Vibration damping refers to the isolation of energy that emanates from a system which produces vibrations as it is operating. There are countless machines which produce a lot of energy in the form of vibrations during their operation. While such machines produce vibration as a necessary by-product of their intended function, the machines also contain and house equipment and electronics that are sensitive to and which may deteriorate as a result of these vibrations. For example, most machinery with motors often produce a lot of energy in the form of vibrations. When such energy is channelled to an electronic device, it may cause the device to deteriorate in performance or fail. This explains why a good number of mechanical systems isolate electronic equipment from the parts that are able to produce a lot of vibrational energy during operation.
There are numerous examples of electronic devices that often fail to perform properly in the presence of elevated vibrational energy. In general, more than three quarters of all the portable electronic devices that are in existence today are unable to function properly in the presence of vibrational energy. The energy that comes from vibrations is enough to lower their performance by a significant extent. On the other hand, electronic devices that are mounted to vehicles and other locomotives are equally unable to function at their best if the vibrational energy is excessive. For this reason, they have to be isolated from all forms of excessive vibrational energy through a process known as vibration dampening.
There are certain materials that can be used to achieve vibration damping. Most of the vibration dampening material is associated with features such as flexibility that make it capable of absorbing enormous amounts of energy from a machine that is producing vibrational energy. For example, a soft tungsten polymer material may be used as a vibration damping material because of its unique ability to absorb huge amounts of energy emanating from a machine or equipment that is producing vibrations.
How does dampening really work? It works by simply absorbing the shock that comes with the energy from a vibration. In other words, it reduces the amount of impact that the electronic product is likely to absorb when exposed to vibrations. The dampener disturbs the energy from the vibration, changes the vibrational frequency, and channels it to other avenues where it can easily be absorbed.