Excessive noise in the workplace can affect your productivity, safety, and well-being. Fortunately, sound dampening curtains can help. Noise blocking curtains are designed to cut down on unwanted noise and make your work environment quieter. But who needs sound reducing curtains? And are they right for your facility? There are many industries that benefit from these curtains, and in this article, we’ll cover some of the most popular ones.
Manufacturing Facilities
Manufacturing plants are loud due to noises like welding, grinding, and machinery. However, if you work in a manufacturing facility, it’s important to protect your hearing and focus. Installing soundproofing curtains around specific machines can help reduce overall noise levels without having to shut down operations. You can also use them to separate quieter areas like offices or quality control stations from the production floor. Additionally, these curtains are flexible, meaning you can move them around or open and close them based on your work. When combined with other noise dampening products, they can be even more effective.
Warehouses
Sound is a vibration that travels through air in the form of waves. When those waves hit a hard surface like a wall or a floor, they bounce back and create an echo. In an industrial space filled with hard surfaces, this creates a noisy area of bouncing sound waves.
Warehouses are especially prone to this kind of noise since they often resemble large echo chambers. Sound bounces off the high ceilings and concrete floors and becomes amplified. By using soundproofing curtains, you can help create quieter workstations, protect break rooms from warehouse noise, and divide different areas of the facility with varying sound needs.
Automotive Plants
Automotive plants are known for being noisy. Stamping pressing, tools, conveyor belts, forklifts, welding stations, and engine testing areas all contribute to overloud sounds, which can pose risks to both hearing and people’s ability to communicate. It’s for this reason that many automotive plants invest in noise control solutions like sound dampening curtains to create safer, better work zones. Installing noise blocking curtains around high-noise areas like testing bays can protect technicians and create a better experience for customers waiting nearby. In larger auto plants, sound dampening curtains can also help improve how teams communicate and reduce the amount of yelling workers have to do.
Food Processing Plants
Sound reducing curtains have many applications in food processing plants. Not only do they make work more comfortable for employees, but they can also improve safety. That’s because when workers can hear alarms, instructions, or each other, everyone stays safer. These curtains can also help separate sanitation zones from louder production lines, helping you stay compliant with health regulations. And because many noise control curtains are made with vinyl surfaces that are easy to clean, they’re appropriate for food-safe environments.
Printing Shops
Printing shops experience noise from things like rolling presses and cutting machines. However, many print shops also double as creative offices or customer-facing businesses, and excessive noise can impact this. Soundproofing curtains can be used to isolate the loud equipment areas without shutting off natural light or creating visual blockades, making the space more comfortable for everyone.
Waste Management
Recycling facilities and waste sorting stations can benefit from soundproofing curtains. Sound deadening curtains can help reduce echo, block sound from migrating to employee break areas, and help make safety announcements easier to hear. Some curtains are also flame-resistant and designed for rugged environments, so you don’t have to worry about durability.
Data Centers
While data centers aren’t as loud as manufacturing plants, they do produce a constant low-level hum from fans, HVAC systems, and servers. That constant buzz can wear people down over time, especially if your IT team or developers work close to the hardware. By installing sound reducing curtains, you can create quiet zones for better concentration.
Construction Sites
Noise blocking curtains can make a big difference on construction sites. You can hang them to shield active construction zones from occupied offices or retail areas, helping you keep a quieter space while still getting the job done. They’re also great for evening or overnight work when neighboring businesses need quiet. Additionally, since they’re portable, you can move them around as your project progresses.
Aviation and Aerospace
Hangars, manufacturing plants, and testing facilities in the aviation and aerospace industry are known to be noisy. Using soundproofing curtains and noise systems around test areas or mechanical zones can reduce noise pollution and help protect people’s hearing.
Temperature-Controlled Warehouses
Cold storage facilities are often outfitted with refrigeration units and automated systems that make noise. Sound deadening curtains not only help control that noise, but they can also be designed with insulation layers that help keep temperature zones consistent.
How Do Noise Blocking Curtains Work?
Noise blocking curtains work by absorbing sound waves before they can travel across a space, and they do this using a series of specially constructed layers. Most soundproof curtains are made from three parts: dense materials like mass-loaded vinyl to physically block sound; porous materials like fiberglass or mineral wool to absorb sound energy; and an outer fabric layer that protects the inner materials and also helps with the way the curtain looks.
The dense layers work to block low-frequency sounds like engines or compressors, while the soft layers absorb higher-frequency sounds like voices or clinking metal. Combined, they reduce the overall noise that makes it into or out of the space.
Learn More About Sound Reducing Curtains
If your facility is producing a lot of unwanted noise that’s affecting your workers’ health, safety, and productivity, sound reducing curtains are a great tool. They reduce noise in a wide range of settings, are cost-effective, and can give you the flexibility you need for many projects.
At Singer Safety, we take pride in helping our customers create quieter, safer facilities that benefit both their workers and operations. Ready to get started? Our experts can help you determine which system is best for you. Contact us today to learn more.
