Noisetek ELASTE – vibration damping

Description of the product

The Noisetek ELASTE product family provides adjustable epoxy-based vibration damping materials with an extremely high loss factor. These innovative visco-elastic materials are intended primarily for use in constrained-layer damping (CLD) systems to prevent the harmful effects of resonating vibration.

Product details

Mechanical vibration causes problems in many applications. Vibration damping is necessary for addressing the noise, vibration, and strength characteristics of mechanical structures. It involves both internal material damping and damping at the l evel of the whole mechanical structure.
The most efficient way to prevent the harmful effects of vibration is to increase the damping by means of constrained-layer systems that provide weight-efficient, high-level damping even for heavy machinery structures. In cooperation with Oy Noisetek Ab, VTT (the Technical Research Centre of Finland) has developed Noisetek ELASTE high damping epoxies – a family of visco-elastic vibration damping materials that adds adjustability to the equation. With these materials, the mechanical damping is based on precise control of the location of the glass transition temperature (Tg) regions; the greatest damping is achieved in the middle of the Tg region, with the measured loss factor (?) values for the epoxies ranging from 1.3 to 1.7. The properties of each cured epoxy system are designed such that the peak damping effect is set to appear in the property window for predetermined thermal and mechanical vibration conditions. The operation range of the Noisetek ELASTE materials covers all audible frequencies and optimal temperatures from -10 to 160 °C.

Most CLD applications use a three-layer “sandwich” system that is formed by laminating the vibrating base layer with a damping layer and then adding a third, constraining layer. When the system flexes during vibration, the alternating shear strain in the damping material causes the vibration to dissipate as frictional heat. In comparison to the free-layer damping technique, Noisetek ELASTE CLD systems perform better as the substrate thickness increases. With Noisetek ELASTE even massive structures, with thicknesses from 20 to 30 mm, can be damped. Additionally, in weight-sensitive applications, these Noisetek CLD systems allow for lighter overall constructions than do equivalent free-layer systems and other CLD systems.

The composition of the Noisetek ELASTE products was developed through the use of only reactive components to achieve more efficient vibration damping. The lack of additives also enhances the durability of the material, because separation will not occur, even in the long term. Temperature- and frequency-dependent physical properties of high damping epoxies were measured via dynamic-mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA). From these measurements, a visco-elastic model was developed for describing frequency- and temperature- dependent properties. With this highly accurate material model, FE modeling tools can be used to assess the effect of various damping treatments on the response of real-world structures to vibration.

For further information, please do not hesitate to contact our Product Manager of Noisetek ELASTE (elastic epoxy).