Projects

Noise is a major burden in everyday life and at work. Acoustically optimized products ensure greater safety, comfort, and the “right sound” – Fraunhofer now offers innovative solutions using polymer materials.

Plastics are ideal construction materials: lightweight, usually inexpensive, complex in 3D formability, and often suitable for large-scale production. Unfortunately, their low weight is not ideal from an acoustic point of view. This makes it even more important to exploit the potential for acoustic optimization of these materials, as well as of designs and manufacturing techniques, in order to achieve a significant reduction in noise emissions from devices with plastic housings.

As part of Fraunhofer's in-house research project PolymerAcoustics, a comprehensive range of Fraunhofer technologies has been developed to reduce the noise emissions of devices with plastic housings. The solutions include, for example, foams that absorb sound on the inside, ventilation openings or structures that have high sound insulation and, if necessary, high tunable damping for vibrations. New simulation and manufacturing processes developed in the project allow the housing structures and any necessary housing openings (ventilation slots) to be acoustically optimized and, at the same time, designed for manufacturing.

The solutions developed by the Fraunhofer Institutes in the project can be directly incorporated into various stages of product development at the customer's site. Ideally, acoustic aspects should be considered as early as the concept and design phase, as this allows the entire technology toolkit to be integrated at an early stage of product development. However, many of the solutions developed can also be used at a later stage of product development and can therefore be considered acoustic problem solvers if acoustic defects only become apparent at a later stage of development.