Playseat Racing Chair Vibration Insulation

Vibration insulation for a race gaming chair, Playseat
Playing racing games with a racing wheel is nice, but for the real experience you clearly need to make use of a complete racing set, including a racing chair, wheel and pedals. Using a race gaming chair, or a playseat like in this example, can however, result in sound problems. Especially if the floor consists of a lightweight construction, like a wooden timber floor, impact noise will occure. A customer's neighbour had this very problem, but together we came up with a (double) solution.

Insulating race gaming chair vibrations
When isolating a vibration source, in this case a Playseat, the goal is to reduce a rigid connection between the racing game chair and the floor. This can be realized by applying vibration insulation material between the two. The best product to insulate vibrations is Regufoam. This product is made of high-quality polyurethane foam and has elasticity as its main property, even under continuous stress. With the following 3 steps, the Playseat can be decoupled from the floor in order for the impact noise to be insulated. In and of itself, the Playseat is a fine product by the way, the sound issues are caused by the floor, not by the gaming chair. 

• Step 1: Measuring a load bearing panel
  A plywood panel is required to ensure that the Playseat stays stable. On top of this panel (plywood or something similar, with a thickness of ±12 mm) the Playseat is placed. We recommend making the panel about 10 centimetres wider and longer than the race gaming chair itself.

  
  
  
  

• Step 2: Cutting Regufoam to size
  In this example, the total load that is put on the Regufoam vibration insulation, the green blocks, is about 100 kg, which includes the gamer as well. As for this application, you best use of Regufoam D150 with a thickness of 25 mm (SKU M0715). Cut two mats into equal blocks of  ± 125 x 125 x 25 mm, this yields 16 blocks. Then, you glue two blocks on top of each other, resulting in 8 blocks of 50 mm. Gluing works best using contact glue. Does the total weight exceed 100 kg? No problem, with 8 blocks you have plenty of vibration dampers. 

  
  
  
  

• Step 3: Placing the Regufoam blocks
  Discovering the right placing of the Regufoam blocks is to some extent an experiment. Each situation is different in terms of weight and floor type. In this example, 7 blocks were used: 3 blocks at each side, and 1 additional block underneath the chair (which carries most of the weight). You can add more blocks in order to increase the resistance, thereby diminishing the rebound. Or, on the contrary, you can take blocks away to gain more rebound. Did you find the right composition? Now you can attach the blocks to the carrying plate using the contact adhesive.

  
  

Comment and pictures were received from our customer
Only now we understood what was meant by "double solution":

As agreed, I took a few pictures. The foam works perfectly with regards to sound insulation, and the slight rebound adds an extra dimension to the driving experience. As though I am driving in a car with suspension. Absolutely great! Thanks again!

Questions? 
Do you still have questions concerning this topic? Please feel free to <a title="Customer service href=" contact"="" target="_self">contact us. Did you come up with a nice project yourself? Please let us know, we would like to write an article about it in order for other customers to benefit from a solution.