Tuned Mass Damper for Hammer

Problem:Producing more comfortable products is a primary objective of manufacturers in the highly competitive consumer products market. A major tool manufacturer asked Roush to resolve an issue familiar to anyone who’s ever wielded a hammer: handle vibration. Hammers typically exhibit a fundamental handle resonance that is excited during impact. Most hammers are lightly damped, forcing the user’s hand to dissipate this unpleasant vibration. Over time, these repeated impacts and subsequent vibration result in pain and fatigue.

Solution: Through vibration testing and computer-aided engineering, Roush determined that the unwanted vibration was caused by lightly damped bending resonances. Analytical tools demonstrated that shifting the resonance by changing the handle stiffness did not provide sufficient vibration reduction. Increasing the damping was found to be the optimal solution. Roush engineers then invented a tuned mass damper that could be installed onto the handles of several styles of hammer.

Result: Roush developed a patented device that absorbs the vibration by eliminating its transfer to the user’s hand/arm. This flexible solution could be applied to a number of different hammer styles, greatly improving the product’s consumer appeal.