seismic isolator vendor 1

[WARose]

who would you recommend as a seismic isolator vendor? Bridgestone and Dynamic Isolation Systems come to mind.....but anyone else you've had good experiences with?

 

[BridgeSmith]

We had DIS and another (the only other as far as I knew) designer/manufacturer of seismic isolators prequalified to supply for one of our bridge projects. I corresponded with both extensively and found representatives from both very helpful. The other one was:

Seismic Energy Products
518 Progress Way
Athens, TX 75751
(903) 675-8571

The technical rep. that was my contact at SEP was Mary Jacak. The rep. at DIS was Tung Ng.

Edit: If they ask who referred you, you can tell them Rod Smith from WYDOT. It's been a couple years, but they might remember me, since I pestered them alot with a ton of dumb questions, but they answered them all graciously.

 

[WARose]

thanks hotRod

 

[BridgeSmith]

So, is Bridgestone a manufacturer of bearings, or a vendor for someone else?

 

[WARose]

Not sure....but they advertise them on their site:

https://www.bridgestone.com/products/diversified/antiseismic_rubber/

 

[BridgeSmith]

It looks like they have indeed branched out into the manufacture of seismic isolators, including the lead-rubber bearings, which we use occasionally. Good to know, thanks!

Steel-reinforced elastomeric bearings, similar to what they show, are our typical bearing type for bridges, albeit usually without the vulcanization to the plates.

Don't know if you've looked into them yet, but the lead-rubber bearings are pretty amazing. The high-purity lead core creeps under slowly applied loads (like thermal), so its resistance to those loads is between 1/4 and 1/2 of the resistance under seismic loading (lessening the forces to the piers for in-service conditions). It deforms plastically, so it provides excellent damping, but also recrystallizes after deformation, so it can provide the same resistance and damping effect over and over again. The ultimate deformation capacity of these things is huge, as well. I asked one of the reps how far our isolators could deform laterally without damage; he said it would go to about 9" in any direction. The elastomeric portion of our isolators is just over 7" tall. They'll deform more than 45 degrees without damage.

 

[BridgeSmith]

It doesn't look like Bridgestone has branched out to lead-rubber isolators for bridges, at least not yet. Maybe that's why I didn't find them in my previous searches.

 

[moments]

We've had great experience using friction pendulum isolators from Earthquake Protection Systems.

 

[octagie]

Does anyone has experience with asian vendors? I know THK from Singapur but there are a lot of vendors, the problem being testing and process

 

[TLHS]

DIS is the only one I've ever seen being used on production work. They seem to do the design and install for every isolator project I've seen in and around Vancouver.