Sound
absorbing foam acoustic system
BASF - The colourful sound of silence
Sound-absorbing foam now comes in more
than 50,000 shades of paint
Visitors to the trade fair "Farbe – Ausbau und Fassade" (“Paint
- finishing and facade”) to be held in Cologne, Germany from
April 18 to 21 can see how Caparol and BASF combine ambient
colour with sound insulation. The “CapaCoustic Melapor” acoustic
system to be showcased there is based on moulded parts made of
BASF’s melamine-resin foam Basotect®. A spraying technique
applies a mist coating of the CapaTrend interior paint –
available in 50,000 shades – onto the parts, which can then be
mounted on walls or ceilings with little effort. This means that
panels made of Basotect can be obtained in every colour of the
rainbow, retaining their characteristic properties: high sound
absorption, fire resistance, and flexibility. The decorative
acoustic system is ideal for easily retrofitting indoor public
spaces with sound insulation that meets fire regulations, and
that, wherever the sound-absorbing elements are supposed to
blend in with the existing architecture harmoniously, without
taking up too much space.
Decorative sound insulation
The colourful Basotect offers new design options in sound
insulation. With a spray gun operating at high pressure, the
painter can spray-paint the acoustic elements in any desired
shade to match the existing colour of the room. Extensive
acoustic and fire tests have confirmed that the sprayed-on paint
does not clog the fine pores of the melamine-resin foam, so that
the very good sound-absorbing capacity and flame-resistance of
Basotect are retained. The paint adheres to the fine-pored
surface so well that even digital printing is possible. As a
result, high-definition pictures with velvety smooth surfaces
can be created without being recognisable as sound insulation.
Moreover, Basotect can be installed quickly and simply since it
is lightweight (9 g/l) and free of mineral fibres. Conventional
sound-control measures usually involve making major changes to
the existing architecture (for instance, ceiling coverings,
partition walls) or else their aesthetics leaves much to be
desired: many insulating materials have coarse pores and are
only available in a few shapes and colours.
Broad assortment
“Our goal is to lower the noise level in large rooms without
compromising the aesthetics and with little installation effort,
even for sound-reflecting surfaces where it is difficult to get
a grip on the acoustics. This is where Basotect goes hand in
glove with our paints,” explains Klaus Hartmann, head of product
management for acoustics at Caparol. The CapaCoustic Melapor
product line comprises panels with smooth or wavy structures as
well as rectangular, round and elliptical baffles with smooth
surfaces. The acoustic elements are available in a size of up to
1.25 x 0.625 metres, in thicknesses ranging from 30 mm to 50 mm.
They can be glued onto walls and ceilings or else be freely
suspended on ropes. Sound insulation using colourful Basotect
lends itself particularly well for large rooms such as offices
and call centres, restaurants and cafeterias, schools,
kindergartens as well as machinery and production halls.
For 112 years, Caparol, headquartered in Ober-Ramstadt in the
south of Germany, has been producing and selling paints,
lacquers, glazes, chemical coatings for construction, materials
for facade and insulation technology as well as paints for
do-it-yourselfers and artists. The company is the market leader
in construction paints in Germany and, with sales amounting to
850 million euros, ranks fourth in the sector in Europe.
Multifunctional melamine-resin foam
The thermoset foam Basotect from BASF’s Styrenics Division is
now available in many variants and for different applications.
Thanks to its favorable combination of various properties such
as temperature-resistance and flame-resistance, coupled with the
fact that it is extraordinarily lightweight, flexible,
sound-absorbing and heat-insulating, this foam has been used in
the acoustic insulation of buildings as well as for fireproof
airplane seats, in automotive construction and, most recently,
in the Ariane 5 launcher, which delivers satellites into space.
Email: chris.wilson@basf.com