ICR‘s activity is focused on three main lines of action: acoustic engineering services, R&D and training.
THE HARD PART ISN’T FINDING A SOLUTION
We’re probably the only ones who don’t care about solving their problem. We are only concerned to raise it well, since our experience tells us that a well-defined problem is a well solved problem. In the first place, an exhaustive analysis of the problem is necessary, since in terms of noise it is not the same to study a machine that makes too much noise as to have a person who perceives too much noise from that machine. The study and proposed solutions for both cases will be very different. The second essential analysis is knowing what data we need to know in order to solve the problem. This step is essential if, for example, you want to reduce the noise generated by a plotter due to its ventilation and gear system, before you need to know what contribution each of them makes to the total noise. At the same time, it is also necessary to define the methods for finding the above data. ICR usually develops measurement methods for each particular problem. From here and knowing that we already have 80% of the work done, we will start the measurement phase and we will take care of solving your problem.
NOISE AND VIBRATION: TWO ASPECTS OF THE SAME PROBLEM
Even if you think otherwise, you probably don’t have a noise problem at all, but a noise and vibration problem: vibrations generate noise and noise generates vibrations. In a building, for example, the transmission of noise between two floors is always a problem of vibration transmission along the structure and enclosures. Another very common case is noise perceived by a machine. This noise is due, in part, to the noise emitted by the engine and, in turn, to the noise emitted by the housing excited by the vibrations of the engine. A machine with a motor makes noise because the engine emits noise but also because it vibrates the structure of the machine and the vibration emits noise. We could give you many more examples, but we’re just trying to get an idea. If you want to solve a noise problem don’t look for a noise expert, make sure you know theoretically and experimentally the vibrations.
HOW MUCH NOISE COMES FROM EACH PART?
We will also tell you that you do not have a noise problem, your problem is to know how much noise comes from each part of the emitter. In an industry you will usually have several machines that produce noise. If you don’t know how much noise each one of them produces, you won’t be able to tell how much noise you will have left after modifying them. In a machine, you will usually have several components that produce noise. If you don’t know how much noise each of them produces, how will you know what noise you have left after modifying them? Only by knowing the noise of each part of your problem, we can predict how much lower the noise will be if you make the modifications we propose and, therefore, only then will you be able to evaluate the cost and benefit that you will be able to obtain from each solution. Perhaps we should have told you before, but our success also has a lot to do with knowing that you don’t need solutions. What you need are technically viable solutions with minimal cost. We know from experience that who knows a machine best is who makes it. We are willing to know not only the functionality of the machine and its limitations, but also the productive processes that often determine the viability and cost of a solution. We never propose non-viable solutions and we never close in one solution. For us, functionality and aesthetics are of the utmost importance.
WE’RE PROBABLY NAIVE…
We are sure that your problem is virtually insoluble and that we are probably naive, but think that others have put in our hands a tunnel boring machine, the pipes of a reversible power plant, a train or a vibrating building.
These projects cannot be left in the hands of anyone…
