Constrained layer damping cuts transmitted noise

Constrained layer damped steel and aluminium absorbs impact and transmitted noise from steel by converting shear strain into negligible heat.

Constrained layer damped steel and aluminium absorbs impact and transmitted noise from steel by converting shear strain into negligible heat.

The principle, called constrained layer damping, uses a sandwich construction with two layers of steel compressing a viscoelastic polymer.

Sound dead steel (SDS) has been successfully used to damp vibrations in disk drives, CD/DVD players, loudspeaker stands, hi-fi cabinets and acoustic doors, as well as being used in industrial applications such as sumps, pumps (offshore platform skid plates, as well as smaller units), compressors, guarding, ductwork, transformers and enclosures.

Sets of adhesive aluminium dampers (AliDamp) are produced for cab sets in the rail industry to reduce noise in the carriages.

As well as producing sound dead steel as a laminate, Sound Dead Steel manufactures a range of single-layer self-adhesive dampers to silence items already built, or where fabrication requirements demand a retrofit.

Laminates and dampers can be supplied with high-temperature polymers tha can cope with the heat involved in anodising or powder coating.

This can be an effective yet low-cost way to solve to potentially expensive noise problems.

Sound Dead Steel (SDS) can supply small as well as large quantities, or pieces cut to specified sizes.

It is often just a simple case of sticking a damper on and observing the results.

SDS also has the additional benefit of helping to reduce metal fatigue by damping out harmful vibration and harmonics.

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