Vibration control with high performance resin Product Development Department of Company S, an industrial materials manufacturer
Protect Fragile Cargo from Transport Shock
Ensures cargo safety in low-temp environments
Company S manufactures and sells a wide range of industrial materials. The department developing products for vibration and soundproofing applications received an inquiry from a logistics company that they do business with stating, "We are considering a method for transporting products that are sensitive to vibration, but we are having trouble because the protection we have been using so far has not been enough."
In order to meet customer requests, Company S's product development department began a project to develop new transportation materials.
Challenges
How can we protect our sensitive shipments from vibrations? Conventional combinations of materials alone are not enough...
When developing new transportation materials, the product development department at Company S conducted interviews with its business partners; mostly transportation companies.
The product development department identified the following requests from clients:
"Recently, we have been receiving more and more requests for cargo that requires special protection from vibration during transport, such as precision machinery, medical equipment, and high-quality fruit. When transporting these items, shock-absorbing materials such as air cushions and buffer materials can be used to prevent surface defects, but they do not completely suppress vibrations, so we believe that a different method is necessary."
Furthermore, according to clients,
The request also stated, "As the volume and frequency of transported goods is increasing, transportation methods are also diversifying, so we would like you to develop transportation materials that can be used in a general-purpose manner and that do not affect the loading capacity."
(It's quite a difficult problem, but we want to do something about it...!) Researcher K（ hereafter, "K"） from the Product Development Department decided to discuss the issue within the department.
As a result, the Product Development Department proposed using a mat that would absorb vibrations, and K and his team gathered materials that were effective at absorbing vibrations and began prototyping and evaluating sample mats.
"First, we started by evaluating rubber materials. Rubber has a certain level of vibration absorption performance, is particularly effective at low vibration frequencies, and is relatively inexpensive. However, durability and changes in physical characteristics due to temperature were issues," said K.
"Urethane foam is also relatively low-cost, lightweight, and has a certain level of vibration absorption performance, and we were able to confirm its effectiveness in the medium frequency range. However, like rubber, durability is an issue, and there are also problems with disposal. Gel materials have the highest vibration absorption capacity and can be expected to effectively absorb vibrations over a wide frequency range, but the cost was an issue." (K said)
K's product development team found that combining multiple materials that respond to different vibration frequencies is effective in improving the vibration absorption effect, so we decided to consider laminating different materials together.
They began looking into combining multiple materials and made numerous prototypes, adjusting the thickness, but they couldn't find a combination that balanced performance and thickness.
In addition, their client made an additional request stating, "In some cases, low-temperature storage is necessary during transportation, so we would like you to propose transportation materials that are effective even at low temperatures."
With the deadline approaching, K and the other development staff felt stuck and unable to find a solution.
Key Challenges
There was a need to develop transport materials suitable for precision instruments, medical equipment, and high-quality fruit, which require protection against vibrations during transport.
Combining materials with different vibration absorption capabilities is an effective way to deal with vibration, but it is difficult to balance this with thickness.
It has become necessary to search for materials that can exhibit vibration absorption properties even at low temperatures.