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Viscous dampers are available for every type of engine combination out there. These dampers do a great job fighting the torsional vibrations that are created by an engine each time the crankshaft rotates. The environment under the hood of a vehicle is a volatile place that can produce extreme temperatures, but viscous dampers have been designed to deal with these harsh conditions so they can protect your engine.
Fluidampr is a leader in the viscous damper market, thanks to its unique damper design. The damper is comprised of an outer housing, inner inertia ring, and silicone fluid. Nick Orefice from Fluidamper explains how the viscous damper functions.
“The silicone in the damper is a damping medium that is not bonded and acts as a soft spring. This allows for the free-floating inertia ring to shear through the silicone while the engine is running and absorbs the vibrations, converting them into heat and dissipating through the front cover or housing,” Orefice explains.
Silicone is great at controlling torsional vibrations that occur at different frequency levels. Fluidampr has developed a special silicone that has a temperature range of -40 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
“The silicone’s stability to temperatures is so broad that in a freezing situation below -40 degrees an assisted device such as a block heater would be used and would radiate enough heat to keep the damper in range. Even if that were to not happen, torsional vibration creates heat and is instantly present when the engine is started. This would result in it being in the window of temperature range; again this is below -40 degrees. Even in the harshest of racing conditions, with little to no air movement, we have yet to see the damper get above 220 degrees. Unless the engine is in a fire, reaching the maximum temperature range is extremely unlikely,” Orefice explains.
If you want to learn more about viscous-style dampers and how they work, you can visit the Fluidampr website right here.
