The furniture industry needs a new evaluation standard for evaluation of sound absorption

Since decades the standard ISO 11654 are prevailing for evaluating sound absorption of products. The standard is developed and fully adapted to ceiling manufacturer, in particular mineral wool ceiling manufacturer. However, the standard is used independently of which interior product it is applied to, casing a lot of “misuse” and confusion amongst many manufacturer. In particular, when it comes to evaluation of various types of office screens, the ISO 11654 becomes a problem. There is no need, and probably not even possible, to calculate absorption factor for an office screen correctly. Therefore, Sweden decided to develop a new standard, SS 25269—“Acoustics—Evaluation of sound absorption of single objects.” Hence office screens should be treated as single objects to cover a wide range of variety. The standard specifies an evaluation method of the sound absorption using only sound absorption area for each object tested. It will simplify the evaluation and minimize risk for errors since there is no need to state the product area in order calculate absorption coefficient. Furthermore, the area does not have to be stated yet again when performing calculation of room characteristics when using the same products in the finished room.