Vibration Suppression of Rotating Machinery Utilizing an Automatic Ball Balancer and Discontinuous Spring Characteristics

Automatic ball balancer is a balancing device where two balls inside a hollow rotor move to optimal rest positions automatically to eliminate unbalance. As a result, vibrations are suppressed to the zero amplitude in the rotational speed range higher than the major critical speed. However, it has the following defects. The amplitude of vibration increases in the rotational speed range lower than the major critical speed. In addition, almost periodic motions with large amplitude occur in the vicinity of the major critical speed due to the rolling of balls inside the rotor. Because of these defects, an automatic ball balancer has not been used widely. This paper proposes the vibration suppression method utilizing the discontinuous spring characteristics together with an automatic ball balancer to overcome these defects and to suppress vibration. The validity of the proposed method is confirmed theoretically, numerically, and experimentally. The results show that amplitude of vibration can be suppressed to a small amplitude in the vicinity of the major critical speed and the zero amplitude in the range higher than the major critical speed.