Linear Friction Vibration Damper With Balanced Resilient Fingers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vibration dampers and absorbers, particularly hydraulic ones, face complexity in design due to non-linear damping responses affected by temperature, loading, and vibration frequency and amplitude, and pose safety risks from fluid loss in critical applications.
Innovation Solution
A vibration damper and absorber design featuring a first member with a bearing region and a second member with resilient members that engage in friction contact, providing constant frictional resistance through oppositely disposed pairs of resilient members, ensuring balanced forces and consistent damping/absorbing effect without net transverse forces, and optionally housed with lubricant for enhanced performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If hydraulic dampers/absorbers are used to minimise vibration transmission, then damping effectiveness is improved, but design complexity increases due to non-linear response affected by temperature, loading, and vibration frequency/amplitude
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the hydraulic damping system with a friction-based mechanical damping system. The friction damper uses a friction element that directly contacts a friction surface, eliminating the need for hydraulic fluid and complex pressure-dependent damping mechanisms. This substitution provides a more straightforward mechanical approach to vibration damping.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the fundamental damping parameter from hydraulic pressure-dependent friction to direct contact friction. By using a friction element with defined friction coefficient and contact pressure, the damping characteristics become more predictable and less sensitive to temperature and loading variations compared to hydraulic systems.
2Reliability
If hydraulic dampers/absorbers are used to minimise vibration transmission, then damping effectiveness is improved, but safety risk increases due to potential fluid loss in critical applications
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the hydraulic fluid from the damping system, replacing it with a purely mechanical friction-based approach. This removal of fluid eliminates the safety risk associated with fluid loss while maintaining the essential damping function through direct friction contact between solid components.
Solution Approach 2:
The friction element is designed as a simple, replaceable mechanical component rather than a sealed hydraulic system. This approach allows for easier maintenance and replacement, and eliminates the catastrophic failure mode associated with hydraulic fluid leakage in safety-critical applications.
3Device complexity
If friction contact is used to provide damping resistance, then design simplicity is improved, but consistent damping effect becomes difficult to achieve under varying vibrational conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates a resilient friction element that can dynamically adapt its contact pressure with the friction surface. This resilience allows the friction force to remain relatively constant across varying vibration amplitudes and frequencies, providing more consistent damping behavior compared to rigid friction contacts.
Solution Approach 2:
The friction element is constructed from composite or specially selected materials that provide both resilient properties and controlled friction characteristics. This material selection ensures stable friction behavior under varying thermal and mechanical conditions, improving the consistency of the damping effect.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides a consistent and effective damping/absorbing effect across varying vibrational conditions, reducing vibration transmission between components while minimizing the risk of fluid loss, thus enhancing safety and performance in safety-critical applications.
Implementation Method 1
relative axial displacement between the first and second members is opposed by frictional contact between the contact face and the friction contact region
Implementation Method 2
a resilient member which projects from the body and which has a contact face which resiliently engages the friction contact region
Data Source
AI summary
A linear vibration damper and/or absorber includes a centre shaft (12) having bearing regions (18) and friction contact regions (20), and a housing (2) including finger assemblies (22) which are mounted with a small radial clearance for accurate location on the bearing regions (18) for axial displacement with respect to the centre shaft (12) along a central axis (X), the finger assemblies (22) each including resilient fingers (38) which extend axially from respective body sections (26) and have contact faces (40) which resiliently engage, i.e. are pressed by the resilience of the fingers (40) into contact with, friction surfaces (20) of the contact regions of the centre shaft (12), whereby relative linear displacement between the centre shaft (12) and the housing (2) is opposed by frictional contact between the friction surfaces (20) and the contact faces (40).