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About:
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We carry an extensive line of Lord mounts, which are designed to manage the vibration, noise and shock that can cause mechanical systems to fail. The key to isolating vibration is to reduce its transmission to a component or supporting structure. In a nutshell, the rubber in a mount acts as a Rubber Spring with its own natural frequency, and this frequency partly depends on the stiffness of the spring. But why is rubber such an ideal material in this type of situation?
The answer to this question requires knowing some basic facts about both natural and synthetic rubbers. This includes defining what we commonly call rubber. Lord Corporation’s Design Monograph DM1101a (available upon request) states, it “is a synthetic or natural material whose long, coiled, high-molecular weight chains have been cross-bridged by certain chemical ingredients to form a network. It is characterized by the ability to accept and recover from extreme deformation of 200 percent or more. The term elastomer includes natural rubber and the many synthetic materials that possess rubber-like properties.” The diagram below shows the chemical structure of natural rubber, cis-polyisoprene. Natural rubber is composed of long chains consisting of at least 10,000 similar chemical units.
In addition, rubbers used for industrial and engineering applications generally are compounded with fillers that affect the properties of the vulcanizate. The fillers usually consist of carbon black, and the formulation used with greatly affect the properties of the rubber, such as tear and abrasion resistance, modulus, hysteresis and creep. Also, other chemicals may be added which protect the rubber from sunlight, ozone and oxygen.
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