Passive vibrational isolation tables offer the most vibrational noise reduction for the price. They work on the same basic principle as the suspension of a car - though the wheels move up and down rapidly as you drive over a bumpy road, the spring supporting the mass of the cab keeps passengers from feeling the vertical bounce. Unlike air tables, in which air pumped into the system acts as the spring, and active tables, which use sensors and actuators to electronically correct for positional information, passive isolators are entirely passive, as the name implies.
1. Vertical vibrations are isolated by the spring's interaction with four pairs of flexures. The weight of the instrument compresses the pre-loaded spring, floating the isolator and aligning the flexures.
2. A squeeze force from another spring, controlled by the knob, is applied to the outside of the flexures via a screw. The "squeezed" flexures constitute ...
