Gorenje's Productivity Up with Rapid Sound Mapping

Ljubljana, Slovenia, August 13, 2015 --(PR.com)-- When investigating sound sources proved too time consuming for its busy anechoic chamber, Gorenje - one of Europe’s leading home appliance manufacturers - expanded its testing abilities with a bespoke array system from Brüel & Kjær.

In order to sell its white goods in the European Union, Slovenia-based Gorenje has to ensure all its appliances meet relevant standards. This meant its hemi-anechoic test chamber was in constant use, as it was used to perform standardized sound power measurements on finished products, to ensure they complied with ISO standards.

With the chamber in continual use there was little time left for troubleshooting and making noise source investigations, in order to keep developing their products. Due to space and cost restrictions, building an additional anechoic chamber was not an option, so Gorenje sought a technical solution from sound and vibration specialist, Brüel & Kjær.

Following its assessment of the situation, Brüel & Kjær recommended a bespoke, portable microphone array coupled to a data acquisition system, optimized for rapid, easy setup and fast identification of noise sources.

Unusually, the array allows a mixture of measurement approaches. According to Head of the Acoustics Department, Nikola Holeček: “When we do measurements, we always start from the far field, so we use beamforming. Then, for even more information we continue with the use of wideband holography and near-field acoustic holography.” The microphones in the array are irregularly spaced, to allow the same array to be used for these different disciplines.

As Gorenje produces a multitude of different home appliances, it required a wide frequency range, so the array is primed for frequencies from 200 Hz to 3 kHz.

To manage rectangular objects, the array is also this shape and can be easily adjusted on its tripod to allow testing of objects at different heights. Its built-in camera - located in the middle - allows Gorenje’s acousticians to accurately transmit the resulting sound maps onto the correct parts of the physical test object.

“The speed, repeatability and accuracy of the measurements has increased drastically,” said Nikola. “Now, measurements that used to take hours can be done in seconds or minutes.”

About Brüel & Kjær
Brüel & Kjær helps solve sound and vibration challenges, and develops advanced technology for measuring and managing sound and vibration.

As a specialist in this domain, the company helps customers ensure component quality, enhance product performance and monitor operational compliance.

Over more than 70 years, many of Brüel & Kjær’s research and development people have become recognized global experts, who aid the scientific community and teach at renowned centres.

The application of experience and technology promotes quality and efficiency at every stage of a product’s life cycle: design, development, manufacture, deployment and operation.

Through mastering sound and vibration, Brüel & Kjær helps to accelerate business growth and improves environmental quality.