Damping is at the core of CSA Engineering's vibration suppression
capabilities. Damping refers to the dissipation of vibrational energy. All
physical systems have some inherent damping, but the level of damping can be
augmented to increase energy dissipation in particular vibration modes. In
this way, the response of a structure driven at a resonant frequency
can be greatly decreased. This in turn can significantly reduce overall motion or
acceleration of a system or product.
CSA is known internationally for its expertise in passive damping using viscoelastic materials.
CSA co-founders Drs. Conor Johnson and David Kienholz won the 1981 ASME Structures and Materials
Award for the development of the Modal Strain Energy Method, the
primary passive damping design and analysis method now used worldwide.
From that beginning, CSA has continued its leadership in
damping technology and has designed hundreds of innovative solutions to
solve customers' vibration problems.
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Our damping design experience covers space structures, aircraft,
automobiles, wafer steppers, medical equipment, electronic components, satellites, marine structures, consumer products,
disk drives, and defense systems. The viscoelastic material test system developed by
CSA covers extremely wide temperature and frequency ranges and is linked directly with its
state-of-the-art characterization software
and materials database. The database allows CSA to select the optimal
material for each specific application. We also implement damping using
fluids, friction, eddy currents and impact.
Active damping is sometimes necessary to achieve greater performance, or to produce system
properties that are controllable electronically. A hybrid active/passive approach is often
used when CSA designs and fabricates systems for active damping. When CSA recommends an
active solution to a customer's problem, the customer can be certain that passive options have
been explored fully. CSA can design control systems for vibration suppression and implement them
in a variety of digital and analog configurations.
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