FAB Designer and Acoustic Panels

The FAB fabric covered panels create a dynamic visual artwork on your walls at home and at work.  You can create your own custom master piece by arranging the shapes and colours to create a unique and interesting feature.  The FAB panels can be decorative and also used for acoustic performance.  This makes them ideal for noisey environments such as work places, cafes, restaurants and busy households.  The panels absorb noise, making  for a much more pleasant environment.  

UNDERSTANDING ACOUSTICS

There are two main types of acoustic performance.  NTC which stands for Noise Reduction Coeffiient.  This is a measurement of the amount of sound that is absorbed into the material or object.  It is measured between 0-1.  Zero means no sound is absorbed and one is all the sound is absorbed.  Typically hard surfaces such as glass and concrete have a measurement close to zero, meaning the sound bounces straight back at you.  You will notice this in a lot of cafes or restaurants that have a lot of hard surfaces and also office spaces using glass wall partitioning.  The sound reverberates around the space making talking and listening more difficult.  Some products are better at absorbing high frequency noise(tone) and others low frequency noise.  

The other sound measurement is STC.  This stands for Sound Transmission Class.  It is the measurement showing sound transmission loss.  It show how a wall or floor performs when noise penetrates into an adjacent space and is measured in decibels(dB).  It is diffcult to compare product performance as it depends on the frequency of the noise, ranging from low to high.  STC is a general measurement and doesn't show performance at the higher and lower end of frequency.  

ACOUSTIC FOAM

Acoustic foam is a lot firmer than upholstery foam.  The foam has a much more denser cell structure.  It has millions of tiny cells and is measure in Pores Per Inch(PPI).  The tiny cells trap the sound waves in the foam structure reducing the amount of sound waves coming back at you.

FABRIC

Fabric also has acoustic properties. Typically fabrics that  have a finer fibre and number of pores and size can influence the performance of the fabric.  Heavier fabrics are better suited for low frequency sounds(500Hz) and denser structure fabrics for high freqency sounds above 2000Hz. 

INSTALLATION

The FAB panels can be installed with Hoop & Loop adhesive dots.  For a more permanent hold construction adhesive can be a applied to the back of the panels.