Tools to tame noise and vibration (continued)

Q: What applications are driving demand for testing acoustic materials?
A: We sell about an equal number of acoustic testing systems to the automotive and aerospace sectors, and the challenge for both applications is to provide the optimal acoustic material performance within a car or airplane cabin while still meeting weight and volume constraints. Increasingly, such applications involve testing materials for their sound absorption and transmission qualities in situ. You simply put the materials to be tested inside a desktop-based transmission loss tube, with a sound source at one end of the tube and a measurement and analysis system at the other end. Additionally, acoustic material modeling software is becoming increasingly important to help suppliers understand their materials better and optimize them for both acoustic performance and weight.

Q: What are the components that make up your company’s Environmental Noise Management Systems, and where are these systems deployed?
A: Environmental noise is unwanted sound and vibration from a plethora of sources, such as industrial plants, road and rail traffic, construction work, and, of course, airports. 

Add to these still other noises sources—sports events, shooting ranges, leisure parks—each with different noise characteristics that pose different problems for the professionals who have to assess them. The solutions we offer also differ immensely from country to country and are very much dependent on culture, economy, and politics.

Because of this diversity, we have developed a modular range of products that embrace such tasks as noise-level measurements, in-depth analysis of data, and even prediction of future noise problems. A typical airport noise management system, for example, might include several noise-monitoring terminals (NMTs) placed strategically around the airport, a central computer system, and a number of workstations. 

The NMT consists of a noise-level analyzer, a weatherproof microphone, a system controller, and a power supply—all mounted in a weatherproof cabinet. With such systems, we can readily identify a particular aircraft that is exceeding noise levels or deviating from designated flight paths. An integrated environmental noise-management system, featuring our hardware and software, can address noise complaints, mapping, monitoring, calculations, and abatement. Additional features in these noise-management systems include: report generation, archiving data, and public information tools, such as a dedicated Website for updates on noise control and feedback from the public. 

Our high-end airport solutions can even cover a group of airports with over 100 NMTs and environmental noise-management software that is integrated with airport radar and operational systems. The FAA helps airports fund part of the cost of such systems through its Part 150 noise-abatement grants.

Q: Within Brüel & Kjær's target markets, how big is the building acoustics area, versus sound and vibration applications in industrial markets like automotive and aerospace?
A: The building acoustics segment is smaller, but it is still a very important one to us and our customers. Acoustics measurements are invaluable when designing or examining noise control issues in the building environment. Brüel & Kjær has a suite of solutions for checking conformance to building regulations and pinpointing weak spots in sound insulation. Our Type 2250 and 2270 handheld instruments are typically the preferred choice for measurement needs in this application, and our Website features a video that demonstrates how easy it is to use these devices for analyzing building acoustics.

Q: Moving to some of your new research tools, what is the potential of your new SONAH conformal mapping solution?
A: SONAH, which stands for statistically optimal near-field acoustical holography, can be a valuable troubleshooting tool to locate a noise source. In the future, it might also be used to locate people, find forest fire hotspots, or even identify military targets. Conformal mapping provides a map of sound pressure, sound intensity, or particle velocity directly on the actual surface geometry. SONAH calculates levels at the source surface based on a set of patch measurements from a handheld array equipped with an integrated position detection device. The potential for such new sound-mapping tools is really going to be driven by the fact that there are fewer trained engineers working in the field of sound and vibration. So, we need to develop new devices that are both easy to use and that produce results that are easy to interpret. 

We are a customer driven company, and SONAH is an example of our effort to develop new measurement tools in response to needs that we see in the marketplace. Our research staff are constantly working to advance these technologies, in many cases in cooperation with key customers. For example, we have recently started working with several partners to participate in research projects in the US funded through the Small Business Administration’s SBIR program. This should ultimately result in new technology breakthroughs.

Q: What is the future direction of Brüel & Kjær's technology development?
A: The short answer is that we will do whatever we need to do to help our customers efficiently address their sound and vibration issues. Our newer products already highlight some of our recent technologies targeted specifically to increase customer efficiency. That’s evident in two important new tools, Dyn-X and Req-X. Dyn-X increases the usable dynamic range of our acquisition hardware to 160 dB, while Req-X  provides real-time corrections on transducers to expand usable frequency range and accuracy. And, of course, our newer hardware solutions, such as LAN-XI and our 2270, are designed to be easy to use and readily expandable.
 
Q: Where does Brüel & Kjaer fit within the corporate structure of your parent company?
A: Everything we do is somehow related to sound and vibration. Headquartered in Denmark, Brüel & Kjaer has over 900 employees around the world. Our parent, the UK-based Spectris, specializes in precision instrumentation and controls. Spectris had sales of about $1.3 billion in 2007 and employs around 5500 people worldwide. The parent company’s instrumentation and electronic control products are all leaders in their targeted markets and can be found in most industries, with applications ranging from ultraviolet curing of compact disk coatings to sound-level measurement and particle-contamination detection.

Q: Moving forward, what kind of growth do you see for sound and vibration measurement applications?
A: Growth in the overall sound and vibration market over the last few years has kept pace with inflation, though the current economic situation in the US could make for flat or even declining business in the near term. However, Brüel & Kjaer both globally and in the Americas has been achieving higher growth rates than the market as a whole and is gaining market share. While our core product sales are still very strong, we see significant growth from our application solution sales. Our PULSE analyzer platform and data-management solution, for example, is the foundation for many growing applications in acoustics, vibro-acoustics, machine diagnostics, electro-acoustics, and structural dynamics.

Q: How is Brüel & Kjær keeping customers up to date on your new technology?
A: At a recent event in Los Angeles, one customer commented that everywhere he looks he sees Brüel & Kjær. In addition to our marketing materials, we conduct technical seminars and participate at major trade shows, such as Noise-Con, IMAC (International Modal Analysis Conference), SAE Noise & Vibration, and the Automotive and Aerospace Test Expos. We’ve also greatly expanded our use of Web education, including online videos. In addition, our engineer customers in the US can access our Brüel & Kjær Webstore for test equipment on a 24/7 basis.

Read the first part of this interview.