Damaging vibration and shock are a fact of life with rotating and oscillating machinery. Both shock and vibration can cause moderate to severe damage to equipment, increasing operating costs, reducing productivity and adversely effecting part quality.

Motion is present in all industrial automation systems. Stopping or changing the direction

of that motion releases kinetic energy, which can cause shock to occur. Any sudden shock in a system can cause immediate damage to the overall machine and the components

being processed. Consistent vibration inputs can cause damaging fatigue over time. This is why

it’s necessary to decelerate a system smoothly through the use of energy dissipating components.

Manufacturing engineers and operators have long addressed energy dissipation and the need to isolate damaging vibration and attenuate machine-generated shock. As a result, machine mounts of various designs and materials have been developed and tested to address the problem. Energy control and dissipation, when correctly applied, have proven to extend the life of the machine and improve its efficiency.

Application of the proper vibration isolating or shock attenuating components requires not only an understanding of the causes of vibration and shock but also an understanding of the characteristics of the available mount options.

SORBOTHANE® Material Effectively Reduces Vibration and Shock

Viscoelastic Sorbothane has the ability to damp and isolate vibration along with attenuating shock loads. Sorbothane components – pads, mounts, bushings and washers dissipate energy in a variety of applications. The geometry, thickness and durometer of the parts must be tailored to meet specific design requirements.

Attenuating shock with near-faultless memory, Sorbothane is elastic, so pads of the material reliably return to their original shape. Custom and standard parts work for vibration damping and isolation, acoustic damping and shock attenuation. Sorbothane turns mechanical energy into a small amount of heat as the material is deformed. And the applied force is translated perpendicularly away from the axis of incidence.

Accurately predicting the natural frequency of an application lets shock and vibration engineers target known disturbance frequencies to dissipate unwanted energy. The lower the ratio of natural system frequency to disturbance frequency, the more it is possible to isolate dangerous problem vibrations. Find Sorbothane Technical Data: https://www.sorbothane.com/technical-data-sheet.aspx

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