Viscous damper for smoothing torsional and bending vibrations in rotating shafts

Claim 1

A rotary shaft damper for damping torsional and bending vibrations, said damper comprising a housing having mounting means and defining an internal annular chamber, a flywheel ring floating freely in said chamber and having oppositely axially facing working surfaces in shear film spaced relation to confronting internal working surfaces of the housing, said ring also having a radially facing surface spaced farther than shear film spacing and sufficiently far from a confronting radially facing surface of the housing to permit substantial lateral movement of said ring within said chamber, radially yieldable spring means disposed between said radially confronting surfaces and biasing said radially facing ring surface toward a position concentric with said radially facing housing surface and viscous damping fluid in said chamber in the spaces between the confronting surfaces of the flywheel and housing, said flywheel ring being movable in said chamber a sufficient amount both angularly and laterally relative to said housing to transmit damping forces to said housing through said viscous fluid and said spring means to oppose both torsional and lateral vibrations of said housing, wherein said radially yieldable spring means comprises a metal spring element annularly disposed between said radially confronting surfaces and having alternately oppositely directed humps resiliently deformed by and engaging said confronting surfaces whereby said surfaces are urged apart.