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Sound Reduction

Sound Reduction Ltd

SRS manufacture a wide range of products that provide acoustic insulation within buildings. Many years experience in soundproofing, combined with proven and tested products have resulted in contracts with prestigious companies such as UGC Cinemas, British Petroleum, Aspire Housing and PC world.

The company was formed in 1981 under the name of Hartnell and Rose Ltd mainly with the aim of manufacturing acoustic insulation for the suspended ceiling industry. Very quickly they expanded the product range providing sound insulation for floors and walls as well. They moved to new premises, and changed the name to Sound Reduction Systems making it more descriptive to the nature of the business.

The project started at the beginning of 2003. Previously SRS was using a solvented moisture cure PU with only 45% solids. The other 55% was solvent, which evaporated into the air. As production increased, SRS were keen to introduce a system that was more environmentally friendly and efficient. Previously, two operators manually sprayed the boards, involving a considerable time handling the materials and finishing the product.

Chemique’s chemists and engineers have developed a total adhesive package that increases production while at the same time reduces adhesive usage; improves quality; improves factory conditions and complies with the latest environmental regulations. All these objectives were achieved when SRS switched to Solfre2, Chemique’s own solvent free two part polyurethane adhesive, and installed a new automatic bonding line that included a spraybooth, a heated conveyor, and a pneumatic press.

This Solfre2 formulation has extremely high tack allowing to SRS to produce continuously. ‘Before with the solvented product and the three operators involved in the whole process, we are now able to double efficiency as quantities previously produced by two operators can now be achieved with only one operator, overseeing the whole process, including manoeuvring the forklift’ states Simon.

With this new formulation the scope for production improvements is enormous. The whole total cure time is now only 10/12 minutes. Once the substrate is sprayed with the high tack adhesive, the board passes through a heated conveyor to speed up curing time, it is then transferred mechanically to the pneumatic press for consolidation, which takes less than 8 seconds. As a result, the whole process of spraying and consolidating takes a minute or less, depending on the substrates being bonded.

Time is not the only thing that has been reduced; equally as important is the cost of the adhesive used has been reduced considerably. ‘Now Sound Reduction are using a 100% solids adhesive nothing evaporates, they can apply lower coating weight and reduce adhesive usage by nearly 40%,’ states John Bellerby, Chemique’s Technical Manager. ‘To this we are adding the advantage of having an environmentally friendly adhesive,’ adds John.

Another issue Chemique’s chemists had to overcome was that SRS needed to use the line to bond different materials and sizes. So far other adhesive manufactures can only offer fast curing adhesives by leaving just a 10 second window to joint the substrates. This creates a problem, especially when using different materials. With such a short time to bond, material that has already been sprayed will have to be scrapped, should the line have to stop for any reason. ‘To overcome this problem, we concentrated on the tack of the adhesive, not on the curing properties. We formulated a special fast tack adhesive that gives a wide window in open times. This adhesive has between 90 seconds and 5 minutes of open time giving them flexibility in the operating parameters. As a result, if the line stops, they won’t have to scrap the material because there will usually be plenty of time in which to make a successful bond’, states John.