DURABLE
SOUND REDUCTION ROADS AND INFRASTRUCTURE MAGAZINE TALKS TO HUSHPAK ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF ITS ORIGINAL NOISE ATTENUATION CLADDING FOR INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS AND INFRASTRUCTURE.
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t a time when constrained layer damping was becoming popular for attenuating noise in deck plates and hulls of ships, the original owner of Hushpak Engineering came up with an innovative idea to use a polymer laminate material for cladding of buildings. This was the origin of HushClad, highquality noise attenuation cladding used in steel frame buildings to enable workplaces to achieve the noise limits required for their operations. One of the first applications of HushClad was for a woodchip mill in Victoria. Hushpak installed the cladding on one of the mill buildings and the customer was very happy with the result. Since then, HushClad has been used successfully across many industries. “In certain situations, companies have heavy machinery and processes that are inherently noisy, such as pneumatic tools, grinding or impact noise, but they are unable to do much in terms of sound reduction at the source. In those cases, HushClad can be used to bring the outside noise levels down,” says Michael Neville, Managing Director of Hushpak Engineering. It can also be used in bespoke applications for specific machine enclosures. “In some cases, companies don’t want to clad an entire building. If there is just a single piece of equipment that needs sound attenuation then customers can use HushClad for a specific enclosure,” Mr. Neville says. There are two common reasons for the use of HushClad. The first is to ensure noise compliance outside an industrial building or workshop. This is environmental noise that 52
ROADS JULY 2019
HushClad can reduce sound escaping from a noisy workshop.
could affect neighbours. The second is work health and safety noise, where sound from machines or processes could affect workers inside the building. “Often in the case of enclosures inside a building, it comes down to work health and safety regulations, the customers have to make sure they are not exposing people in the building to excessive noise,” Mr. Neville says. One recent Hushpak client used HushClad to reduce sound escaping from a noisy process inside the workshop. The noise level could not exceed 85 decibels. “The customer was getting around 103 decibels outside a work booth and they used HushClad to reduce the noise escaping from that process, which helped the company meet the regulations,” says Mr. Neville. HushClad is made to fix easily onto steel frame structures, either buildings or enclosures. It screws onto the purlins or girts,
as would any standard cladding. “The beauty of HushClad is that it installs just as easily as any other product. Sometimes we get enquiries from customers that want to replace existing steel cladding with HushClad, as it has higher noise attenuation properties,” Mr. Neville says. Installing a standard Colorbond sheet on a steel-framed building does not provide a high level of sound attenuation, he says. Alongside the ease of installation, the weight and durability of HushClad are two features that make it stand out from other cladding products. HushClad only weighs around eight kilograms per lineal metre. So it can usually be installed directly in place of existing cladding. It lasts as long as the life of Colorbond steel. “Colorbond steel is a well trusted, durable material, which is popular in the industry. We know our customers can trust in
