FSorb Products - No New Car Smell, But Lots of Safety Features
- 11 minutes ago
- 5 min read
We can admit it. When you buy FSorb panels for your building project, you won’t get to experience the new car smell. This might disappoint people who like the distinct smell of new products, but we’re confident our customers like the tradeoff even better.
We believe there should be no smell to our panels, because if there is, that means chemicals are leaching into our airspace. No new car smell also means no volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, will be leaching into your building’s airflow.
What are VOCs, and Why Do Sound Panels Have Them?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, as gas molecules that emit from industrial consumer products such as paints, plastics, and glues. VOCs include a variety of chemicals that may have short- and long-term adverse health effects.
Since new car interiors feature these kinds of products, people associate the smell of VOCs with the excitement of a new car.
Unfortunately, breathing in VOCs can cause headaches, dizziness, and eye, nose, and throat irritation. Even worse, long-term exposure to certain VOCs can cause respiratory problems, exacerbate existing health conditions, and even lead to chronic health conditions and cancer.
When products emit VOCs inside a building, HVAC systems recirculate these dangerous compounds, increasing their concentration in the air. Traditional sound absorption panels may combine several VOC-emitting materials, including chemical adhesives and sealants. FSorb panels contain no VOCs.
How Do We Know FSorb Panels are VOC Safe?
FSorb panels have earned certificates showing they’re VOC safe. For example, FSorb is UL-certified as VOC Free per CDPH-CA Section 01350, which you can read more about here.
We are BQL (below quantifiable levels) on all the tested chemicals that could be off-gassing.
FSorb has also been certified by GREENGUARD standards for low chemical emissions indoors. “All certified products are subject to a review of the manufacturing process and routine testing to demonstrate minimal impact on the indoor environment.” You can read more about those standards here.
These certificates confirm FSorb’s VOC safe status based on accepted standards, which is important for builders, architects, and building managers to know.
But we didn’t need to seek these designations to find out whether our panels were safe. We knew our panels were safe because we baked safety into our process from Day 1.
The FSorb Formula Combines Safety and Durability
Many products that earn VOC-safe certificates have succeeded in removing or limiting emissions from the solvents, adhesives, and other products they include. Often, this can mean panels start exuding VOCs later, once the preventive measures wear away.
In contrast, FSorb’s process doesn’t mask or delay the release of VOCs. Our process excludes VOCs. Plus, the FSorb manufacturing process doesn’t introduce new materials that could emit VOCs later.
How do we do it? By keeping things simple.
For instance, instead of using chemical adhesives to bind the components of our panels together, our panels include only one component: recycled Type 1 Polyethylene Terephthalate. That’s the official name for the most common type of plastic, which is used for water bottles and clear food containers.
Since this type of plastic melts at temperatures in the neighborhood of 500 degrees Fahrenheit, much higher than the conditions inside any building, VOC emissions are minimal. Plus, we use this high melting point to bind plastic fibers together permanently, eliminating the need for adhesives that emit VOCs.
Our process is kind of like baking a cake. When you cut a cake, you see more cake. When you cut into an FSorb panel, you see more FSorb panel.
This Simplicity Has Advantages Beyond Safety
Along with creating a safer sound panel, FSorb’s process creates more durability and simplicity:
Need to cut a panel to fit a specific application? That’s easy. There’s no internal structure or outer shell to consider.
Need to install a panel despite a building anomaly? That’s also easy. Our panels can be anchored from anywhere on the panel, not just from specific mounting points.
Their durability and simplicity also give our panels a longer-than-average lifespan, further improving their return on investment for builders, managers, and planners.
There’s More to Know About FSorb and Safety
VOCs aren’t the only hazard the FSorb process eliminates.
Our panels also contain no fiberglass insulation, no wood, no agricultural or paper products. This prevents the growth of mold or other microbes that can emerge within sound panels, especially in humid environments. This helps make FSorb panels easy to keep clean.
FSorb panels also:
Comply with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified projects
Have been declared Red List free per the Living Building Challenge (LBC)
Have earned a Class 'A' NFPA (National Fire Protection Association ) rating
FSorb founder Doug Bixel worked as a builder before launching FSorb in 2009. His goal with FSorb: to create the kind of sound panel that makes life easier for builders and building managers.
FSorb: Safer and More Flexible
Because of our manufacturing process, FSorb panels can be cut, shaped, and combined to maximize sound absorption performance and appearance.
We make ½-inch, 1-inch, and 2-inch panels, all of which overperform other similar-sized panels in Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) tests. FSorb panels can be installed on walls and ceilings or suspended from ceilings to create unique designs and patterns.
FSorb panels can also be customized and combined into endless patterns, shapes, and colors, giving interior designers unlimited choices. All this, of course, while providing high-quality sound absorption that shapes the environment, helping create calmer spaces for visitors, staff, and patrons.
Our Customer Experience Brings It All Together
The safety of cleaner air. The ability to install panels using standard building materials. Limitless design possibilities.
All of these factors come together through our customer service experience. We inventory all our patented products in Washington State, and FSorb distribution centers throughout the U.S. ensure fast delivery to most job sites in North America.
We invite you to contact your closest distribution center or to call our Woodinville, WA, facility to discuss your building’s acoustic panel needs. Many of these centers feature local consultants to help builders put together the right order.
Discover how Fsorb delivers excellent sound absorption and so much more through our safety, quality, and value. We manufacture with purpose and are the best at creating products that improve human lives.
The Challenge: Put our samples up against other companies’ and simply smell the difference. What one do you want on your project?
At FSorb, we are motivated by improving human health and do so by creating eco-friendly acoustic products. Our mission is to help designers build beautiful spaces that reduce excess ambient noise while calming the human nervous system. With over 25 years in the acoustic business we stand behind FSorb as a durable, environmentally friendly, and low-cost product. If you want an acoustic solution that is safe to human health at an affordable price, then we are your resource.
(844) 313-7672
