Metal creates good acoustics and new design opportunities
DAMPA® Silent Board – effective acoustic wall panels
The new and modern interior style with concrete, steel and high ceilings is popular within the building industry. However, the price for this New Yorker-look is in many cases an acoustic experience, which makes it hard to conduct a normal conversation and spending an entire day in such a space can be directly uncomfortable.
DAMPA wall panels in metal are solving the acoustic problem effectively and matches the New Yorker-style with its different design opportunities.
“At the new office for BaneDanmark, there was a lot of concrete in the design. When moving in they discovered problems with the acoustics. We delivered wall panels with a raw galvanized surface. A beautiful steel-look, which matched the original design” tells Miki Hendriksen, acoustic expert at DAMPA.
A similar solution helped a fitness center in Odense, which also experienced severe problems with bad/poor acoustics. The facilities consisted of concrete floors, concrete walls, and concrete ceilings in ten meters high.
“After having conducted sound measurements, we installed our Silent Board wall panels to approximately 10 % of the ceiling areal. As a rule of thumb, you should install between 10 and 20 %, however we divided the wall panels on all walls, which quickly and significant reduced the reverberation time” tells Miki Hendriksen and continues
“Our Silent Board wall panels is a simple and effective way to adjust the acoustics in any space – and furthermore, they are very easy to install”.
Metal and acoustics
To understand why DAMPA’s wall and ceiling solutions have such a good effect, we need to look at the technique behind sound absorbers. DAMPA has created acoustic solutions in thin metal sheets, this combined with perforations create a resonance absorbent and a membrane absorbent.
When the sound waves hit the metal and perforation it creates swinging movement, that absorb the sound in the lower frequencies. Inside the ceiling and wall panels the sound meets a porous absorbent, this being the acoustic batts or -felt, which also absorb the sound, more specifically the higher frequencies.
When using three absorbent types, DAMPA can easily fit the acoustic solutions to the room, whether there is need for an acoustic solution in absorbent class A, B or C.
Easy to upgrade your acoustic solution
Many locations have DAMPA ceilings installed in the well known 60x60 tiles. Because of the long lifespan of the ceiling, there is still ceiling installed back from the 1960-70s.
These are still acoustic, however, there has a big development in the requirements for different buildings and their use, therefore many of these locations could use an update to match todays requirements. In many classrooms an update of the acoustic solution will benefit the students’ concentration, well-being, and efficiency. The upgrade is simple and looking at the sustainability and economic situation it is a big advantage.
“We can easily update the acoustic experience by upgrading the existing DAMPA ceiling with new acoustic batts, which matches the needs and requirements. However, we can also use our DAMPA Silent Board wall panels. Both solutions are easy to handle – and a whole lot cheaper than replacing the ceiling. Furthermore, it is also much more sustainable to handle an acoustic problem by recycling, rather than producing a brandnew ceiling”.
Absorbent class to match the pre-preparatory classes
At a school the sound levels are extraordinarily high, especially in the pre-preparatory classes.
A school at Østerbro, Copenhagen had a DAMPA ceiling from when the school was built. The big question was, if they should replace the ceiling, or if it was possible to upgrade the existing ceiling with extra acoustic batts, to live up to today’s requirements. To find the best suited solution, we started out with sound measurements. The measurements showed that the acoustics were close to the contemporary acoustic requirements for schools.
“Because the ceiling still functioned so well acoustic and almost lived up to the requirements, we suggested to use the walls instead. The acoustic wall panels are closer to the sound source – the kids and teachers. Furthermore, the wall panels can easily be fitted to each classroom and the specific needs” tells Miki Hendriksen.
DAMPA Silent Board are produced in absorbent class A. As a starting point they are 50 mm deep with 40 mm acoustic batts.
“For this specific project we have worked on a new custom Silent Board, which is 100 mm deep and with 80 mm acoustic batts. We could call the absorbent class for ‘A-plus’. This wall panel comes with the same design opportunities as our standard Silent Board, where it is only the imagination that sets limits” says Miki Hendriksen.
New design opportunities
With the robust surface of the Silent Board wall panels, DAMPA has created a whole world of new design opportunities.
You have the options to use the natural surfaces of the steel, whatever you wish for a corroded look or the galvanized steel look. Furthermore, it is possible to get DAMPAs acoustic solutions in all RAL- or NCS colors, and it is even possible to choose digital print on the surface, making it custom and personal.
Read more about the unique design opportunities here.
Documented sustainable solutions
DAMPA has EPDs (Environmental Product Declaration) on all their products (steel, aluminum, and climate ceiling). Because of the EPDs it is possible to use DAMPA’s products in certificated buildings such as DGNB, LEED, BREEAM and more.
DAMPA’s EPDs are completed according to the new European Standard CEN EPD EN 15804 and they are third-party verified at the Institut für Bauen und Umwelt e.V. (IBU).
