Whether we are considering industrial equipment, home appliances, delicate electronics, a runner’s feet, or a worker’s hearing—there are damaging forces all around us. When these forces (impact force, compressive stress, shear force, vibration, and sound waves) impact people, equipment, and products, they can cause injury and damage. This occurs due to energy transfer at the point of impact. This energy is what causes damage to: the hearing of your workers, metal parts slamming together in a piece of industrial equipment, cases of delicate electronics experiencing rough shipping conditions, and shop floors as machinery “creeps” from its designated location. To avoid these kinds of damage, you need to isolate the affected entity—your worker, your equipment, your product—from the source of the unwanted energy, the force responsible for its generation. This is achieved by using an isolator—a material that absorbs the energy, providing isolation from the generating force and, thereby, protection from damaging effects.
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