Zero Maintenance Shimmy Dampers

15 Minutes to a Smoother Landing

Parker Lord shimmy dampers can be installed quickly (typically in less than 15 minutes) since they require few components, installation bracketry or hardware.

There’s no need to test or measure fluid before, or after, installation. Our damper has performed consistently for more than 20,000 ground-air-ground duty cycles in real-life testing scenarios. This represents a product life of more than 15 years of usage on the typical high-use aircraft!

Product Information

The LORD® fluid-free shimmy damper offers high-performance damping and vibration control with a zero-maintenance design. It uses surface-effect technology to provide consistent damping for fixed and retractable landing nose gears. Instead of using fluids to resist motion, the shimmy damper features a unique elastomer formulation to absorb nose wheel shimmy. Since there is no fluid, this damper will never leak.

We’ve tested the shimmy damper in real-life situations, including a flight school environment – one of the toughest for repetitive and unpredictable take off and landings. Our damper performs consistently for more than 20,000 ground-air-ground duty cycles. This represents a product life of more than 15 years of usage on the typical high-use aircraft

Our patented shimmy damper was designed using surface-effect technology, replacing the hydraulic piston in a traditional damper with a fully-bonded natural rubber or specially-blended elastomer compound piston that presses out against the inner diameter of the housing.

This rubber piston then rides on a very thin film of lubricant and it is this movement between the piston and the housing that provides the damping. Since there is no hydraulic fluid to leak, there is no need to service the damper –the part is completely fluid free and maintenance free

Because there is no fluid, our surface-effect dampers operate consistently in the -40° to 150° Fahrenheit (-40° to 65° Celsius) range with no compensation required. Traditional hydraulic dampers only provide peak energy dissipation in the 20° to 80° Fahrenheit (-6° to 26° Celsius) temperature range.

Features and Benefits

Valuable — Simple design provides high reliability and lowers operating costs
Efficient — Simplicity of use (one-for-one replacement) and compatibility with existing installation
Reliable — Large diameter shaft increases durability and reduces wear of nose gear linkages
Durable — No performance degradation over time and use
Versatile — Consistent damping from -40° to 150°F (-40° to 65°C)

Find the Shimmy Damper for Your Plane

Learn more

Parker Lord shimmy dampers are designed to control the nosewheel on aircraft, reducing motion to keep the nosewheel straight and true. The Lewis University School of Aviation shares how they’ve been able to achieve over 12 years of use/8,000 hours using LORD shimmy dampers on their general aviation aircraft. By using elastomeric components instead of fluid, these shimmy dampers offer a long-term, maintenance-free solution for general aviation aircraft.

Cindy Reid explains how our shimmy damper uses surface-effect technology to replace the typical hydraulic piston with a fully-bonded natural rubber or specially-blended elastomer compound piston that presses out against the inner diameter of the housing.

It is this movement between the piston and the housing that provides the damping. Since there is no hydraulic fluid to leak, there is no need to service the damper –the part is completely fluid free and maintenance free.

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Zero-Maintenance Shimmy Dampers

Have you ever gone to the grocery store and grabbed a cart only to find that the front wheels are wiggling and vibrating way too much, making it difficult to walk around the store? This is what happens to nose wheel landing gear on aircraft. Initiated by various landing conditions, the nose wheel landing gear oscillates (vibrates) back and forth. The solution is simple: a zero-maintenance shimmy damper.

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