This materials-driven study conceives of new opportunities for Poron XRD, a rate-dependent foam that is produced by Rogers Corporation. The material is superior at absorbing and dissipating impact energy.

Our goal was to find new applications for this unique smart foam, create new product designs for those applications, and to develop and test prototypes of the design.

Jigsaws are known to generate a lot of vibration that makes their use uncomfortable. Thus, this new design diminishes that discomfort by leveraging Poron XRD in a few ways:
apply one layer where the machine comes in contact with the cutting surface, apply two layers that can separate the handle from the lower body of the machine, and, finally, add a layer beneath the hand that’s upon the handle.

To test the effectiveness of the design, the red dot of a fixed laser was aimed at mirrors that were mounted on the handles of two wooden models. The mirror-reflected laser beams bounced up and down on a wall, when the models vibrated. One of the wooden models incorporated Poron XRD, as described above, whereas the other did not.

The final result shows that Poron XRD does, in fact, significantly reduce vibration from the saw.