The 21st Shanghai International Nonwovens Exhibition(SINCE)

Nonwovens help keep the peace in homes, offices and cars.

The ability of nonwovens to offer voluminous and soft materials that can handle a number of raw materials and fit nearly any shape continue to win them a role as acoustic materials. Whether the solutions are based on needlepunch, thermal bonded or some type of proprietary technology, nonwovens are meeting the needs in a range of applications and a number of companies are finding their role in the acoustics market grow.

Find Comfort With Sandler

Sandler Nonwovens’ fibercomfort acoustic nonwovens are made with a thermally bonded or hybrid thermal bonded/needlepunched process, depending on the end use application. Regardless the technology, the nonwovens used are voluminous and soft and used as acoustical room elements in partitions, acoustic wall decorations or even acoustic furniture.

It is the structure of fibercomfort that makes these nonwovens highly efficient sound insulators. Product properties such as thickness and volumetric weight can be adjusted according to the requirements of the specific application. Particularly in construction, they also function as heat insulators. As such, they help lower the need for heating in the building and thereby contribute to reducing the energy consumption.

Sandler is primarily targeting the fibercomfort product range at materials for wall and roof insulation in construction as well as for technical insulation, for example pipe insulation or insulation of hot-water tanks where they efficiently insulate heat and dampen sound.

Freudenberg Sounds Off

Freudenberg’s SoundTex acoustic nonwovens features a textile structure and light weight which offers significant advantages over other sound absorbing materials such as mineral wool. Unlike other acoustical products, Soundtex does not function as thermal insulation but is suitable for acoustic ceilings with integrated heating or cooling systems.

Sound absorption is a sound dissipation and can be achieved by means of very thin absorbers presenting an appropriate sound impedance. For sound absorption, the propagation of sounds is absorbed by converting sound energy into thermal energy. Materials with sound-absorbing properties are called sound-absorbing materials.

SoundTex is a porous sound-absorbing material. With porous sound-absorbing materials, sound energy is mainly converted into thermal energy by viscous friction between the oscillating particles of the sound-propagating medium (air) and the structure of the porous material.

Besides the high sound absorption values, there are additional benefits of SoundTex acoustic nonwovens including a low material thickness, the ability to be customized, high running lengths and cost efficient insulation.

Airport designers around the world have used Soundtex technology in aiding in their acoustical needs, favoring the effective sound absorption, improve intelligibility of announcements, easy installation, low bulk volume and environmental compatibility that Soundtex can offer. Freudenberg has already used SoundTex at four Indian airports in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Punjab and Bangalore.

In short, nonwovens based on SoundTex technology meet the acoustics requirements of modern building interiors and their highly reflective surfaces; they don’t release toxic fumes under fire; they support the trend of sustainable construction, they are suitable for cooled ceilings and they reduce transportation and storage costs.