SATRA STM 479 Dynamic shock absorption

Although the human body can be effective in absorbing shock when jumping, running or walking, injuries can still occur through impact loading to the foot. Such injuries could be mitigated by the provision of shock absorbing capabilities within footwear. For everyday footwear, shock absorbance within the heel construction can be a benefit to the wearer. Sports footwear and other high performance footwear, including for military use, pose additional challenges for managing impact loading.

For all these types of footwear, being able to conduct a controlled, mechanised test with repeatable results to determine shock absorption capabilities provides a valuable contribution to product design, verification or assurance of consistent quality.

The STM 479 allows a dynamic shock absorption test to be carried out on footwear, cushion insocks or construction materials and provides quantifiable test results. The machine operates by allowing a known mass to fall onto the sample from a defined height.

By use of an accelerometer and displacement transducer, a value for the peak deceleration (g factor) for the falling mass is determined. In addition, the test allows an assessment to be made of the energy return on rebound. This information is displayed on a computer – not supplied – and graphical displays can be printed.

This machine is suited for combination testing with SATRA STM 512 repeated compression tester.