It has been years, but my interest in Rotary Viscous Dampers was sparked by cassette decks. As a young music fanatic I had to have a component stereo cassette deck for music. I could never afford a high end deck such as Nakamichi or such, usually an Onkyo or Sharp was more my speed. When you opened the door for tape insertion it usually was stopped by a bumper, no big deal it got the job done, however basic. The day came, after wearing out too many tape deck heads to go shopping for a high end deck. Getting all excited I started looking at the high end decks, ignoring the price tag for the moment. The Sansui’s, Nackamichi, Sony, B&O and Marantz were on my fantasy list. Well the quality of the components was much higher, they had a good solid feel; nice and firm with a price tag to match. When I opened the door the high end quality was revealed further, smooth, silent, and gliding. The product permeated class. I am sure this feeling was the full intention of the designer and he achieved it. I ended up with a Sansui, by the way. I guess it’s a little strange but I ended up ripping the tape deck apart after a few years to investigate the mechanism
and that is what inspired my future endeavors. Now, the dampers in the tape decks are what I consider light duty, they were made from polystyrene and polyethylene with a low viscosity damping grease. A very light plastic door and spring loading was enough to satisfy the requirements. When we look at the industrial Heavy duty slimline rotary viscous damper, several critical changes had to be made. Precision machined aluminum, steel and temperature resistant damping grease had to be used in the design to achieve the harsh environment they were to be used and cycle life required. In applications that have heavy lateral loading a bearing will be used. Currently I have found that no additional bearing are needed in most applications, but would be used if needed. We have achieved 1,000,000+ cycles in a typical application using an integrated bearing in the structure of the damper. Whether your specific application is a heavy duty or light duty application we will work with you to solve your damping application. Please contact us at www.mmtech.us
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