When you’re designing a space, the sensory environment you create matters. Interestingly, the sound environment impacts how we perceive, experience, function in, or feel about a space and can have a profound impact on everything from cognition to mood (1-4). It can even influence our other senses, including the perception of taste. This is why acoustic treatments are increasingly being incorporated in public spaces, from museums and art galleries to hotels, restaurants, and trade shows.
As critical as the cultivation of an optimal soundscape may be, however, the prospect of sound treating your space can feel intimidating at best and overwhelming at worst. Fortunately, sound mitigation is far simpler than you might think, thanks to FSorb’s innovative line of durable, effective, and user-friendly acoustic solutions. As a leader in acoustic design, FSorb makes sound mitigation a snap. We’ll show you how!
The FSorb Difference
From its inception, FSorb’s mission has been as important as it is simple: to create superior quality acoustic solutions that are at once earth-friendly and user-friendly. FSorb’s unique materials and proprietary designs result not only in best-in-class sound mitigation but also in ultra-efficient installations.
Shape It Your Way
One of the many hallmarks of FSorb’s vast product lines is customizability. FSorb comes in a wide array of shapes, sizes, and colors, and can even be custom cut, shaped, painted, or screen printed.
Add to this the lightweight design and durable materials, and your sound treatment options are limited only by your imagination. Because FSorb’s products are painstakingly crafted from recycled plastics, they’re easy to cut and shape to your exact needs, free of the worry that the tile will crack, splinter, chip, or fray.
Everything In Its Place
Once your panels and tiles are customized as desired, you’re ready to set them into place, and FSorb’s innovations have made the process simple. If you’re looking for more permanent fixtures, you have a variety of choices. The durability of the materials enables you to insert strong screws when setting FSorb’s panels and tiles in place. Likewise, the light weight of FSorb products makes them ideal for using quick-set adhesives in more permanent installations.
Installation Innovations
It isn’t just the durable, lightweight, and easily customizable materials that make FSorb installations so quick and easy. It’s the products’ proprietary design innovations that truly bring installation to the next level. Doug Bixel, the owner of FSorb, holds a number of design patents, many of which were created to make installation simple and efficient.
Innovations such as fold in place panels, and the T-Snap and F-Snap attachment create a kind of modular assembly effect, enabling Silentline baffles, tiles, panels, and clouds to slide or snap into place to conventional T-Grids. Not only does this accelerate and facilitate the initial assembly, but it also makes it possible to easily remove or modify the assembly as your needs change.
In addition to the development of more modular installation processes, FSorb has made it easier than ever to install suspended ceiling panels and tiles, thus enhancing their noise-mitigating properties by creating air space behind the panels. These suspended ceiling panels can be efficiently installed through the use of ceiling suspension systems, stick pins, hat channels, and cable grips, which may be affixed with quick-set adhesive, screws, or bolts.
Here’s a closer look at installation methods, some of which are FSorb’s proprietary design innovations, that make installation easier than ever before!
T-Grid System: The T-Grid System makes installing ceiling-mounted SilentLine baffles a snap, literally. The metal T-Grid is suspended with hanger wires from the overhead structure. The grid systems deliver a level, square, and seismically braced system meeting the most stringent building and fire code requirements. Once the grid is in place, you can merely snap your acoustic panels and or baffles into place, thanks to the patented T-Snaps.
F-Snaps: The F-Snap functions much like the T-Snap, enabling you to quickly and easily snap your FSorb ceiling panels and baffles into place on your ceiling-mounted bolt slot grid system.
FSorb Shift and Lift: The shift and lift suspension cutouts are another patented innovation that makes FSorb installations so incomparably easy and efficient. Your QuietGrid ceiling panels can simply be lifted and shifted into place on your ceiling-mounted metal grid, with no need for additional adhesives or mechanical fixtures. This means that you have the option of easily installing an FSorb ceiling-mounted grid system or using the cut ends to lift and shift your FSorb panels securely into place on a traditional, pre-existing ceiling grid. Additionally, the length of the Quietgrid blades nearly meet beneath the ceiling grid to create a nearly seamless or contiguous appearance.
Stick Pins: As we’ve seen, one of the most effective ways to mitigate sound is to create an air space behind your acoustic barrier. Installing FSorb with stick pins is easy. These long pins consist of a square, perforated plate at one end, which may be easily affixed to the ceiling using quick-set adhesive or screws. At the other end of the pin is a pointed tip enabling you to slide your lightweight FSorb panel onto the pin and secure it with the included end cap. The result is a dropped ceiling system that enables you to easily create distinct zones of sound throughout your space.
Hat Channel: Hat channels are another solution for easily creating a buffer of air behind your acoustic panel, including ceiling, wall, and free-standing panels. This works with an FSorb metal grid system affixed with bolts, screws, or pins to the wall or ceiling. Rather than inserting the panel inside the grid channel, FSorb panels can be attached with screws or similar fasteners.
Cable Gripper: The cable gripper system is another ultra-easy way to create dropped-ceiling baffles and clouds. The cable system allows you to suspend your ceiling baffles from secure cables by simply screwing the cable into joiners bolted or glued to the panel itself. The other end of the cable may be connected directly to the ceiling or to a grid system in various ways–via hooks, bolts, screws, or whatever your needs may be!
Installations Made to Last
While FSorb’s customizable solutions are crafted from lightweight, durable, and easily configurable materials and ingeniously designed to optimize installation, the benefits of an FSorb assembly don’t end there.
Whether you’re seeking a temporary solution, something that’s easily modifiable to accommodate your space’s evolving soundscape or a sound treatment that’s meant to remain in place for the duration, FSorb’s acoustic solutions will fit the bill. The same recycled plastics that render them lightweight, long-lasting, and easily customizable also make them a breeze to maintain. From the wall tiles and standalone panels to the ceiling clouds and baffles, FSorb’s solutions are antimicrobial, meaning that they will resist mold and mildew, making them safe for the most allergen-sensitive occupants. They’re also simple to clean, typically requiring only a bit of soap and warm water to keep them gleaming in even the most punishing of environments.
What that means, ultimately, is that once you’ve installed your FSorb acoustic solutions, your work is done. They’ll retain their effectiveness and beauty for decades to come, and your next installation project will likely come only if and when your needs change.
How FSorb Compares
As impressive as FSorb’s story of innovation may be in and of itself, it’s only when you compare it to its nearest competitors that you can truly begin to appreciate the FSorb difference. Once again, it’s in both materials and design that the foundation of FSorb’s excellence is made.
Traditionally, acoustic products have been made of only a handful of material types: wood, fiberglass, fabric, and paper. While each class of materials does exhibit various levels of sound absorption, each has drawbacks, especially when compared to FSorb’s extruded polyester-based recycled plastics, that offers easier–and healthier–installation and maintenance.
Wood products, for example, are difficult to cut and shape and can produce significant amounts of sawdust, which are both messy and unsafe for those with sensitive respiratory systems. In addition, wood rapidly absorbs moisture, causing the material to expand, deform, and degrade, particularly in humid environments. This can also lead to the proliferation of bacteria and fungi, which accelerates their degradation and may make them unsafe for vulnerable occupants. Wood-based products are often quite heavy, requiring more time, effort, and labor in the installation. And because wood-based solutions degrade relatively quickly, you’re going to have to remove and replace the system far sooner than an FSorb product.
Fiberglass is another material that is frequently found in acoustic products, and while it can be more durable and easier to maintain than wood, it also can pose unique and significant health hazards, especially for medically fragile persons. For instance, exposure to fiberglass fibers can cause significant irritation to the skin, mucus membranes, and respiratory system. That means that installers and end users alike may face serious health risks from fiberglass-based sound treatments.
Fabric-wrapped panels are another choice. The pliancy, weight, and softness make the material easy to shape, cut, and install. However, fabrics are often more expensive than other acoustic materials. They're also far more difficult to maintain and far more apt to rapid degradation. Fabric products may accumulate stains and tears. They are likely to accumulate moisture, contributing to the proliferation of unhealthy mold and mildew.
Paper-based acoustic solutions are also common, and typically, these are less expensive, lighter-weight, and easier to configure. Unfortunately, they are easily damaged, cannot be cleaned with water, and will be destroyed by exposure to moisture. This means though you may not encounter major issues with the installation, you’re likely to find yourself removing and replacing your sound treatments often.
Connect with FSorb
If you are ready for a sound mitigation strategy that offers superior quality, longevity, and ease of installation at a lower cost, FSorb has the products for you. Contact your local FSorb representative today to learn more!
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.
info@fsorb.com
(844) 313-7672
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Hahad O, Prochaska JH, Daiber A, Muenzel T. Environmental Noise-Induced Effects on Stress Hormones, Oxidative Stress, and Vascular Dysfunction: Key Factors in the Relationship between Cerebrocardiovascular and Psychological Disorders. Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2019 Nov 11;2019:4623109. doi: 10.1155/2019/4623109. PMID: 31814877; PMCID: PMC6878772.