From One Solution to Another
Cafeteria noise and echoes can be quite unwelcome, especially during that o-so-important time in the middle of the day when a bit of relaxation is much needed.
In soundproofing a Louisiana manufacturing facility's cafeteria with sound deadening acoustic panels, Acoustical Solutions, Inc. was able to ease more than a few lunchtime woes.
Application Introduction
Shaw Modular Solutions, a manufacturing facility at the Port of Lake Charles in Southwest Louisiana needed a cafeteria for its employees. And, as most businesses would do, they designed and built the cafeteria to match the rest of their facility.
It was a polished, industrial look with hard lines and even harder walls.
"There was a lot of concrete and steel, which are both naturally reflective," said Aaron Duncan, a Technical Sales Representative at Acoustical Solutions, Inc. "So out of the gate there were a number of acoustical issues."
Aaron and the Acoustical Solutions team determined that the cafeteria's problems were:
- Slapback Echo - caused by reflective surfaces and is characterized by a significant amount of high frequency content
- Flutter Echo - occurs when two parallel surfaces reflecting sound between one another and a listener hears the reflections between them as distinct echoes
- A reverberation time of 3.5 to 4 seconds (similar to a small gymnasium)
Treatment Provided
One of the main objectives for this project, aside from solving the obvious acoustical problems, was to maintain the look and feel of the industrial design, and there is no better product for this than Alphaperf™ Metal Wall Panels.
These industrial, yet polished-looking, sound panels are made up of a metal skin and an encapsulated acoustical fiberglass sound absorber.
The metal skin is wavy and perforated, allowing it to deflect and diffuse some sound it encounters while it absorbs the rest. The encapsulated acoustical fiberglass sound absorber then transforms a portion of the noise from sound energy to heat.
Quantitative Results
In the end, Shaw Modular Solutions ended up with an extremely effective sound control product that actually added to the intended industrial design and style of the cafeteria.
The reverberation time was cut in half to 1.5 - 2 seconds, which is the point at which hearing and speech clarity are considered acceptable.
For more information on this application, contact Aaron Duncan.
