TPI September 2022

Tube and valve vibration control suitable for a new generation of high-precision chips

As one of the biggest construction projects that Ireland has ever seen, the shear amount of product that Mason UK supplied was staggering. In total the vibration specialist has so far supplied 3,800 spring mounts, 1,600 hangers and 400 flexible pipe connectors for the site. With such an unprecedented undertaking ahead, it is little wonder that there was a very onerous specification. “The first requirement is ensuring quality of the engineering design, for example, specifying a particular spring geometry or housings made in a certain way,” explained Adam Fox, director at Mason UK. “The second requirement is ensuring the product has the correct vibration isolation properties. This is determined initially by the location in the building and the experienced product selection of the Mason UK engineering team. “The closer you get to the fabrication, the more urgent the need for vibration isolation. Similarly, the higher up you go in the building, the more lightweight the structure gets, and more vibration isolation is necessary. Down in the foundations, vibration is minimal, but if you’re on the roof, that roof structure can be quite sympathetic to vibration. The vibration isolation properties can also be equipment driven. By and large, the bigger the diameter of your pipe, the bigger your pump or your ducting gets and the more energy it is able to carry. Consequently, larger pipes require a higher level of vibration isolation.” Design support like no other Not only was Mason UK brought on board to supply the vibration control products, but the team was also invited to conduct associated design work. Mason UK has very specialised design capabilities in this area, so this was a welcome invitation for its experienced engineers. The team took 3D models of the ducts and supporting steels and generated their own drawings using building information modelling software, Revit. Mason UK also produced detailed 2D drawings using AutoCAD.

As microprocessors continually get smaller, manu- facturing becomes more accurate, working on the nanometer scale, which is highly intolerant to disruption. To create the environment needed to facilitate precision manufacturing, it is essential to control vibration, temperature, humidity and particulates. Here is how vibration control specialist, Mason UK, designed a sophisticated vibration isolation system to ensure conditions at an advanced manufacturing site in Ireland were ideal for high-precision manufacturing. Mason UK was commissioned to provide vibration isolation support at a vast site upgrade project in Ireland. In fact, the site is one of the most technologically advanced manufacturing locations in Europe and the facility has undergone an upgrade that has enabled production of 14nm process technology. However, these cutting-edge chips could not be realised without very precise manufacturing conditions. This requires a vast array of heating, cooling and filtration systems, all of which must be correctly isolated, since even exceptionally low levels of vibration can cause errors in fabrication. To achieve the stable environment required in the fabrication clean rooms, mechanical processes such as cooling, heating, ventilation and filtering systems are necessary – all of which generate unwanted vibration at every pump, fan, valve, duct and pipe support. Systems are vast, some ducts being over 4m in diameter, so the project is challenging. Meeting the specification Mason UK was brought on board by the contractor early to support the design. What makes this project unique is the scale of the facility and volume of vibration control required. As a result, not only the vibration but factors such as wind loading, thermal expansion and the clash of services in a crowded area had to be considered.

These were used to calculate how much each component weighs, how much it expands and how much it contracts. This process was repeated for hundreds of pieces of plant equipment and kilometres of building services, for all locations and configurations, to show which products were required where. Crucially, this removed some responsibility from the contractor. However, the project was not without its engineering challenges. Instead of simply supplying a standard catalogue product, Mason UK made bespoke spring

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September 2022 TUBE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL