Noise Cancellation Equipment in Industry

What's the application?

Good morning.

This is a new centrifugal air compressor application with 6 units in place and 3 more on the way.

I am well aware of the usual insulation blankets, wraps, barriers, and enclosures but would like to find another way if possible.

I am back in the office today and hopefully can get some research done.

Thanks!

You must have tried really hard, I found 600,000 entries for "noise attenuation manufacturers usa"

Actually no.

Being in the field at the site my laptop was slower than a snail race on a cold day and my cell was non-existant.

Thanks for the help.

No clue, now.

Harman Kardon/JBL, Bose, David Clark, Sennheiser, were all involved when I was in the business in the '90s. We dealt with them all.

Association of Loudspeaker Manufacturing & Acoustics Intern probably can give you some leads.

I'll do some looking.

Tell us more.

I'm PM'ing you a contact. Great guy who is still in the industry. Worked with him when he was at Harman Kardon/JBL. His guys built some HUGE speakers for us for an M60 tank quieting project.

Thanks OZ!

Yes, except in this case, the dB level is already into the "double hearing protection required" level at 125 dB and we are only half way through the startup.

It seems that some bean counter and/or management person(s) decided that they could save a lot of money by deleting all of the compressor enclosures, piping wraps, and other sound abatement equipment that I specified for the project.

Now we are going to have to retro-fit which will severly impact access to and maintenance of the equipment or find another solution. (Noise Cancellation?)

No Factory Acceptance Test prior to shipment, then?

No; The factory disclaimer clearly states the individual dB noise level for one operating compressor without noise abatement equipment but it does not address multiple compressor installations.

The factory reps were on site several times before the purchase and during our HAZOPS meetings wherein we were warned about the noise levels however the decision was made (above me) to ignore many of their recommendations.

This was strictly "bean counter" decisions that did not take into consideration the environmental regulations centered on worker noise exposure nor the maintenance access and loss of production costs.

here we have this age old conflict wherein the project group just wants to low ball the installation (capital cost) and force the cost of compliance into the O&M budget after the installation. (The "git-er-done" syndrome.)

Funny thing is our company is paying at least 50% more by doing the projects in this manner.

The long term maintenance cost and loss of production is again many times higher than the cost of installation but is transparent because it is spread out over a longer period of time.

We talk about "doing it right the first time" but in the end the cost control and completion bonuses paid out to the project managers are first priority.

Sounds like you should send a copy of this letter to the CEO. Completion bonuses paid to non-compliant installations seem important enough to be brought to the CFO and CEO's attention.

Ear plugs.

At 125 dB you may well need both an open top enclosure and active cancellation.

Sound decays as the square of distance, so keeping it well away from workers may help. (Probably too late for that)

Staggered stud walls may help you, but something more dense that glass insulation may be needed.

We built a customer demo room like this, back in the day when I was in noise cancellation.

Thanks Lyn!