Vibration control for sensitive equipment
Biggest pain point for scientists and researchers? Accuracy. Problems with sensitive equipment in the lab and industry can make for unreliable results.
For example, taking SEM images or moving things in a nanometric level could be a challenge if the site and environment where the equipment is set isn't well suited for the task. Some industries that are challenged by this:
- Medical Facilities;
- Research;
- Microelectronics;
- Nanotechnology;
- Bio and Pharmaceutical;
- Research and Physics.
Vibration is a core cause of problems when using sensitive equipment. They can originate from different sources from the ground to an upper floor, a building sway, other equipments and machinery working simultaneously, street traffic and even accoustic vibrations!
From all possible sources, the most important are about the building and the location of the equipment. They play a major role in getting good, reliable results.
There are some generic vibrations curves that were built based on real buildings of the semiconductor industry. The curves are guidelines for the building and floor design, according to the industry requirements.
According to said curves, for an office the vibration requirements let you work with a level of detail of 0,25mm. If you are designing a theatre, for example, the level of detail is 0,025mm.
But for the industries stated above this level of detail is not enough. The demand set by ISO curves, lets you work with a level of detail of 0.1um or 0.0001mm.
The vibration control design needs to take special attention to all building elements, from the bottom to the top, and equipments attached or supported on it.
To design for a VC-A curve or VC-C curve we can use only typical building structural elements but in this case the costs will increase with the increase in vibrations requirements.
For the most demanding vibration classes, it’s difficult to achieve good results without vibration isolation add-ons like rubber pads, springs or active isolation systems.
Before installing the equipment in the building, a vibration test must be made to assure that all the requisites are satisfied.