Our friends over at Fluidampr are part of a larger industrial manufacturing entity – Vibratech TVD – that specializes in one thing and one thing only – vibration dampening. The Fluidampr brand is focused on creating crankshaft dampers that control twist and stop the deadly vibrations that, in essence, kill rotating assemblies.

The company has recently started a blog, where they address various issues and concepts behind the science of what they do, and in their most recent entry, they’ve offered up the details on how a viscous damper works, its internal components, and some insight on why they use silicone fluid as a damping medium.

Put simply, Fluidampr’s Brian LeBarron says that the common industrial and commercial standard for durability and efficiency is to maintain torsional vibration within <0.2 degrees of peak twist. In order to maintain this ability, Fluidampr relies on an outer housing, inner inertia ring, and the all-important viscous fluid inside the damper.

The outer housing is directly connected to the crank, providing a solid base for the component, and the inner inertia ring moves within the fluid, dampening vibration as the inner and outer rings move independently, damping the vibration by changing it into heat through fluid shear.

We’ve always been fascinated by how all of the parts of an engine come together to provide the soundtrack of our dreams – thundering horsepower – and the crankshaft damper is just one of those parts.

Although crankshaft dampers aren’t always at the top of an enthusiast’s list in terms of cost-effective purchases, they should be. In the words of Rodney Dangerfield, “I don’t get no respect.”

For more information on Fluidampr and their line of products, check out their website.