A three-dimensional vacuum thermal insulation element having a compressed three-dimensional porous structure and a shell closed in an airtight manner. The shell includes a thermoformable barrier wall and encloses the porous structure arranged between two major surfaces of said barrier wall. The porous structure has a pressure of between less than 105 Pa and more than 10-2 Pa at ambient external temperature and pressure. The barrier wall is thermoformed at the site of said two major surfaces, between which the porous structure has a curved shape and/or reliefs and/or depressions.

A sound insulating member includes a mass section and spring sections. The mass section is disposed so as to have a gap with respect to an outer panel which divides an internal space of a vehicle body and outside thereof, and includes at least a part which has a planar shaped form. The plurality of spring sections are disposed on the mass section at a side of the mass section facing an outer panel. Each of the spring sections has a hollow film member having airtightness and flexibility, and a gas sealed inside the film member. The film member has a first stepped section and a second stepped section that are formed in a stepped shape in an arrangement direction of the outer panel and the mass section.

A three-dimensional, vacuum thermal insulating element comprising a compressed three-dimensional porous structure, an envelope closed in an airtight manner comprising a thermoformable barrier wall, enclosing the porous structure, which is interposed between two major surfaces of the barrier wall, and where, at outside ambient temperature and pressure, a pressure between less than 10.sup.5 Pa and more than 10.sup.−2 Pa prevails. The barrier wall is thermoformed at said the two major surfaces, between which the porous structure is bent-shaped and/or has reliefs and/or depressions.

A noise insulation element (14) for the bulkhead (12) of a vehicle body (10) is provided with a mass-spring element (20) which has a plastic support layer (22) as the heavy layer with a front side facing away from the bulkhead (12) when the mass-spring element (20) is installed and with a rear side facing towards the bulkhead (12), and a noise damping layer (24) made from a noise insulating material connected to the rear wall as the spring layer. The support layer (22) is provided on its rear side with an integrally designed hollow fixing projection (16) which is formed on an edge recess with a recess edge which recess is open towards an outer limiting edge section (28) of the support layer (22) and a side wall (30) projecting from the rear side of the support layer (22) and extending along the recess edge.

A hybrid acoustic silencer for a motor vehicle includes an insertion loss layer tuned for good insertion loss properties at specific frequencies and an absorption layer tuned for good absorption properties at specific frequencies. The insertion loss layer is configured to be adjacent to a sound radiating surface of the motor vehicle and the absorption layer is configured to face outward from the sound radiating surface of the motor vehicle.

There is provided a sound-absorbing material for a vehicle, capable of stably yielding desired sound absorption performance while reducing weight of the sound-absorbing material for a vehicle. The sound-absorbing material for a vehicle of the present invention has a multilayer structure, including: a core layer in which tubular cells are arranged in a plurality of rows; and an airflow-blocking resin film layer adhered to one surface of the core layer. The relationship between the Young's modulus E (MPa) of the airflow-blocking resin film layer 40 and the surface density M (g/m.sup.2) of the layer structure on the first airflow-blocking resin film layer 40 side with respect to the core layer 10 is 0.5<E/M<21.

There is provided a sound-insulation material for a vehicle that can reduce the weight thereof and exhibit sufficient sound insulation performance against noise of 500 Hz to 6400 Hz generated in vehicles. The sound-insulation material for a vehicle, of the present invention, includes: a core layer having tubular cells, the tubular cells being arranged in a plurality of rows; an airflow-blocking resin film layer provided on one surface of the core layer; and a decoupling layer provided on the airflow-blocking resin film layer; and an average (P/v)/Za is 2.8 to 10 between 500 and 6400 Hz, where: P and v are respectively a sound pressure and a particle velocity on a surface of the airflow-blocking resin film layer provided on the core layer, the surface being opposite to the core layer; and Za is an acoustic impedance of the decoupling layer.

An acoustic damping part for arrangement in a motor vehicle, a method for producing a sound-insulated vehicle body, and a motor vehicle, in particular a passenger car is provided. The acoustic damping part comprises a sound insulation element, in particular a foam element, for substantially planar contact with at least one portion of a motor vehicle body, in particular an end wall, in order to reduce the transmission of sound into a passenger compartment. Furthermore, the acoustic damping part has at least one plug part connected to the sound insulation element with a plug for insertion into an opening of a vehicle body component or component composite. This serves to produce a non-positive and/or positive connection of the acoustic damping part with material of the vehicle body component or component composite that forms the opening.

A panel assembly is formed by a plurality of bonds between two sheet materials in a face to face relationship to form a preform. The plurality of bonds define a closed perimeter region between the two sheet materials and an open perimeter region between the two sheet materials. The preform may be formed into a predefined shape. Pressurized fluid is applied through an inlet into the open perimeter region to expand the preform. The pressurized fluid expands the open perimeter region such that the two sheet materials expand in an opposing direction, thereby defining an expanded open perimeter region. The closed perimeter region between the two sheet materials remains vacant of the pressurized fluid such that the closed perimeter region is not expanded. The expanded open perimeter region is filled with a filler material for improving a performance characteristic of the panel assembly, e.g., strength, sound absorption, or stiffness.

Multilayer damping material for damping a vibrating surface (10) including: at least one constraining layer (4); at least one dissipating layer (1, 3); at least one kinetic spacer layer (2) including multiple spacer elements (2b), the kinetic spacer layer being arranged between the constraining layer and the vibrating surface, when used for damping the vibrating surface, wherein each spacer element has opposite ends, at least one end of each of the multiple spacer elements is embedded in, bonded to, in contact with or in close proximity to the dissipating layer, such that energy is dissipated within the multilayer damping material, through movement of the at least one end of each of the multiple spacer elements; absorbing material as at least one additional layer (12) or within at least one of the above layers.