A sound attenuation material includes a plurality of particles, each having a core and an elastic or compliant coating around the core, and a matrix surrounding the plurality of particles, the matrix being less dense than the core. A method of manufacturing sound attenuating materials includes adding an elastic or compliant coating to core particles and drying the coating, mixing the coated core particles into a matrix material, and pouring the mixture into a mold. The core particles are denser than the matrix material.

The present invention relates to a polyester sound absorption material having improved moldability and decreased weight and a method of manufacturing a molded product using the same, and more particularly to a polyester sound absorption material, which is capable of integrally molding a skin member and a sound absorption material using a felt including a polyester base fiber, a low-melting-point polyester adhesive fiber and a polyester hollow fiber, without the need to attach an additional sound absorption pad onto a skin member.

A floor carpet for an automobile comprising including a first layer of polyester carpet pile, a dissipative layer, wherein the dissipative layer is a compressed matrix of electrically conductive metal wool and acoustic dampening fibers, the acoustic dampening fibers being one of cotton fibers and synthetic fibers, and a third layer including a sound dampening backing that is one of wool and polyurethane, wherein, the first layer, dissipative layer, and third layer are molded together as a unitary piece that is shaped to conform to the contour of a floor panel within an automobile and adapted to be immovably installed within the automobile.

An article comprising: (a) a carrier; (b) one or more carrier extensions extending from the carrier at one or more joints; (c) activatable material disposed on the carrier, at least one of the one or more carrier extensions, or a combination thereof; wherein the one or more carrier extensions are flexible relative to the carrier at the one or more hinges.

A friction damped insert for highly stressed engineering components is disclosed. The disclosed inventive concept provides a method and system for increasing the damping capacity of an engineering system by adding a non-flat solid, highly damped insert to a system component that contributes most to the system's dynamic response. The insert can either be embedded into a system component during casting or be fastened to the system component outer surface. The insert is made of the single layer of flexible material by forming it into a rigid elongated body. The layer of material can be turned over on itself without folding to create a cylinder or can be folded over a number of times to create a prismatic bar. The layer of material may be shaped into a corrugated panel. The layer of flexible material may have a number of relatively small openings or perforations with a uniform spatial distribution.

A method to form automobile vehicle acoustic insulators includes as stages: forming a fiber mass by mixing a low melting point polymeric fiber and a high melting point polymeric fiber in predefined volumes in a mixing device; adding a water volume to the fiber mass to create a semi-solid mass; placing the semi-solid mass in a mold; internally heating the semi-solid mass in the mold using microwave energy; and expelling a first portion of the water volume through apertures created in the mold.

Low-density thermoplastic expandable microspheres are disclosed. Various low-density structures, in particular, sandwich panels, based on foam prepared from the low-density microspheres, are also disclosed. Process of preparing low-density polymeric microspheres, per se, and the corresponding low-density structures, based on the microsphere foam, are also disclosed.

A fibrous component for a vehicle exterior includes a skin layer having a multilayer structure comprising a laminated web including a reinforcing fiber and a binder fiber, the skin layer including pores that absorb sound; a sound absorbing pad layer disposed on an inner side of the skin layer and absorbing sound; and an adhesive layer disposed between the skin layer and the sound absorbing pad layer. The adhesive layer adheres the skin layer and the sound absorbing layer to each other.

Damped highly stressed engineering components are disclosed. The disclosed inventive concept provides a method and system for increasing the damping capacity of an engineering system by adding a non-flat solid, highly damped insert to a system component that contributes most to the system's dynamic response. A friction damped insert can either be embedded into the damped components during casting or fastened to the outer surface of the damped component. The insert is made of the single layer of flexible material by forming it into a rigid elongated body. The layer of material can be turned over on itself without folding to create a cylinder or can be folded over a number of times to create a prismatic bar. The layer of material may be shaped into a corrugated panel. The layer of flexible material may have a number of relatively small openings or perforations with a uniform spatial distribution.

The invention relates to a method of producing a sound proofing trim panel comprising the steps of providing an elastically compressible lower layer, heating the lower layer and placing it in a mould to shape it to form a spring layer of a spring-mass type damping system. The method further includes associating the lower layer with an upper layer, to form the mass of the spring-mass system. According to the invention, the lower layer comprises a blend of elastically compressible foam flakes forming at least 80 wt.-% of the lower layer and being mixed with binder fibres. The fibres comprising a core and a sheath that is fusible at a moderate temperature, and the flakes being bonded to one another by means of the fusing of the sheath forming a binder, such that the lower layer takes the form of a bonded foam.