John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I know someone who sells foam for chairs, egg crate, and so on to companies. I asked him about foam for my project and he said he would have a look around. He comes in today and states that his engineer brought up this Quash stuff and says its great stuff. "Brand New Acoustic Plastic". Looking at the absorption coeffecients, it doesn't seem as good as some of the other stuff I've seen.

Article
http://www.dow.com/dow_news/prodbus/2002/20020801b.htm
Article
http://www.rdmag.com/features/0209materials23.asp
Specs
http://www.acoustop.com/pdf/quash.pdf


I'm not sure what the advantages would be for this stuff besides moisture resistance. Any thoughts?

Last thing to throw out is... I can have <within reason> as much as I need for free.

Ron

The reason it doesn't look so good is that it's closed cell. For decent absorption, you need open cell foam. Even then, it's still foam. Depending on what project you're referring to, I'd most likely stay away. Free is only a bargain if it does the job - your labor is still involved, so I'd stay with proven materials... Steve

I agree. Don't want to kick myself later for saving money.

The only things, besides this guys "sales pitch" was in the reading when I saw:

"The researchers discovered that foam with large, closed cells absorbs sound more efficiently than do open cells. The large cells absorb sound through a membrane mechanism, where a sound wave causes vibration of the surface cell walls that, in turn, induces vibration of the internal cell walls. The sound dissipates into heat by the motion of air molecules in the cavities. While the main insulation occurs due to the sound absorption, QUASH foam is revolutionary in the dual absorption that takes place in the cell walls. "

SOUNDS good I thought.

Thanks for the input Steve!

Ron