From hairdryers to lawnmowers and from coffee machines to power tools, optimising noise and vibration can set your product apart – or help you avoid negative customer feedback. But for many product designers and manufacturers, consideration of noise and vibration can be an afterthought, with unexpected noise and vibration issues leading to poor reviews, lost sales, and potentially costly remedial action.
From compliance to competitive advantage: the value of sound quality
Depending on your product, you might be seeking to:
- Meet noise compliance standards or industry regulations, or achieve Quiet Mark certification
- Determine appropriate noise levels for product performance optimisation
- Understand your product’s sound/vibration performance in different environments
- Achieve or maintain your position as the market leader, consolidating your brand sound identity
- Respond to customer feedback
- Work with specialists on early-stage design optimisation
But if you don’t know what to look out for or don’t have the right equipment, attempts to fix a noisy product or understand optimum levels at prototype stage can be inefficient and ultimately ineffective. So it’s well worth getting advice from an expert noise and vibration consultant for fast and cost-effective noise fixes and evidence-based mitigations.
How ISVR Consulting can help resolve your consumer product noise and vibration issue
Our experts have years of practical experience working with a wide range of machines, devices and consumer products, enabling them to rapidly identify problems and potential fixes. In addition, they have the instruments and test facilities to test your product, assess noise and vibration sources and recommend solutions.
Identifying the root cause: noise spectrum and component analysis
In most household devices, noise is generated by its moving parts. Components may be noisy in themselves, but they may also make air move or cause vibration, or sometimes both – all causing additional noise.
Going beyond volume: measuring sound power level and decibel (dB) rating
Initial assessment
To pinpoint the source of noise we start with a thorough vibration and noise assessment. Depending on the type of product this could involve:
- Manually wrapping the product in heavyweight matting and exposing different parts to identify the source, or dismantling the product into its component parts to quantify the noise from different parts of the product
- Noise spectrum analysis to understand the noise characteristics and what they are likely to relate to
- If possible, using the product’s control software to run components independently
We have the tools to analyse aeroacoustics, unpick complex mechanical interactions, identify resonant frequencies and forcing harmonics, and assess noise levels in different acoustic settings, to understand the root cause of your noise and vibration issue.
Vibration damping and noise mitigation strategies
We’ll explore options for remediation, ensuring solutions are realistic and fall within your budgetary or time constraints. These could include:
- Measures to de-tune resonant frequencies to eliminate noise effects
- Introduction of silencers, resonators or absorbers
- Use of isolators for vibration-induced noise
- Replacement of noisy components
You’ll receive a report detailing our results plus contextual analysis and recommendations to help your company decide how to move forward.
Next steps: redesign or remediation
If you require further input, we have advanced tools and software and state-of-the-art sound and vibration testing facilities to support redesign or remedial measures.
Get in touch
Whether you’re at design or prototype stage, or looking to refine an existing model, ISVR Consulting’s bespoke sound and vibration testing and solutions can help you optimise your product.
