noise mitigation ideas for noisey warehouse machinery?

[jimmyhackers]

ive started a new job, they have single a medium/large cable recycling/processing machine/plant in one warehouse that runs day and night. warehouse is 60mx20mx15ish m. the machine takes up about 3/4 of that space.

needless to say, its very noisey, you cannot talk to each other while in the warehouse, ear defenders have to be worn constantly.
this sound is also pretty audible outside and in two other adjacent warehouses.

the warehouse is a bare concrete floor, brick walls and a metal ceiling. they have installed one professional sound deadning wall that you can stand behind and just about talk to each other at great expense.

i was looking for some cheaper options, and would like some outside advice before i embarrass myself with my new employer with crackpot ideas.

so far my ideas have been,
rubber matting the floor directly under/around the machinery.
adding soundproofing sheets to the large flat metal surface areas on the machine, mainly the various stages bins and duct extration units.
hanging/modifying their old/broken bulk material bags on every free wall surface (and the ceiling) as a cheap sound baffle material.
throat mic walkie talkies retrofitted into the ear defenders so people can comunicate.

would like some advice asto other potential methods and if mine are viable.

TIA
jim

 

[scianiac]

I think you're onto the right track, especially with the first few. Reducing noise is always vastly easier if you reduce the noise produced instead of trying to dampen it after the fact. It will also be much more effective to dampen noise very close to the source or seal it in if possible (although this is often not possible due to function, cooling, ventilation, etc). The closer the material is to the source the higher the sound pressure and the more efficient a given damping material will be.

I would focus on these things first:
Isolate where the sound on the machine is coming from and if possible seal that in or put damping or blocking materials directly over it. The best is just to seal the sound in but if you can't then you can block off it's exits as much as possible. You're aiming for blocking materials here more than damping, so the commercial product would be mass loaded vinyl but heavy rubber mats will work well too.

Isolating the machines from the floor with rubber mats or similar if possible.

Gluing damping panels to large flat metal surfaces of the machines if they are a significant source of vibration. Again commercial product would be constrained layer damping materials but rubber mats will also probably work pretty well as long as the are well affixed to the surface.

Only after those I would focus on room dampening.

If possible just putting walls around the machine would of course be effective but assuming you can't do this entirely small wall panels placed close to the machine that have both blocking and damping materials. You want to place them between the machine and the people if possible, if bulk material bags and plywood from old shipping crates is what you've got, use it. Ideally the sound will pass through the damping material, some will pass through the blocking material and ideally through more damping material, some will be reflected and pass back through the damping material a 2nd time then back away from people where is will probably reflect again but at least it much of it's energy will be dissipated.

Those are all pretty general advices, kinda hard to make any specific suggestions without knowing what the space, the machine the available materials/budget etc all would be.