Hey 3D Printing Gurus,
I’m quite new to 3D printing and the diff types of filaments etc.
I would like to make some custom vibration dampers / anti-vibration pads for a tubular frame chassis I have. Currently, the chassis is using 6 x screw in metal feet with a 2" diameter base.
I want vibrations to remain in the chassis as opposed to escaping into the flooring.
I’m wondering whether I can make the vibration dampers out of TPU?
Advice greatly appreciated 
OK, so I asked ChatGPT whether TPU is a suitable material for vibration damping applications, and this is what it says:
Yes, TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane) can be used as an effective vibration damper. TPU is a versatile material known for its excellent damping properties. It has the ability to absorb and dissipate vibrations, reducing their magnitude and impact on surrounding components or structures.
The elastic nature of TPU allows it to absorb and disperse energy, thereby mitigating vibrations and reducing noise transmission. TPU can dampen various types of vibrations, including mechanical vibrations, impacts, and high-frequency oscillations.
The specific properties of TPU, such as its flexibility, resilience, and elasticity, contribute to its effectiveness as a vibration damping material. It can be molded into various shapes, allowing it to be easily applied in different scenarios where vibration damping is required.
TPU is often used in applications that require vibration isolation or damping, such as shock absorbers, bushings, gaskets, mounts, protective covers, and footwear soles. Its ability to provide effective vibration damping makes TPU a preferred choice in industries like automotive, aerospace, electronics, and many others where vibration control is important.
Keep in mind that TPU is just a general name for a very broad range of flexible products. TPU comes in “super squishy” but also “almost completely hard” variants, and everything in between.
The super-squishy kind is incredibly difficult to print, so you can only really find filament in “medium squishy” to “quite hard” variants, because of course, an extruder needs to push it out, retract it, and so on.
The easier it is to print, the worse it will work as a vibration dampener.
Someone with more experience printing TPU on a Bambu printer should give you better advice as to the maximum softness, or rather minimum firmness of TPU you should consider printing with. The stuff Bambu sells isn’t particularly soft. It’s bendy, but will definitely transfer vibration noise.
Personally, I’m not convinced anything printable will be a very good dampener, but someone with more specific experience should be able to give a better answer.
The way I would do this, is by printing some friction-fit plugs for your tubular frame, melting some threaded inserts into them, and then screwing in some purpose-made vibration isolating feet into those holes. Those are very squishy, and they do a great job… and they’re not too expensive.
You wouldn’t be printing “dampers”, you’d be printing “isolators”. You want to decouple the vibrations from the source to prevent those vibrations from reaching the supporting frame. “Dampers” actively reduce vibration. “Isolators” just keep the vibrations from coupling through to another part of the structure.
It’s semantics, though.
TPU is a good choice for this sort of thing. But as stated, it comes in a range of “softness”. Softer will be better for isolation (provided you do not need to rely on the isolators for mechanical alignment as well as isolation), but there will be a lower limit to what you can successfully print. That’ll depend on your printer, and your printing skills, and the model you’re printing and the filament you’re using so it’d be something you’d have to figure out experimentally.
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Thanks RocketSled and Ivovic! I appreciate the advice.
OK, so these “vibration isolators” will be used underneath my Sim Racing Cockpit (picture attached) which has been fitted with a number of Bass Shaker transducers on each corner, to simulate vibrations/bumps/ABS/Traction Control effects throughout the chassis.
I don’t want any of these vibration effects to “escape / dissipate” into the flooring, so I want to sit the chassis on top of 6 x vibration isolators measuring approx 4" (L) x 3" (W) x 2" (H), but with a 1.0" deep groove for the chassis to sit into.
Sounds to me like I need a semi firm TPU material, and nothing too “squishy”, but nothing too hard?
Or perhaps just buy some anti-vibration mounts or even those anti-vibration feet that are used underneath washing machines?
I was thinking I’d make something in TPU so the chassis can sit on the vibration isolators, since my sim racing chassis is made of a 2.0" OD tubular frame. See attached rough sketch.
Advice greatly appreciated!
P.S: I’m using a P1P Printer.
Hello there. Wanted to check if you finished that project? My idea of damper would be with any 95a tpu and make like a double bottom with some amount of infill. For example i want to make a sock for an stainless steel bottle. I use it for coffee, or better for the milk. After heating the milk in it i slap it on the table and therefore i want an damper for it. I bet this is funny to read. I lack the correct words but i think you will understand it.
You could just stop that habit of trying to break beverage containers.
Haher. Looks like i need to take the translater. So i am frothing the milk in this stainless pitcher. After the frothing i slam the pitcher a little to seperate the milk from the foam a little.