Shock Resistant Hard Drive Enclosure (Sorbothane) 1

[donovandigital]

I requested a sample pack of Sorbothane with the idea of making a shock resistant enclosure for a 2.5in mechanical hard drive. My original plan was to use something like this for the enclosure;

http://www.alliedelec.com/hammond-m...NAmQRMUzQmd_65CGrcO8EyXX1Ny7xVet8IaAqhK8P8HAQ

What I got from them was a pack of 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 durometer samples, all shaped like this

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0By4cQB8gmcRjem0xNlQxZ1RLemtFXzJlSk1zTTAyVUlka3FB

Is this a sane plan? If so

A) How many centimeters vertical drop protection should I expect?

B) How should I position it? Can it be shown, for example, that a mechanical hard drive is more vulnerable to shock in one direction more than another?

C) How should I mount it to the hard drive and/or enclosure? Should I use any adhesive, or just fix it in place somehow?

D) If I don't have to use the whole thing, will I have enough left over for 2 2.5 in hard drives in one enclosure?

​

Obviously i will go digging on sorbothane website for all this, I was just hoping that maybe someone who used this stuff before has some advice.

Many thanks in advance

Joes

 

[KENAT]

http://www.qualityfoam.com/package-design-guide.asp

Gives you some general ideas on packaging.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[ornerynorsk]

"shock resistant" is a pretty broad spec and could be interpreted to mean anything between bumping it with your coffee mug and throwing it off the Empire State Building.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

 

[donovandigital]

ornerynorsk; how about "fall a few meters, or even some useful fraction of a meter, and still work"?

 

[drawoh]

donovandigital,

The more sorbothane you use, the stiffer and less shock resistant it will be. This is an engineering problem. You need to decide what shock will be applied to the drive. Will it be dropped off a desk onto a ceramic floor? Will it be hit with a hammer?

This will give you the required spring travel and velocity. Knowing the mass of the drive and its mount, you have a spring rate. Sorbothane may or may not work.

--
JHG

 

[IRstuff]

The amount of engineering might be better spent buying a solid state drive.

That said, most commercial hard drives are already shock resistant when unpowered. And there are already commercial solutions:

http://www.flipkart.com/saco-shock-...nch-1-tb-externalharddrive/p/itme25hfhbsvcjvg

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529

 

[Sparweb]

Sorbothane's website has a design guide (you must download to run that copy that I used, several years ago) to solve problems like yours.
You can also calculate it manually with a bit of searching on the subject of shock or impact absorbing elastomers.
Note: vibration isolator is NOT = shock absorber

STF

 

[3DDave]

Do a sample calculation of delta-V over an expected delta-d. Keep in mind that the best you could hope for is uniform acceleration, but that is tough to achieve. Then look to see what the drive can take. Some drives have zero-G sensors that detect when the drive is falling and park/shutdown to minimize the risk.

The other feature not mentioned is that even a low wattage drive in a suitably insulated container will eventually get pretty hot. Sorbothane is a terrific insulation, at least in comparison to aluminum.