27 February 2008
Re: Acoustic confusion in the marketplace?
I read with interest the recent article from Dr Roger Manifold, on confusion in the acoustic marketplace.
While he raises some very important and accurate points – there’s no single route to Part E compliance; be wary of cheap product clones; ensure a company has appropriately qualified technical personnel – there is one major issue omitted, that must be urgently addressed.
Good workmanship and attention to detail at installation stage. It doesn’t matter how good the technical advice is at specification, or how excellent an acoustic product performs in a laboratory. If it is not installed correctly on-site, it will not perform. Indicative of this is the withdrawal of Robust Detail E-FC-3 last year.
That’s why, in addition to all of the points raised by Dr Manifold, it is imperative that in the very least, in-depth installation guidelines are provided by the manufacturer. The ideal is the provision of these as well as free on-site support. This will help ensure that materials are being installed according to the guidelines – the only way to guarantee that a product will perform as expected.
As the acoustic marketplace becomes increasingly crowded, with lower end and poorer performing products launched without appropriate testing, it is understandable that the materials will be the first under fire when a site fails. While this may often be the case where cheap clone products have been used, the industry needs to acknowledge that some sites are failing because of poor workmanship.
Once the industry takes heed of this, as well as Dr Manifold’s advice, we will hopefully see fewer Part E failures and ultimately raise acoustic standards across the board.
Paul Absolon
Technical Director
CMS Acoustic Solutions
