Firestone Airmount Vibration Isolator

Firestone - Airmount Vibration Isolator

Supplier: Air Springs Supply

Airmount Vibration Isolator

Firestone Airmount isolators are used as vibration isolators on many different types of equipment.

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The Firestone range of Isolators comprises of two lines; the Firestone Airmount® isolators and Firestone MarshMellow® springs.

Each line has distinct benefits over other typical industrial vibration isolators, and each has advantages over the other. Many industrial vibration isolation problems can be solved using either line, and a complete analysis of potential solutions to these problems should include investigating options using both lines of isolators.

Compact installed height
While it may be theoretically possible to construct a solid isolator that has as low a spring rate as an air spring, it is often impossible practically. Air springs can be constructed to have spring rates as low as a coil spring with over 9 inches [299 mm] of static deflection. This would necessitate a coil spring with an impossibly long free height.

Installed heights for air springs are normally less than an equivalent coil spring. This gives the designer greater freedom to control the height of his equipment.

Accomodates wide load range
Air springs also have a unique capability unavailable in a solid spring: they are adjustable. While it may be theoretically possible to have a coil spring as effective as an air spring at a particular load, it is impossible to construct a spring that has as wide a load range, or is as effective throughout the range. An air spring can support loads varying by hundreds or even thousands of pounds with the same effective isolation. For the designer this gives a generous tolerance to his calculations. An additional benefit is the ability to maintain a level surface with a compliant isolation system. As a load shifts, air springs can be inflated or deflated to maintain a constant height, and therefore a level surface.

Does not require inertia mass
Most solid forms of isolation devices have historically been used with large inertia masses whose function is to reduce the amplitude of the vibration to within the ability of the isolator to comply to the motion. This allows a relatively stiff isolator to do an acceptable job, and a more compliant one to do a good job. However, this is expensive, and is sometimes impossible without serious structural enhancement. With an air spring, you have a more compliant support.The low natural frequencies and large travel of the air spring allow it to reduce the need for a large inertia mass.

Variable spring rate
Like Marsh Mellow® springs, Airmount® isolators have a variable spring rate. The variable spring rate is due to air spring geometry, internal air pressure, and changing effective area. The effect of this variable spring rate is that an Airmount® isolator can perform with constant efficiency through a wide range of loads. It also means that a single style of air spring can be used at every mounting point of machinery or systems that are unevenly loaded without sacrificing this efficiency at any of the mounting points. Traditional constant spring rate isolators such as coil springs do not have this ability to operate with constant efficiency through a wide range of loads. In fact, a coil spring designed to operate at a given height loses isolation efficiency with even very small decreases in the supported load.

Given that a lower system natural frequency provides superior isolation and that less variability in natural frequency provides more constant isolation, the benefits of the Airmount® are clear.

For example, in an application designed to use either coil springs or air springs to support loads ranging from 1500 lbs [6.67 kN] to 3000 lbs [13.3 kN], a system using a coil spring 8.5 inches [216 mm] tall with a constant spring rate of 1200 lbs per inch [210 kN per meter] would have a natural frequency ranging from 118.9 cpm at 3000 lbs [13.3 kN] to 171.6 cpm at 1500 lbs [6.67 kN]. For the same loading, a system using a style 20-2 Airmount® isolator would have a natural frequency with a range from 95 cpm at 3000 lbs [13.3 kN] to 103 cpm at 1500 lbs [6.67 kN].

Unsurpassed Isolation Capability
Airmount® isolators can provide the highest degree of isolation of any type vibration isolator. System natural frequencies as low as 60 cpm (1 Hz) are available. The addition of an auxiliary reservoir can provide even lower system frequencies. In order to achieve similar results from a conventional coil spring isolator, a real static deflection of 9 inches (229 mm) would be required. This would require a very long free length for a coil spring, and be very difficult to make stable.

Constant Isolation Efficiency
Airmount® isolators are unique in that the system's natural frequency does not change significantly with changes in load at pressures greater than 40 psig (2.8 bar). This unique feature, combined with accurate height control, will allow the use of the same Airmount® isolator at each mounting point of an unevenly loaded machine.

Airsprings were developed by Firestone to fill a need for a more efficient suspension system for highway trucks, trailers, and buses. Airide™ springs, as they were named, provided the means for a suspension that reduced the amount of road shock and vibration transmitted into the vehicle. Billions of miles of actual use have proven the dependability and effectiveness of the air suspension concept using Airide springs by Firestone.

Airmount isolators and Airstroke actuators are a further application and refinement of the Airide spring. They are basically the same product with the use of the product determining which name is applied to it.

Some parts, however, are designed for a particular application, and all parts are not necessarily compatible with all three applications. Airsprings are highly engineered elastomeric bellows with specially designed metal end closures.

The bellows itself is constructed from plies of cord-reinforced rubber with standard construction utilising two plies of special cord fabric. High strength versions designed to handle greater loads and pressures are also available on many of the styles.

Airmount isolators and Airstroke actuators are capable of handling loads up to 100,000 pounds and can be designed into systems to utilise up to fourteen inches of stroke. The standard airspring will operate in temperatures from –35°F to 135°F and special compounds are available on some parts to extend this range.

A few of the typical applications currently include:

Surface area presses
Stamping presses
Conveyors
Clamping devices
Assembly equipment
Irrigation equipment
Automotive alignment equipment
Paper and textile machinery
Sawmill machinery
Material handling
Valves
Commercial laundry

Due to the unique capabilities of Airmount, many applications are in use where the product is used for both actuation and isolation, or for a completely different purpose.

Just a few of these applications include: