-borne ultrasonic activity that is naturally generated during the operation of all structures, machinery and processes. Most examples of its application involve the purchase and use of commercially available instrumentation by end-users. To satisfy these demands AE instrumentation has evolved into various forms for use by researchers, engineers and craftpersons. The increasing credibility of AE as a robust industrial measurement technique is creating opportunities for AE sensing to be built into machinery by original equipment manufacturers. In this paper, the evolution of AE technology towards an OEM technique is described and illustrated with examples of some of the information AE can provide in the industrial environment.