What does the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan have in common with a cutting tool that can fit in the palm of a hand? The answer comes in the fact that both have a requirement for tuned mass damping – a technique that can be applied to control unwanted vibration in various applications.
In the video, China visits Sandvik Coromant in Trondheim, Norway, where research into vibration-reducing technology for machining is undertaken. During a series of interviews with experts from the company, he learns about how tuned mass damping is applied to modern cutting tools.
The video also shows how the concept of tuned mass damping can be scaled up, with China overseeing the hands-on construction of a simplified model of the Taipei 101 tower to illustrate how the technique works in practice.
He says: “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a 500 m tower or a tiny tool, they are both subject to the same laws of physics, and both damp vibrations using the same method.”
