Because so much industrial equipment is prone to high levels of damaging impact vibration and noise, plant engineers are giving increasing attention to OHS and reliability issues.
This is particularly the case with production components such as screens, mixers, motors, compressors, conveyors, crushers, blowers and bins in industries as diverse as building services, energy production, food processing, bulk handling, materials processing, mining and quarrying.
Not only can excessive vibration cause noise and component failures, but also it can disrupt sensitive computers and electronic equipment now being widely adopted by the industry to automate production, says national isolation and actuation specialist Simon Agar of Air Springs Supply.
One solution to NVH (noise, harshness vibration) problems is contained in the expanded ranges of Marsh Mellow isolators that are being specified by Air Springs Supply to eliminate damage and production and service interruptions.
Manufactured by Firestone, Marsh Mellow springs are engineered for immense strength and longevity with a hollow centres surrounded by a solid rubber core and fabric ply reinforced body to deliver constant vibration isolation with changing loads, says Agar.
Their unique construction delivers low natural spring frequencies to provide excellent isolation of forced frequencies in the range of 13-20-HZ (800-1200 cycles a minute).
This outstanding performance — and a maximum load range now extending from 1.4 kN up to 88 kN (on special order) — makes them particularly suitable for vibration isolation applications beneath vibrating equipment commonly used by a wide range of industries.
Marsh Mellows also make ideal shock absorbers for conveyor and primary product and other materials handling applications, particularly in situations where their corrosion-resistant durability means they will survive damp and corrosive environments in which standard coil springs may fail, says Agar.
“Marsh Mellows have no moving parts and require no maintenance or lubrication, so they are ideal of applications in grimy and demanding environments
“And because they reduce structurally transmitted noise caused by vibration, Marsh Mellows have considerable OHS and comfort benefits by being quiet in operation — unlike coil springs, which often suffer coil chatter and readily transmit high frequency structural noise.
“Their terrifically rugged rubber construction eliminates the problem with coil springs of cracking to allow fragments of metal to damage equipment and cause costly downtime. Additionally, Marsh Mellow springs exhibit exceptionally high overload characteristics and offer some support even during failure.”