isolator supporting industrial machinery

Vibration Isolation Performance Study

Vibremo engineers have experience working with major companies in the manufacturing industry to carry out vibration measurements. Analysing the data collected allows us to verify the quality of any existing isolation system, and can also be used to design optimised isolation solutions for industrial equipment.

Why should vibration be controlled?

Industrial machinery can generate significant levels of vibration. It is necessary to control them for several reasons:

It has an impact on the quality of the products being manufactured. An example of this is the output strips produced by roll grinders and rolling mills in the steel and aluminium industries.
It affects the stability of the equipment, leading to safety issues.
It causes stress and fatigue on internal components, accelerating rates of wear.
It increases down time, ultimately affecting the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).

internal vibration of press industrial machinery

external vibration from industrial press

Vibration can also be transmitted to the surroundings. This should be controlled in order to:

Protect the health and safety of staff.
Limit the effect on nearby sensitive machines - metrology and test equipment in particular.
Avoid structural damage to the plant.
Avoid disturbances to neighbouring buildings.

How can measurements help?

Isolation systems should be designed and installed to avoid the described issues. However, in most cases, problems are complex and acquiring the data needed to properly design an isolation system is not straightforward. As each problem is different, Vibremo is committed to helping each client by performing on-site vibration measurements.

The analysis of the collected data provides a clear picture of the vibration transmission across the system. This information, combined with the client’s performance requirements, allows for a bespoke isolation solution to be designed.

Vibremo engineers have experience dealing with:

Stamping machines generating large impacts, such as Presses and Forges
Rotating machinery, such as Pumps, Compressors and Turbines
Sensitive metrology machinery such as CMM

We often encounter situations where full machinery detail isn’t readily available. Machine mass, centre of gravity, dynamic loads, disparities of energy generated at individual feet, operating speeds, potential structural weaknesses, resonances being excited by forced vibrations, etc. are aspects that should be known in order to define which type of machine mount, isolated foundation or floating floor, should be designed to support the industrial equipment.

Vibremo engineers can also measure existing vibration isolation systems to assess the current performance and offer potential mitigation solutions to reduce vibrations internal to the machine or excessive transmission to the surrounding environment.