Vibration protection of critical components of electronic equipment in harsh environmental conditions

Vibration protection of sensitive electronic equipment operating in harsh environments often relies on resilient mounts. The traditional optimal design for vibration isolation from random vibration is based on a trade-off choice of damping and stiffness properties of mounts, and is focussed primarily on optimizing the dynamic response of the electronic boxes, subject to limitations imposed on their rattle space. However, the reliability of the electronic equipment depends primarily on the vibration responses of the internal components that are often lightly damped and extremely responsive over a wide frequency range. The traditional approach, hence, completely ignores the presence of such components. Consequently, the traditionally designed vibration isolators are often insufficient for maintaining a fail-safe vibration environment for electronic equipment. The new design approach focuses basically on dynamic properties and responses of the critical internal components of an electronic device. The optimally chosen elastic and damping properties of the vibration isolators allow the vibration experienced by the above internal components to be minimised, subject to restraints imposed on the peak deflections of the electronic box. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.