The Vibracon is a self-leveling, adjustable and reusable mechanically stiff chock used for mounting of equipment in military, marine and industrial applications. As part of establishing engineering implementation guidelines the United States Navy has conducted Heavy Weight Hi-Impact Shock Test per MIL STD 901D of the Vibracon mounts. These tests examine equipment survivability under accelerated gravity forces at a sudden impact and high velocity from various directions simultaneously.
Machine Support has supplied Vibracon Mounts since 1999 to the United States Navy for specific main and auxiliary machinery applications after the first heavy weight shock test. Years of technical and economic evaluations have concluded that the Vibracon mounting system introduced on the MCM Class ships should be implemented in more critical alignment and mounting applications through out the fleet. To advance the technology within the Navy the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) placed the Vibracon mount as key technology for evaluation the Cumbersome Work Practices (CWP) Group.
Heavy Weight Testing in March, Medium Weight Testing of December 2001 and most recently Heavy Weight Testing of January 2003 have examined various configurations and materials. The Vibracons tested ranged from the commercial -off-the-shelf (COTS) and High Shock versions to the new Low Profile configuration fabricated from a range of materials including carbon steel, alloy steel, stainless steel and K-Monel 500.
During the testing various Vibracon mounts were subjected to gravity accelerations consistent with
submarine frame mounted and hull mounted equipment and various standard engine and pump configurations
plus with disproportionate masses.
Disproportionate masses are defined as components with high center of gravity (CG) with small bolting
patterns or extremely stiff masses of low CG with large bolting patterns. The pass/fail criteria for all
the testing were for the mounts to adjust as new after the test and no damage to the equipment or
foundations.
The Vibracon mounts exceeded expectations in many scenarios as the tests were designed to fail the mounts
to establish the upper end boundaries of the Vibracon.
Vibracon mount is now cleared implementation for all applications in submarine, surface combatant and non-combatant vessels. Component selection guidelines for implementation of the Vibracon will be published by NAVSEA and Machine Support within the next few months.
