sound-absorbing materials

The roar of cars, increasingly frequent and increasingly deafening, but also airplanes, sirens and everything that produces noise pollution, risk becoming a real problem today. But not only that, think about the noisy neighbors, the vicinity of some nightclubs, in short, there is certainly no shortage of annoying noises. Fortunately, new technologies come to our aid : today there are numerous sound-absorbing materials, which are therefore able to limit the decibels inside our homes. 

What sound-absorbing and sound-insulating materials are they?

Sound-absorbing materials are mainly used to improve the acoustic quality of interiors, while actual sound-insulating materials are used to isolate from external noise . We must therefore have this distinction clear when purchasing building materials. 

For example, if you need to obtain an environment with particular acoustics, such as a lecture hall or a rehearsal room or a music room, an auditorium, it is certainly necessary to use sound-absorbing materials, that is, which avoid propagate sound waves as they transform sound energy into heat .

As regards soundproofing materials, however, they are those that purely isolate internal environments from external noise. 

Sound-absorbing mineral materials

Among the sound-absorbing materials, those made of mineral fibers should be remembered, such as rock wool and glass wool. These are porous materials in which the absorption of sound waves occurs through the transformation of sound energy into heat precisely due to the friction that the sound waves find inside them. 

Other types of sound-absorbing materials are vegetable or synthetic. Naturally, purely natural materials are used in green building. Among the plant materials we remember cork, hemp, wood fibre, therefore also certain plasters made with a mixture that includes plant fibres, such as rice husk, contribute to ideal insulation.