Vibration dampening material and uses for same
View Patent ↗The present invention is directed to a material adapted to reduce vibration and, more specifically, to a material adapted to dissipate and evenly distribute transmitted vibrations. The material is particularly suited for impact and/or heavy load vibration resistance.
1. A vibration reducing material comprising:
a foam material layer comprising a plurality of projecting sections made of substantially rigid foam material and areas of predetermined weakness located within the foam layer between the projections to allow the vibration-reducing material to flex along such areas of predetermined weakness, the areas of predetermined weakness comprising grooves that form polygon shapes,
a continuous, uniform elastomeric material layer configured to absorb vibration, and
an aramid material layer that distributes vibration to facilitate vibration dampening, the aramid material layer defining a major material surface and being located between the foam and elastomeric layers, the aramid material layer being generally non-elastic in a direction generally perpendicular to the major material surface.
2. The vibration-reducing material of claim 1 , wherein the polygon shapes are selected from the group consisting of: hexagons, diamonds, octagons, circles, ellipses, and combinations thereof.
3. The vibration-reducing material of claim 1 , used as a protective pad.
4. The vibration-reducing material of claim 1 , used as a protective pad to dissipate vibration from an impact and impact energy.
5. The vibration-reducing material of claim 1 , wherein the foam material layer is substantially flexible.
6. The vibration-reducing material of claim 1 , wherein each projecting section has a curvilinear surface with smooth edges.
7. The vibration-reducing material of claim 1 , wherein each projecting section has a smooth parabolic surface.
8. The vibration-reducing material of claim 1 , the foam material layer further comprising a plurality of U-shaped depressions between adjacent projecting sections, each depression having a bottom edge and substantially parallel side edges.