Fill and LCM reduce noise emissions

Silent Machine” project

From engine housings to chassis parts, ever more and ever larger components are being manufactured from ever thinner-walled aluminum parts. If these are drilled and milled in metalworking machines, this inevitably increases vibrations and noise emissions. The machine engineering company Fill from Gurten and the Linz Center of Mechatronics (LCM) have now put a stop to this phenomenon.

Acoustic box creates laboratory situation

During the noise measurements in Fill’s production hall, many machines were working simultaneously and generating noise. “This meant that the acoustic criteria corresponded very closely to those of automotive supplier companies, in whose large production halls Fill machining centers also produce alongside many other machines,” says Fill project manager Roman Binder. In order to be able to derive specific recommendations for design measures to reduce noise from the wealth of data obtained, LCM transferred the Fill machining centers to a laboratory situation, so to speak.

“We built a so-called “acoustic box” in our laboratory in Linz, which we used to test soundproofing measures in experiments and simulations,” explains Grasböck. The side walls of the box, which measures around 1x1x1 metre, were lined with acoustic foam to minimize unwanted sound reflections. The front of the acoustic box is based on the front of a Fill processing center and is interchangeable in order to depict different scenarios. “We were able to test the effect of various design changes to the machine housing on this side – such as openings, gaps, drill holes, cable and pipe passages, the door and the viewing window,” explains Grasböck. In this laboratory situation, a whole catalog of design measures for noise reduction was planned, implemented, tested and simulatively evaluated for use in the real machine and presented to Fill.