Vibration Insulation

the protection of structures, machines, instruments, and people from the harmful effect of vibration by introducing deformable elements between a vibration source and the object being protected. Passive vibration insulation is usually used; in this case the insulators are intermediate elements that are deformed by the action of the vibration source. In critical cases active vibration isolation is used to reduce low-frequency vibration. Here the deformation of the elastic elements controls an automatic regulating system (for example, to increase riding comfort in automobiles). The lower the frequency and the greater the amplitude of the vibration, the more pliant must be the buffers. When protecting against periodic vibration, the damping must be weak; when protecting against nonperiodic effects, such as random vibration and single impacts, stronger dampers are used.