Roball® Seismic Isolator
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An ideal seismic protection device for light weight equipment racks.
We expect that the Roball® will become an economic alternative for
isolating structures.
This advance is a new concept for seismic isolation based on the principle
of the inverted pendulum. It consists of 'friction balls' or 'Roballs'
moving between upper and lower spherical like cavities or flat plates. The
Roballs are filled with a material which is able to provide the friction
forces required to absorb the energy from numerous earthquakes while
supporting the structure. The Roball technique is expected to enable light
and in the future possibly heavy structures to be more economically
seismically isolated.
As part of a program to develop a user friendly 'seismic isolation system'
a series of full-scale tests have been carried out on a number of possible
designs including three approaches for vertical pressures of ~1 MPa
resulting in coefficients of friction of ~0.1 to ~0.4.
Note the design of the Roball has been patented and the name is a
registered trademark owned by Robinson Seismic Ltd.
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