Five Patents That Defined an Industry

Every isolation table Kinetic Systems ships today traces back to a problem that had nothing to do with a laboratory: keeping heavy loads stable under shock. Pneumatic air springs were originally built to cushion that kind of shock loading — and in 1968, that same technology became the basis for Kinetic Systems’ first product: a pneumatic spring isolation table built to support lasers and other vibration-sensitive instruments.

Five Patents, Five Real Problems

Honeycomb-core construction (1991). A sandwich structure of rigid corrugated sheets bonded to a honeycomb core that holds its flatness under sustained load.

Reduced-horizontal-stiffness isolation (1994). Gas-spring assemblies on external pivots that separate horizontal compliance from vertical support.

Spill-resistant table core (1999). An internal rib-and-channel network that routes liquid away from the honeycomb core and hardware — the same SPILLPRUF system used across our optical table lines today.

High-damping sandwich structure (1999). A partial-coverage viscoelastic layer that dissipates vibrational energy without sacrificing static stiffness.

Independent testing shows these patents cut vibration transmission at resonant frequencies by up to 70 percent compared to non-patented designs.