Damping - OILES CORPORATION

What is Damping?

The other technology that Oiles Corporation counts among its core technologies is damping, which controls and attenuates vibration. It refers to the dissipation of vibration energy or reduction of vibration amplitude employing a resistive force that prevents the motion of a vibrating object, and dampers are an example of the use of damping in daily life. For example, a door closer attached to an entry causes the door to slowly decelerate when closing, and it is a damper inside that acts as a deceleration device and allows the door to be closed slowly. The pursuit of using resistance to external force and absorbing and controlling the generated energy yielded the damping technology on which our seismic isolators and vibration control devices are based.

Oiles Damping Technology

Oiles damping technology comprises the following two core technologies.

Horizontal elasticity function (transform):	This means turning shaking from earthquakes into gentle swaying
Vibration damping function (absorb):	This means absorbing earthquake energy and swiftly damping the vibration

Controlling earthquake energy needs to be thought of in terms of avoiding and managing the shaking caused by earthquakes. For example, in the case of LRB seismic isolators, which are comprised of a lead plug embedded in a vulcanized multilayer rubber body consisting of alternating layers of rubber and steel plates, the multilayer rubber and lead plug play an essential role in terms of this. Multilayer rubber is, as you would imagine, flexible, which means that it reduces and transforms violent vibrations so that structures sway gently instead of shaking intensely. The lead plug absorbs the earthquake's energy thanks to the properties of lead and the plastic deformation that occurs when the laminated rubber deforms, thus reducing the shaking. Our damping technology integrates multiple functions in this way and controls the shaking resulting from earthquakes by transforming it into gentle swaying and absorbing it.

Damping, Seismic Isolators, and Vibration Control Devices

The energy from shaking caused by earthquakes, typhoon wind, and other such things is enormous, and the wide range of structures and buildings subjected to this energy include essential social infrastructure that ensures people’s safety. Controlling this energy in Japan, which is subject to frequent natural disasters (earthquakes and typhoons), is directly connected to people’s safety and security. Having built up our damping technology over many years, Oiles became the first company in Japan to introduce the technology and establish the production techniques for seismic isolators, which combine both vibration isolation functionality and absorption functionality in a single device. This allowed us to reach a level where we could contribute to fulfilling the vital role of protecting the lives of people and the safety of cities as a pioneer in seismic isolation and vibration control devices.

Damping & Oiles Bearings

Example of use in a brake pedal

Oiles Bearings combine damping technology and friction, and hysteresis brakes are used in automobile pedals. Although pedals used to be mechanically connected using a cable, contactless pedals using electrical signals have become increasingly common recently. However, this sometimes results in an unnatural feeling when using pedals due to the loss of the friction resistance that used to occur due to contact. As such, we combined the friction technology we had built up through Oiles Bearings with damping to create the sensation of friction and then came up with a product to achieve a nice feel when a pedal is operated. This original product, which came about through a combination of our core technologies of damping and friction, resulted in an occurrence due to the development of technology evolving to become a corporate value for Oiles.

Transparent hysteresis brake