Description

The present invention relates to acoustical panels need for attenuating noise and reverberations in private and public rooms,

In today's market for sound-attenuating products there is a large assortment or acousticsl panels. Apart from sound-attenuating carpets and artistic installations, industrial produced sound-attenuati ng products are mainly produced as mats or padded panels, The panels am often folly or partly cast In a sound-absorbing material or a .surface material covering a sound-absorbing core. Currently acoustical panels, screen walls, partition wails arid quiet rooms are constructed in this way, The products have a relatively large surface area to adsorb the sound. They are constructed as rigid panels which rosy be fastened to walls, the ceiling, a table top, on a stand,, etc. lately, products have also been marketed using small panels or tiles actinq as pads in a system formi ng larger sound -absorbing surfaces when these are fastened together, common for these systems is that the pads are fastened to each other to form solid or transparent truss-like walls or room partitioning structures which must hang from the ceiling or Irons or towards a wall,

From a totally different, application is known several metal truss products, such as fences, walkways, protections, reinforcements, etc

The invention m Inspired by elements from these two different product segments. By designing components from these different fields of use to fit together, they may be combined into an Innovation trie market has not previously seen.

This is achieved in a sound-absorbing panel system as defined in the appended claims,

Sy using a rigid truss construction as core and support of a sound -absorbmn panel, pads of attenuating materia!,- e.g. felt, may he fastened to the openings In the truss, Sy filling the truss rows with sound-attenuating pads, a kind of pixel-divided panel is created w?th a one- or double-sided sound- attenuating surface. As in the use of pixels on a television or computer screen, the penes may he made with a pictorial and patterned surface.

Too filled-in openings in the truss may strongly resemble greatly enlarged openings in a carpet. A carpet is soft and not self-supporting aoci has to he hung or laid against a surface. T he inventive sound-absorbing panel is rigid and self-supporting, with the design possi bilities and advantages inherent frorrs this.

Panels manured together in a regularly repeated pattern could form larger surfaces. The shape of the panels end/or their outli ne may vary from flat reotengu!ar to 3- dimensional irregular designs. With the possi bility of designing truss cores as plane, curved and douole-curved frameworks which m ay be mounted together , orie may - by tilling the openings with sourra mbsorbi rsg pads - produce sound- attenuating products from small and large fiat screens to self-supporting 3 - dlmensional constructions, for example designed as a cube, pyramid, DNA-hellx or igloo.

There is a great potential In the flexibility offered to the market by the mvenflom A standardised product range also ma kes it possible to design tailored sol utions far Individual preleranees without too nigh costs. There is an enormous need far sound -attenuating surfaces in recent architecture where the room designs often include large hard surfaces which provide too much reverberators , Witt; too design possibilities Inherent in the Invention, the architects' oesires/reguirerosrits of sound -attenuating products as an i ntegrated part of the architectural expression rosy be met to a larger degree than with present prod ucts .

The supporting core of the panel - the truss - may he produced in several ways. For mass production, the o-est effective form of production wl!i probably be as welded wire trusses corresponding to a stiff truss fence. T oe truss may with advantage be produced according ro several standards with different opening sixes providing the finished panels with a spectre of sizes and designs. For example , the truss in the panels may be prouriceo without a frame to hang on a wall, and with a frame to provide Potter rigidity aod possibility of connection of panels, Other ways of producing the b uss may bo as expanded metal (nb mesh ), punching, casting, water - or loser -cutting of plastic, metal or ether suitable materials.

The production of pads for filling the openings in the tr uss, or lasteolng thereto, Is mainly thought to be as punching or arreting of sound-absorbing felt, but other materials and methods of production may also be relevant. Felt provides excellent sound attenuation but is reiaavely costly . Examples of other suitable materials may bo leftovers from the textile industry, decor seam on the pads, light or coloors, patterns so different: n-iaterlals, to provide a desires: effect in relation to the product's surface and look, The sound - absorbing pads may be designed in different ways in order to be fastened to the supporting truss, Figures 1 - 3 show two different, ways of fastening the pads to the truss.

Figure 1 and 2 show a standard metal truss 2 wherei n felt pads 1 are forced through the openings 3 In the truss as pixels forming a larger picture surface, Figure 1 shows the finished cut felt pad X at the left band side and the felt pad i. pressed through and fastened to one of the openings 3 in the truss 2 at the right hand side. The felt pad 1 is designed with grooves acting as a locking arrangement 4 of the pad for fastening the pad 1 In the correct position in the openings 3 of the truss 2. figure 2 shows four ways of fastening felt pads i to the openings 3 in a standard metal truss 2, providing different structures and expressions in the surfaces which are formed when the different felt pads 1 are fastened to the openings 3.

Figure 3 shows larger pads i which are cut from felt mats. They are fastened to a standard truss 2 with two locking arrangements 4 which are threaded through the truss openings 3. The locking arrangements 4 are enui pped with hooks 5 and a section 6 which is cut In the front allowing the locking arrangements 4 to he easily bent backwards so that the pad I. will hang down neatly or; the front side. In order to hasten these pads 1 , nor all the openings 3 In the truss 2 are used. This means that it may be appropriate ro develop different formations of trusses 2 to u!berenf pads I dependent on whic h type of structure end expression one wishes to bring forth in the finished surface that is created when more pads 1 are fastened to the truss 2.

Both solutions In Flo urns 1 - 3 use a rigid truss 2 as supporting structure, where several pads 1 are fastened to the truss openings 3 which- together farm a seif- supporting sound- adsorbing panel .