Balancing fuel efficiency and performance is key for vehicle designers worldwide. In pursuit of this goal, a new generation of 4-, 3-, and 2-cylinder combustion engines is entering the market. New transmission designs with more gears are increasingly common in order to maximize fuel economy without impacting power output. These innovations bring their own unique set of NVH related issues. Primarily they mean that gears are running with little or no load for longer periods of time, creating a high frequency whining noise that is more audible than ever. Vibracoustic has created an innovative gearbox mounting solution that not only eliminates gearbox whine, but also provides weight and cost savings and improves system durability.
The key to this new product lies in smart design. Traditional solutions focus on mass damper technology. The gearbox would normally be mounted on conventional rubber mounts and a large mass damper would be added to counter the high frequency vibration. Vibracoustic has combined its considerable expertise to produce a gearbox mount with an integrated mass absorber, thus creating significant weight and cost savings. What's more the mount can be easily tuned to tailor it to specific frequencies making it suitable for multiple applications. The essential feature of the product is the rubber lobes that sit on either side of the main spring. Using advanced design tools, we are able to tune the thickness and height of these lobes to target multiple frequencies.
