How to Select Industrial Silencers

What would you assume to be the most common injury sustained when working in the manufacturing industry? While your first guess may not be hearing loss, it’s a prevalent risk in this line of work. Many manufacturing facilities use equipment that emits dangerous sound levels. When these levels exceed 85 decibels, as they often do, permanent hearing loss can occur.

To avoid this common problem, employers must outfit these machines with silencers. Silencers will serve to effectively attenuate the volumes these machines cause. When chosen and installed correctly, workers can perform their jobs without fearing hearing loss. If done incorrectly, however, the cost and manpower to install them will have gone to waste, as they are unlikely to perform as they should. As such, you must choose the correct industrial silencer. If you’ve yet to install a silencer, it’s important that you know the correct way to do it to save any potential worries later on. We provide a short guide outlining how to choose the correct industrial silencer.

Inlet vs. Exhaust Silencers

Before we proceed to selecting your silencer, you should know if you’ll need an inlet or exhaust silencer. An inlet silencer resides on the intake side of a device, while an exhaust goes either on the outlet or the exhaust of the muffled device.

Determine What is Causing the Noise

You can’t develop the proper solution if you don’t properly diagnose the issue. When doing so, you may find that the issue is one that a silencer can solve. Below are some of the common causes of noise in industrial equipment. Analyze the solution by checking the objects on our list:

• Pressure pulses from fans
• Neglected equipment maintenance
• Unlubricated parts
• Compressed air leaks
• Improperly aligned belts
• Vibrations in equipment
• Unbalanced parts

Noise Reduction Requirement

When a manufacturer specially makes a silencer, they consider factors such as size and mass and take each detail into account. Another aspect they consider is the amount of noise produced and how much they need to reduce it. The application used and the size, fit, and materials will determine how many decibels professionals can reduce the noise level by. Industry leaders consider these factors to be the insertion loss in decibels. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, as a piece of machinery can only handle so much resistance to perform as it’s meant to. Therefore, you can’t simply slap on a heavy-duty device with the notion that it will quickly reduce noise. One must consider what a machine can handle and the amount of noise reduction needed to produce safe levels.

With this in mind, you must measure the noise a machine makes to determine the amount of noise you need to reduce. Various tools today can easily measure these levels, and you’ll want to monitor this regularly.

Measurements

You’ll need to be aware of the object’s measurements, on which you plan to install the silencer or muffler, to know the required dimensions of your silencer. Depending on your equipment, you can determine the silencer’s size according to constant or maximum flow.

Another important factor is the silencer’s shape. Silencers usually come in square, rectangular, oval, or circular shapes.

Operating Conditions

Be sure to consider the operating conditions of the equipment you will outfit with a silencer. This includes factors such as how often workers use the equipment, emission levels (whether or not the machine runs at full power), and the equipment’s location. Each of these is an essential factor in crafting the perfect silencer. Talk with the company you’re outsourcing your silencer design to to give them this information.

Applications

There are several different applications for silencers. A few of these applications include the following:

• Vacuum pump silencers: These assist in the noise attenuation of turbines’ inlet or outlet ports. Different silencers are created for wet and dry vacuum pumps. The silencers used for wet pumps must attenuate noise and separate water from the air.
• Industrial fan silencers: Industrial fans’ blades create high-volume airflow and can generate dangerous noise levels. Resistance must be considered when working with industrial fans, as the wrong silencer can provide too much back pressure, which would interfere with the fan’s airflow.
• Turbine silencers: Professionals often utilize these for gas turbines to reduce noise at either the inlet or outlet ports. These silencers must absorb noise and withstand high heat.
• Compressor silencers: Compressors often exude low-frequency pressure pulsations and noise. Band noise is also a common issue that one must address. Numerous silencer and muffler applications can reduce compressor noise.

Additional Protection

The right company will perfectly tailor a silencer to meet your needs. However, you still need to provide your employees all the protection they may need to remain safe in the workplace. This includes items such as earplugs and noise-canceling headphones. It’s important to note that there is never such a thing as too much safety.

Outsource to the Right Company

Outsourcing your equipment to a company that will do the work required to give you the best possible results is important. Though it may initially seem to be a hefty investment, it’s an important one, and it may prevent any future workplace complications.

At SVI BREMCO, we consider every aspect of the results we offer our customers. We tailor our designs to your specific product and no other. For example, the correct silencer is vital for items such as exhaust gas silencers, as this will create the perfect work environment. To learn more about the services we provide, contact the professionals at SVI BREMCO today.