Acoustic Sealing Principles
Wherever noise influences human activity, effective acoustic sealing is essential.
Door assemblies are an integral part of buildings, and while there must be gaps around the perimeter of the door for it to operate efficiently, these gaps also allow sound to pass through.
Sealing the gaps around a door is therefore crucial to reducing the amount of sound entering or leaving a room.
Lorient acoustic seals provide excellent resistance to airborne sound and significantly improve the acoustic attenuation of the door assembly.
When fitted to external doors, our seals help to isolate buildings from noise generated by roads, railways and airports. When fitted to internal doors, they help to isolate rooms from airborne noise generated within a building, making them ideal for auditoria, offices, consultation, and conference rooms, educational establishments, hotel bedrooms and individual apartments in communal dwellings.
Every Lorient sealing solution has demonstrated under test that it is comfortably able to meet the requirements using readily available, typical fire door assemblies, and standard architectural doors.
Acoustic Testing
A series of comprehensive test programs to establish airborne sound insulation performance of Lorient acoustic seals have been carried out at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) acoustic laboratory in Australia and Sound Research Laboratories (SRL) in the United Kingdom. Tests were conducted to:
AS1191:2002 – Acoustics – Method for laboratory measurement of airborne sound insulation of building elements.
ISO 140-3:1995 – Acoustics- Methods of measurements of sound insulation in buildings & of building elements. Part 3 – Laboratory measurements of airborne sound insulation of building elements.
in accordance with:
AS1276-1:1999 – Acoustics – Rating of sound insulation in buildings & building elements. Part 1 – Airborne Sound Insulation.
ISO 717-1:1997 – Acoustics – Rating of sound insulation in buildings & of building elements. Part 1 – Airborne Sound Insulation.
Australian Building Regulations
Building regulations exist to ensure the safety and comfort of all persons entering or using a building.
The Building Code of Australia 2008, sets out specific acoustic performance requirements for door assemblies in a number of situations. Section F5.5 and Section F2.4.6 requires a door assembly in a Class 2, Class 3 or Class 9C building, which separates a sole-occupancy unit from a stairway, public corridor, public lobby or the like, to have a minimum sound insulation rating of Rw30.
Class 2 buildings – apartment buildings & blocks of flats
Class 3 buildings – hotels, motels & larger boarding houses
Class 9C buildings – aged care buildings
*Please check with your local regulatory authority to determine what regulations may exist for your region.
Acoustic Sealing Systems
Under test conditions, door assemblies are tested with standard operational clearances in three conditions:
· Un-caulked – with no seals present around the door perimeter & threshold
· Fully-caulked – all perimeter & threshold gaps are completely sealed with a high density putty to determine the maximum possible acoustic performance of the door assembly
· Un-caulked but with Lorient seals fitted to the perimeter & threshold gaps.
By comparing the results obtained in the three conditions, it is possible to determine the sound insulation contribution achieved by fitting Lorient seals to a door assembly.
In many cases, the weakest point of a door system is in fact the acoustic performance of the door leaf itself. This is highlighted when a sealing system performance equals the performance of the fully caulked door.
For higher acoustic ratings a proprietary acoustic door panel construction is necessary. Lorient have conducted testing in partnership with major acoustic door manufacturers and we can assist in finding a door solution for your specific requirement.
For further information on the acoustic performance of the Lorient range of door sealing solutions, please feel free to contact our Technical Department for advice.