Click to bigger picture..
Natural Rubber Bearings (NRB) are high-performance seismic isolation devices composed of multiple layers of natural rubber bonded with reinforced steel plates. These bearings provide excellent vertical load-bearing capacity and large horizontal flexibility, making them ideal for bridges, residential and commercial buildings, hospitals, and infrastructure requiring seismic isolation. Although NRBs have lower energy dissipation compared to high damping bearings, they are often used together with dampers to enhance performance, ensuring structural safety, reducing vibration transmission, and extending service life.
Structure of Natural Rubber Bearings
Natural Rubber Bearings are constructed with top and bottom steel connecting plates, internal steel laminates, natural rubber layers, and a protective rubber cover. The steel plates significantly constrain vertical compression deformation, enabling the bearings to withstand high vertical loads. Meanwhile, the rubber layers allow significant horizontal shear deformation, making NRBs effective in accommodating structural displacements caused by temperature changes, wind loads, or earthquakes.
