Elastomeric damping sheets

• Main Authors: McCollough, Trevor J, Revely, Wesley E
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 31.08.2004

This invention relates to unique elastomeric damping sheet geometry and design. Elastomeric materials are employed extensively in applications where shock and vibration must be minimized. Such applications include sports equipment, tools, automobiles, airplanes, and many other types of apparatus. It is also becoming increasingly important to minimize failures due to impact forces applied to electronic equipment, such as digital computers, especially when such equipment is employed in harsh, rugged environments. A bulk modulus elastomeric element is employed in the present invention. The material from which the invention is fabricated is formed as a sheet, which has a plurality of channels that run through, or partially through it. The holes in the sheet are angled such that the remaining material may be of a parallelogram shape. The top and bottom surfaces of the particular element may be rectangular, circular, hexagonal, or other shapes, since the shape of the end surface is not important to the invention. An edge of an upper end surface is displaced from a remote edge of the lower surface so that a vertical line from one edge normal to the upper surface, is displaced from the remote edge of the lower surface, so that it preferably does not intersect any part of the lower surface when no forces are applied to the surfaces. However, in some instances, under load, a small overlap at the cross-sectional areas of the upper surface and lower surfaces, may be desirable. A method of determining the desired overlap the elastomeric elements for given applications is also provided.