Vibration absorber

shockfriction

The environments in which equipment must often operate—oil, water, ozone, corrosion, and temperature extremes—are as critical to designing materials and assemblies that isolate shock and vibration as factors such as space limitations, shock loading capability, weight, radiation, and surface friction. As a result of its interlocking loop construction—which couples resiliency with high damping characteristics and nonlinear spring rates—Metal Textiles knitted wire mesh offers unique properties for absorbing shock and vibration. It also provides dramatically improved performance in hostile environments. Each loop acts as a small spring when subjected to compressive loads, and will immediately resume 90% of its original shape when the load is removed. Knitted wire mesh, in a compressed form, can handle shock loadings as high as the yield strength of the material itself. In fact, it is not uncommon for a one-inch-thick disc to absorb up to 100,000 pounds of loading—a level not obtainable with any other fabricated material. Loadings may be in any direction. Knitted wire mesh is also versatile: additional resilience, as well as reduction of surface friction, can be obtained by knitting plastic fiber in parallel with metal, in which case the metal wire acts as a structural support and binder for the plastic.