Vibration Isolation

Vibration isolators keep the vibration of rotating machines out of the building structure. The Vibration Isolation category currently lists one product type from Mason Industries: a free-standing spring mount with a bolt-down baseplate, used under floor-mounted mechanical equipment. Seven Star LLC supplies it from Muscat, Oman. Other isolators, including restrained spring mounts, neoprene mounts and spring hangers for pipework and ducts, can be sourced on request as the range grows.

Where spring vibration isolators are used

Spring mounts go under chillers, pumps on inertia bases, air handling units, fans, compressors and generator sets, most of all on upper floors and roofs where the slab is flexible. Free-standing springs suit equipment whose weight stays constant. Where the weight changes a great deal, as with a cooling tower that is drained, or where wind or seismic loads apply, restrained mounts with limit stops are used instead.

How a spring mount is selected

Isolation depends on the ratio between the lowest disturbing frequency of the machine and the natural frequency of the mount, and the natural frequency is set by the static deflection of the spring under load. Slow machines and flexible floors therefore need springs with more deflection. Each mount is chosen for the load at its own support point, which is rarely an equal share of the total weight.

For a quotation, send the equipment type, the operating weight, the load at each support point or the position of the center of gravity, the lowest operating speed and the type of floor. We check the selection against the manufacturer’s load tables for projects across the GCC.