Material Expertise
Mix and Match: The Right Material Recipe for NVH Challenges
Our deep expertise in materials allows us to provide customized NVH solutions that ensure high levels of comfort and dynamic vehicle performance. Elastomers are essential for overcoming NVH challenges, as they can undergo significant deformation under load and still return to their original shape once released. We find solutions for a wide variety of applications, including critical ones, and we offer a broad range of materials, from commodities with a good price-performance ratio to special mixtures for niche challenges. We adapt to new requirements and continuously develop new materials in our plant mixing facility and test lab.
Natural Rubber: high-tech material provided by nature
Elastomers made from natural rubber are part of many of our NVH solutions. Because they can undergo significant deformations under load and still return to their original shape after being released, elastomers are essential for solving NVH challenges. We use them in products such as motor and chassis mounts, air springs, absorbers, isolators and dampers.
Synthetic Rubber: EPDM for higher temperatures
Some NVH solutions require more temperature-resistant synthetic rubbers like Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM) are key for some NVH solutions. Due to its temperature stability, damping qualities and durability, EPDM is used in decoupled pulleys, exhaust hangers, dampers and center bearing supports for light vehicles as well as motor mounts for commercial vehicles. While some heat-resistant materials have lower dynamic strength than natural rubber, Vibracoustic has developed a new generation of high-strength EPDM using nanotechnology to combine dynamic strength and higher temperature-resistance.
Silicone Rubber: protection against heat
Our experts have overcome the challenge of silicone’s relatively poor ability to bond with metal parts by employing specific pretreatment techniques and modern bonding systems. Thus, we can use it in NVH solutions that are exposed to particularly high temperatures. Examples include motor mounts and drive train applications near internal combustion engines where temperatures exceed 100° C.
Polyurethane: optimal suspension even in tight spaces
Polyurethane foams like Micro Cellular Urethane (MCU) have high tensile strength and compressibility, making it effective especially in very small installation spaces. It is not sensitive to fuels, oils, alcohols or ozone gas and can be configured to various degrees of rigidity and density. This makes MCU ideal for producing jounce bumpers, body mounts, spring seat isolators and top mounts.
Chloroprene Rubber: the multi-resistant talent
Air springs are special in terms of material science. The spring motion is produced by the unrolling of a bellow attached to a metal piston. The bellows must unroll softly, but changes in air pressure must not influence the dimensions of the bellows. We achieve dimensional stability with long textile fibers or fabrics reinforcing the bellow. For the reliable functioning of an air spring in the long-term, good adhesion between the fibers and the elastomeric compound is crucial. Other key requirements are high bending fatigue resistance due to the repeated unrolling and rolling of the bellows, abrasion resistance, gas-tightness, heat and ozone resistance. Air springs are subject to environmental conditions, and Chloroprene Rubber is the solution.
Thermoplastics: lightweight NVH solutions
Vibracoustic replaces metal parts with fiber-reinforced polyamide-based lightweight thermoplastics, serving the needs of vehicle manufacturers and Tier1 suppliers to reduce vehicle weights and CO₂ emissions. We use global and cost-efficient development tools like anisotropic simulation to standardize the design and validation of rigid thermoplastics. This way we develop innovative lightweight NVH solutions and bring them to serial production. Our thermoplastic motor mounts, for example, are extremely light and durable, having half the weight of a rubber-to-metal-bonded motor mount.
Thermoplastic Elastomers: novel material for e-mobility
The increasing demand for new e-mobility materials is boosting interest in thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs). These materials are lightweight and recyclable, have a short cycle time, and demonstrate a wide range of properties, leading to a variety of possible applications. Our research and our knowledge of thermoplastic elastomers and polymers enables us to provide materials for NVH solutions that are as reliable as metal-rubber products and reduce vehicle weight.