Industrial
It goes without saying that factories and manufacturing plants can be noisy places when machinery is in operation and production lines are in full flow. Employers have a duty of care to ensure that employees aren't exposed to excessive levels of noise and have to comply with current Noise at Work Legislation. These set maximum levels of noise that an employee can be exposed to over a working day or week and are in place to ensure that employees do not suffer hearing damage or a permanent ringing in the ears, known as tinnitus. Often hearing protection such as ear defenders and ear plugs need to be used to ensure compliance with the standards but appropriate use of acoustic products can be used to reduce the reliance on such techniques.
Acoustic Insulation
In industrial premises there are often a number of rooms beside the main production area that require acoustic separation from the noise of manufacturing machinery. These include offices, administration areas and boardroom/meeting rooms. The soundproofing performance of separating wall, floor, and ceiling structures must be sufficient so that the activity in such areas is not disturbed during office hours.
The most appropriate product for soundproofing walls and ceilings is our Maxiboard composite acoustic building board. This is 17mm in thick and offers maximum soundproofing performance whilst minimising the loss of room space. There are a number of methods of installation but the most effective, and most practical, is to install the Maxiboard onto Maxi Resilient Bars to provide acoustic isolation.
Lightweight, lay-in suspended ceilings are notoriously poor in terms of sound insulation performance and should be treated using our Soundblocker system. This is an additional acoustic tile that is installed to the back to the suspended ceiling tile to boost sound insulation performance and improve speech privacy between offices. Alternatively it may be more economical is some cases to use a vertical cavity barrier such as our Soundstop, Soundbar, or Soundbreaker products above the line of the partition.
Our acoustic building board Maxiboard, lined internally with an acoustically absorbent layer of Coustifoam, is the solution to stopping noise escaping from machinery and can be used to fabricate machinery enclosures.
Acoustic Absorption
Factories and industrial units often contain lots of acoustically reflective surfaces to the walls, floors, and ceilings. These are typically block work walls, profiled metal walls and ceilings and concrete screeded floors, all of which have very low sound absorption coefficients. This can lead to excessive reverberation and lead to an increase in the level of noise that employees on the shop floor are exposed to.
Reverberation can also be a problem in factory offices, where multiple telephone users are present, and factory canteens during lunch and break times when the workforce is having a brew and a bite to eat. Similar acoustically reflective surfaces to the factory or industrial unit are often present in these areas as well.
Reverberation within the industrial sector can be controlled using SRS' Class A Sonata range of acoustic panels. Our most popular acoustic panel for the industrial sector is the Sonata Aurio, typically bonded to walls at high level and beneath the metal roofing profile. Also available is our Sonata Vario acoustic panel which can suspended beneath the roof profile on proprietary fixings and is removable/relocatable.
Expert Advice
SRS have over 40 years of experience of manufacturing acoustic absorption and soundproofing products for use within the industrial sector. Our Institute of Acoustics registered technical department are on hand to answer any questions that you may have and to recommend the most appropriate acoustic product for use within your project or to treat your industrial noise problem. If you would like some free advice please give us a call on 01204 380074, email us at info@soundreduction.co.uk, or fill in the enquiry form below.
