Acoustic Enclosure

Companies often save about 85% – 90% of the cost of industrial noise reduction by choosing an “at source” noise solution instead of an acoustic enclosure. 

Solutions that reduce the noise at source cost considerably less than an acoustic enclosure so often save companies thousands of pounds on industrial noise reduction.  “At source” solutions also avoid the access and visibility restrictions imposed by a noise control enclosure.  By restricting access and visibility, machine enclosures can slow down operators and reduce the production rate and productivity.  This also increases machine down time for maintenance when the acoustic enclosure has to be dismantled to provide access for the maintenance work.

Here are some examples of projects where companies benefited from large cost savings by choosing to reduce the noise at source using our solutions instead of fitting noise enclosures over their machines:-

Acoustic Enclosure Examples

Example:  A company received a quote for £50,000 to fit noise enclosures over the vibratory bowl feeders on 5 production lines.  Instead they chose our engineering solution that reduced the noise at source.  Our solution cost only £3300, saving the company £46,700.  It also achieved a higher sound reduction than a noise control enclosure.  Furthermore, it avoided the visibility restrictions of a noise enclosure, making it easier for operators to see when components in the vibratory bowls are running low and when blockages occur.

Example:  A company in the food industry received a quote for £130,000 to fit acoustic enclosures over an air conveyor system that uses fans to transport plastic bottles around the factory.  Instead they chose our solution, which reduced the noise at source by treating each fan.  This provided a noise reduction of  9 – 10 dBA and achieved the company’s target of below 85 dBA throughout the factory.  Our solution cost only £3,000, saving the food company £127,000.

Example: A company considered fitting noise enclosures to 5 small presses but were deterred by the high cost of £20,000.  Instead they chose our engineering solution that reduced the press noise at source.  The cost of our solution was only £3000, saving the company £17,000.  It reduced the press noise by 7 – 11 dBA.  On large presses our engineering noise solutions can provide savings of about £8000 per machine.

We provide a wide range of solutions that reduce the noise at source at low cost.  With over 40 years’ experience of suppressing industrial noise we have successfully reduced the noise of all types of machine in all types of industry. 

Fan Acoustic Enclosure

Companies often spend thousands of pounds fitting an enclosure over a fan only to find that the fan acoustic enclosure provides no noise reduction.  Here’s an example of one of our projects where this happened and where our solution provided a very high noise reduction at a fraction of the cost of the fan acoustic enclosure:

When a company installed two new dust extract fans outside their factory, nearby residents immediately complained about the noise.  The company fitted noise enclosures over the two fans at a cost of £10,000.  Complaints continued.  Then the company asked us to reduce the noise.  By suppressing the fan noise at source, our solution provided such a large noise reduction that the fans could no longer be heard at the nearest house.  Complaints stopped immediately.  Our solution cost less than a third of the fan acoustic enclosures that had failed to resolve the noise nuisance problem.    

The photograph above shows another of our projects where a fan acoustic enclosure was fitted over a large sawdust extraction fan but did not reduce the noise at the nearest houses.  Our specialist expertise was sought and our solution made the fan inaudible at the houses and quickly solved the noise nuisance problem.

For details of our highly effective, low cost fan noise solutions that avoid the need for noise enclosures, see fan noise reduction.

Customer Comment

Customers often compliment us on the benefits of our specialist noise solutions.  For example, after we helped a large industrial company to reduce the noise in their factory, the Safety Officer said:-

” Your solution achieved a huge 24 dBA noise reduction and cost £33,000 less than the acoustic enclosures we were planning to fit over our machines.  Furthermore, your solution avoided the major disadvantage of noise enclosures, that they would have severely restricted access for loading and off-loading our product. We are delighted with your solution.”

Benefits of Engineering Solutions over Acoustic Enclosure

What is an acoustic enclosure?  It is a steel box fitted around a machine or fan, totally enclosing the machine or fan to reduce the noise. The alternative is to use a different type of solution that reduces the noise at source. The major benefits of choosing a “noise reduction at source” solution instead of a noise enclosure include:-

Low cost : Factories can save thousands of pounds by choosing a solution that reduces the noise at source instead of purchasing acoustic enclosures.

Access : By restricting access and visibility noise enclosures can impair the production rate by slowing down machine operators. They can also increase down time for maintenance because the enclosure often needs to be dismantled to provide the necessary access.  Restricted access often causes operators to leave enclosure doors or panels open and this can severely impair the amount of noise reduction achieved.  Sometimes there is little or no noise reduction when enclosure doors or panels are left open.

Overheating :  A noise reduction enclosure can cause the machine inside to overheat.

We provide this alternative “noise reduction at source” type of solution. 

For more details of the benefits of choosing alternative solutions to noise reduction enclosures see how to reduce noise at work. 

There are more examples of our “at source” solutions on industrial noise reduction.

For our help to reduce noise at low cost and without imposing access and visibility restrictions, please contact us as shown below.