Acoustic fabrics
Our acoustic fabrics are suited for a wide range of applications.
Including sound-absorbing screens, panels, pods, acoustic partitions, wall systems and other specialist acoustic solutions.
They provide visual appeal with genuine acoustic properties, which is why they’re designed to be seen but not heard.
Acoustically transparent fabrics
The acoustics of a room are one of the most important, yet often overlooked, features of an environment. As with light, when sound hits a surface, part of its energy is absorbed and part of it is reflected into the room. So, just as we may install a blind in front of a window to control brightness, acoustic solutions effectively manage sound and the effect it has on a room.
Acoustic fabric allows sound waves to pass through without any interference, neither reflecting nor absorbing. In effect, it is transparent. Highly transparent acoustic fabrics are used for loudspeaker coverings as they have minimal impact on sounds that are being transmitted. One of our most well known acoustic fabrics is Carlow which has been used for this very purpose by several audio hifi manufacturers.
Tested for transparency
To demonstrate the extent to which a fabric possesses acoustic properties, it is tested under ISO 10534 Part 2. This test measures the sound absorption of a fabric when it is applied to a 4in thick sound-absorbing foam.
The results are then compared to the absorption of the foam in isolation, therefore demonstrating how well the fabric will complement the performance of an acoustic panel.
The data will illustrate that the sound passes through a transparent fabric and is absorbed by the foam, or that it is partially absorbed by the fabric before passing through to the foam.
A variety of style and substance
In addition to the synthetic fabric Carlow, which we weave from our in-house produced air-textured polypropylene yarn, we have a broad selection of post-consumer recycled polyesters such as Lucia, Quest and RePlay Zero.
There are wool felts, like Blazer and Synergy, and a wool effect non-woven called Sonus. Our wool-flax fabrics Main Line Flax and Main Line Twist are also used extensively for acoustic applications in a wide range of interior settings.
