Any ideas how to "stuff" a cabinet like COCOON?
http://www.plasmic.dk/cocoon
Noise reduction cabinet
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Devonavar
Do you have Cocoon or are you building one like it yourself?
If you just want to stuff, the materials you can consider:
Brand name materials:
- Black Hole
- Dynamat
- Acoustipack
Basic sound damping materials:
- melamine foam
There are many, many options. It all depends on what frequencies you want to damp, how much space you have inside the case (how thick material you can use) and what is your budget.
If you are building a case yourself, there are many issues to consider:
The first thing to do is to make the cabinet airtight (think "waterproof even if immersed in water"). When you achieve that, you have a case from where no sound can escape via holes.
The second is structural rigidity. It must not rattle or make noises when there is sound inside. This way you can prevent the case vibrating at the frequency of your noise or component vibration. You can achieve structural rigidity by using thick enough enclosure material, proper joint attachment between the walls of the cabinet and selection of the wall material itself (it should not bend, metals may "ring", while medium density fiber wood is usually good).
The third is absorption. You need to "stuff" or "pad" the innards of the case with a damping material that has a desired sound absorption at the frequencies of your noise making components.
This can be difficult as you need to have quite a lot of damping material if you have very low frequency sounds inside your case.
Materials used for this you can usually find from various acoustic installation resellers (studio, architectural) or industry specialist bulk resellers that sell sound damping materials.
There has been quite a lot of discussion about various materials here in SPCR. Try searching for melamine to begin with. It'll give you lots of links and search words to throw at Google.
After you have achieved (in your head / designs) all of the above you should design the intake/exhaust holes for the case. These are longer tunnels that are also inlined/padded with sound absorbing material. You probably need to place a fan at both ends of the tunnels (inside your case) and you can use convection to help the fan load (intake bottom, exhaust top of the case).
You should also take into consideration the fire safety issues, odor of various substances and possible chemical gases released at various temperatures.
You might also have to redesign the computer case cooling (esp. if air cooled) before it's placed inside a cabinet such as Cocoon.
An example case (not built by me) is at :
http://sivut.koti.soon.fi/valonen/kotelo/
The text is in Finnish, but the pictures give you an idea.
regards,
Halcyon
If you just want to stuff, the materials you can consider:
Brand name materials:
- Black Hole
- Dynamat
- Acoustipack
Basic sound damping materials:
- melamine foam
There are many, many options. It all depends on what frequencies you want to damp, how much space you have inside the case (how thick material you can use) and what is your budget.
If you are building a case yourself, there are many issues to consider:
The first thing to do is to make the cabinet airtight (think "waterproof even if immersed in water"). When you achieve that, you have a case from where no sound can escape via holes.
The second is structural rigidity. It must not rattle or make noises when there is sound inside. This way you can prevent the case vibrating at the frequency of your noise or component vibration. You can achieve structural rigidity by using thick enough enclosure material, proper joint attachment between the walls of the cabinet and selection of the wall material itself (it should not bend, metals may "ring", while medium density fiber wood is usually good).
The third is absorption. You need to "stuff" or "pad" the innards of the case with a damping material that has a desired sound absorption at the frequencies of your noise making components.
This can be difficult as you need to have quite a lot of damping material if you have very low frequency sounds inside your case.
Materials used for this you can usually find from various acoustic installation resellers (studio, architectural) or industry specialist bulk resellers that sell sound damping materials.
There has been quite a lot of discussion about various materials here in SPCR. Try searching for melamine to begin with. It'll give you lots of links and search words to throw at Google.
After you have achieved (in your head / designs) all of the above you should design the intake/exhaust holes for the case. These are longer tunnels that are also inlined/padded with sound absorbing material. You probably need to place a fan at both ends of the tunnels (inside your case) and you can use convection to help the fan load (intake bottom, exhaust top of the case).
You should also take into consideration the fire safety issues, odor of various substances and possible chemical gases released at various temperatures.
You might also have to redesign the computer case cooling (esp. if air cooled) before it's placed inside a cabinet such as Cocoon.
An example case (not built by me) is at :
http://sivut.koti.soon.fi/valonen/kotelo/
The text is in Finnish, but the pictures give you an idea.
regards,
Halcyon