Redesign increases shock absorber capacitiesRedesign increases shock absorber capacities

The SC2 Heavyweight shock absorbers from ACE Controls Inc. (Farmington, MI) provide higher effective weight and energy capacities in the same footprint as its predecessor. Engineers use the absorbers to decelerate loads, prevent impact damage, dampen noise, and increase equipment speeds in applications involving rotary actuators and pneumatic slides of machine tools and material handling devices.

"We had to take an entirely new approach to the design," said ACE Controls Engineering Manager Mike Ferkany. "We literally turned the internal structure upside down and backwards to increase capacity."

The original SC2 design consisted of three components: an outer tube to contain the entire system, an inner tube with special orifice patterns to control the fluid's flow, and a piston to trap the fluid and force it through the orifices.

Since the piston's diameter was the limiting factor in achieving increased capacity, engineers redesigned the internal structure. The piston and the inner tube are now combined into a single component which acts as both the pressure-creating and pressure-controlling device.

The SC2 Heavyweight 300 model has an effective weight capacity of 4,300 lb, a 950% increase over the original SC2 design, and an energy per cycle rating of 620 inches-lb (a 200% increase). The SC2 Heavyweight 650 model's effective weight capacity is 14,000 lb (a 540% increase) and it has an energy-per-cycle rating of 1,860 inches-lb (a 280% increase).