Machine Vibration

How Vibration Destroys Machines

Engineers have a huge job when it comes to designing and putting together new machines. There are tons of things to think about, including how all of the parts will work together and even what the machine will actually work like. One of the main things that an engineer must worry about, though, is actually making sure the machine runs efficiently. There are lots of things that can take away from the efficiency of a machine, including friction and vibrations, both of which are caused by machine parts rubbing up against one another.

Vibration is one of the worst things for a machine and can be one of the most difficult aspects of machine creation to control. Essentially what happens is that when machine parts vibrate, they can create effects that are minor and annoying or effects that are actually devastating to the machine’s efficiency or the machine itself.

Annoying vibrations don’t necessarily cause damage to the machine, but they can cause extra noise around the moving parts, which can be annoying. Devastating vibrations can happen when an entire machine vibrates in a certain frequency, which can cause the parts of the machine to move and to actually start to come apart. Serious machine vibration problems can cause wear over time, causing the machine to wear down more quickly than it would have otherwise.

Controlling or getting rid of these machine vibrations can be difficult, and there are many techniques that engineers use to help with this problem. To begin with, the way a machine is built will help control vibrations from the get-go. A well-designed machine will have fewer vibration problems than other machines. Sometimes parts can be made to vibrate in a certain way so that they vibrations aren’t as harmful to the machine.

Another way to control or get rid of vibrations is to use Sorbothane. This is basically a viscoelastic substance that can be worked into your machine in various ways. The substance has both liquid and elastic properties. The liquid properties of the substance help it to dissipate vibrations, and the elastic properties allow it to store vibration energy and to release it later on as heat. The combination of these together make for a substance that is particularly useful in engineering for controlling machine vibration.

Adding Sorbothane to a machine design can help control or eliminate vibrations or to isolate vibration from one part of the machine so that it doesn’t reach other vital parts. Of course, it still takes some thought and planning to get the substance in the right spots that will be most likely to control the vibrations well. This will probably take some experimentation. However, due to the fact that Sorbothane works in ways that are different from most other vibration-eliminating substances, it will work better than foam, rubber, or ball bearings, and it can be much easier to work with. Sorbothane can allow you to create machines that you thought were impossible by eliminating problems of machine vibration.

Interested in learning more about Sorbothane’s solutions? Download our Engineering Design Guide today.