One of our competitors has taken on the role of consultant and has retained a few HVAC manufacturers on a fee basis. This charge is for guidance through shaker table tests that simulate earthquakes in California as required under the new codes. Since they use their own products in the tests, which gain approval at…
We developed our Z-1011 snubber way back in 1971 following the San Fernando earthquake that hit in February of that year. The engineering community was shocked at the resulting damage to building systems and equipment despite the relatively low seismic forces. It was obvious that the static approach to the problem was inadequate and we…
We recently visited with an engineering friend in Upstate New York. It’s a tricky spot for us to get to from Long Island. We can drive through New York city but traffic can be a killer. An alternative to that torturous route is to take a ferry across Long Island Sound and travel south through…
While Mason Industries started in the air conditioning industry, over the years we have been offered challenges in other fields including acoustic isolation of studios and, very much more interesting, isolation of complete buildings on natural rubber isolation pads or springs as well as railroad isolation. Isolating helicopter emergency landing pads on top of a…
Not possible! Well it is if we are talking about the new full scale seismic test building at the University of California, San Diego. Mason was the only isolation manufacturer invited to participate in the Seismic Testing of this full scale 5 story building. We provided the vibration isolation, seismic restraints, and flexible connectors for…
These spring mounts, shown in the final stages of production, will support a new 272,000 lb cooling tower being installed at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. Each of the 16 isolators will support 17,000 lbs. The 4″ spring deflection ensures that the guests will not even realize the tower is running. It never fails;…
The “Practical Guide to Seismic Restraints”, first published in 1999, has become ASHRAE’s top selling publication of all time! We are very proud that our chief engineer, Jim Tauby, and our west coast seismic expert, Rich Lloyd, were selected by ASHRAE to co-author this comprehensive manual a second time for this 2012 edition. We must…
From time to time people ask “What does a properly installed seismic brace look like?” Our California representative, Mason West, has just completed supplying and supervising the installation of the seismic restraint and isolation systems at the new 760,000 sq. ft. Palomar Medical Center and we finally remembered to take some photos. We thought this…
Hope you had a great holiday! Our Mason elves were almost as busy as Santa’s!In addition to the standard high workload, our shop jumped through hoops to complete five weeks of production in three on several complex, high capacity, high deflection isolation systems. These projects included; 26 Mason type KI mounts that will be embedded…
The positive response from the engineering and construction community to this design manual has been overwhelming. We have distributed some 27,000 copies since the first publication in 1999! The manual was developed in response to the state of California requirement for “pre-approved” seismic restraint hardware and details that would free them from the cumbersome task…