Best Isolation HRS? SRA? Zoethecus? Symposium?

No doubt here that the Vibraplane is the best isolation device on the market. That being said there are a couple of reasons for this. In order to isolate properly you must have a combination of mass and isolation. You must decouple from the surface that is vibrating in both the Horizontal and vertical planes. The Vibraplane addresses both issues. It weighs in at 150 lbs. Things at rest tend to stay at rest, ask Newton. It has a highly damped air suspension system. This isolates down to an astonishing 2.5 hz. The footers used on the Vibraplane use an ingenious slip plate technology isolating in the Horizontal Plane!!!!

There is a reason that the worlds scientific community uses Vibraplanes and a handful of other manufactures for the test equipment. IT WORKS!!! They are not direct coupled plates. Their R&D DEPENDS on results!! I've yet to hear about an electron microscope being used on a Silent Running Platform.

I've used both and while the Silent Running is very good and works well it fails in comparison to the Vibraplane. It is an audiophile tweak, where the Vibraplane is a real world industry performer.

I am a dealer for the product because it is the best and there is nothing else out there like it. We know that ADOG is a dealer for the Silent Running. Jeff, we would all benefit with a little more transparancy from your posts. We know you have an axe to grind.

J- Badov - If what you said were actually true, the mass of the entite house (much more than 150 lb) would provide sufficient isolation. Furthermore, "electron microscopes," as a class, are not the end all do-all devices you suggest; in the overall scheme of things their performance is good but not great.

~ cheers

First let me thank the over 5000 customers now using the Vibraplane for their isolation needs. It has been a real pleasure to make so many customers enjoy their systems more than ever.
For those that are not clear on how the Vibraplane works, compared to "standard" isolation products, let me see if this might help:
Conventional isolators are constructed using metal springs or rubber blocks. They have low internal damping, and tend to be effective only at frequencies near 10 Hz. Also, they provide almost no isolation at frequencies above 30 Hz because of “harmonic standing waves” occurring at sonic velocities in the metal or rubber.

The VIBRAPLANE design concept eliminates the metal springs and or rubber blocks used in conventional isolator designs. The VIBRAPLANE utilizes a frictionless rolling diaphragm air seal to support a load carrying piston in conjunction with dual air chambers as the spring and damping medium. The air spring stiffness is a function of the combined air volume of the dual chambers. This conveniently provides the required very low stiffness to obtain the desired very low natural frequency necessary for high efficiency isolation. “Harmonic standing waves” cannot occur in the VIBRAPLANE System due to its dual air chamber internal damping design.
The VIBRAPLANE utilizes a unique proprietary VARIFLO™ orifice design for flow control between air chambers, and therefore, better damping control is realized both high and low amplitudes and frequencies. This design ensures an even air flow at all amplitudes without choking, thereby maintaining the effectiveness of both (airspring) chamber volumes.

It can easily be shown that VARIFLO damping incorporates a “filtering” spring. This contrasts with vibrations in a conventional isolator model where the damper is direct coupled to the mass and causes a loss of isolation at high frequencies. The VARIFLO damping (air) spring effectively decouples the damper at high frequencies and therefore no isolation is lost where high damping forces would tend to reduce efficiency in a conventional isolator.

Zero Friction
The VIBRAPLANE design uses a thin wall frictionless rolling diaphragm to support the (airspring) piston. This unique design prevents friction locking, which is a principle cause of loss of isolation for low frequency, micro-inch disturbances in conventional Isolators.

The dual chamber design of the VIBRAPLANE produces a unique optimization of its vibration Transmissibility performance. At low frequencies the air volume in both air chambers is effective, resulting in large air volume and a soft low natural frequency system. This is represented by the “left” branch of the Transmissibility curve. At high frequencies, the orifice gradually restricts the air flow and eventually only the small chamber is effective with a resulting stiffening of the system. This action is represented by the “right” branch of the Transmissibility curve. Our proprietary orifice design is amplitude sensitive and configured to produce the “optimum” transmissibility bounded by the left and right branches. The VIBRAPLANE thus affords the ideal conditions of maximum damping at resonance and minimum damping at high frequencies for better isolation than possible, using conventional isolation systems.
Horizontal vibrations (in buildings) average 25% to 30% of the vertical and are usually less critical. Nevertheless, the VIBRAPLANE System includes a Horizontal Isolation Piston to provide isolation for any vibration environment regardless of direction.
The piston is internally constructed with rubber-in-shear elements that simultaneously translate and rock in a low frequency coupled response action to horizontal inputs. The Vibraplane Platforms use an onmi-directional low frequency pendulum system to eliminate horizontal vibrations.
Finanlly, structural damping is used throughout which eliminates the “ringing” caused by resonances in the frame, table, and platform structures external to the VIBRAPLANE airspring suspension system. All structures experience resonance no matter how stiff or massive. Damping augmentation is the most efficient means to dissipate vibration energy,
Hope this has been helpful. There are many products now on the market, all help and can be "heard". Please feel free to e-mail us off-line for further information.

A very Happy and SOUND Holiday season to all........

Steve
SOS

Geoffkait - I can see where you are a little confused and having difficulty understanding seismic isolation.

"If what you said were actually true, the mass of the entite house (much more than 150 lb) would provide sufficient isolation."

We are talking about isolated mass here Geoff. The house like the Silent running is directly coupled to the earth, the source of the vibration. When you isolate and decouple an object properly it must have mass in order to stay put. So the earth vibrates away while the platform stays in place, partly because of the mass of the platform and partly due to the isolation. This is why they operate so well.

"Furthermore, "electron microscopes," as a class, are not the end all do-all devices you suggest; in the overall scheme of things their performance is good but not great. "

Alright, but if they are not isolated proper the performance is greatly diminished. It's not the resolution of the device I am talking about here it is increase in performance to enhance usability. Obviously the move sensitive the device the more important the isolation to obtain results. A great deal of the Vibraplanes are used in clinical, industrial and research applications where under normal consditions you will not yeild results.

Take a look at SOS's follow up response. It has a very clear indication of how the unit is designed.

j-badov - The heavy mass used in Vibraplane is employed to lower the resonant freq. of the "mass on spring" system and has nothing whatsoever to do with inertia, as you suggested. System resonant frequency is a (strict) function of the Sq. Root of spring rate over the mass.

Thus, if vibraplane employed an even heavier mass, all things being equal, it would be an even better isolator. But not because of the reason you gave.

~ cheers