Factory Hall Acoustics

The sound levels in a factory hall do not depend on the noise emitted from machinery and manufacturing processes alone. Noise levels depend very much on the acoustic properties of the hall. The essential parameter is the Reverberation Time (RT) that tells how sound levels build up and vanish in the hall.
The Problem is that many factory halls have very long reverberation time. Concrete floors and large surfaces (walls and roof) with little damping effect cause sound to linger. Noisy machinery placed close to reflecting walls, or even in corners, can result in excessive sound levels throughout the factory hall. In a factory hall with better acoustic properties, the same machinery may not cause the same problems because the noise levels will only be high close to the source.
The spatial decay shows how a constant level from a sound source propagates. In a factory hall with hard reflecting floor, ceiling and walls, the level decays very slowly with distance. So a noisy machine at one end of a factory hall can produce deafening noise levels at the other end of the hall. If you measure sound levels, using 2260 Investigator or 2238 Mediator and a sound source (e.g., 4295 OmniSource™), you can map the spatial decay, determine whether more sound absorption is needed, and measure the effect after making improvements.