Work-station

Abstract

A work-station utilizes sound absorbing, translucent enclosure panels that allows light from outside of the work-station to enter. The translucent enclosure panels have an outside panel, and intermediate panel and an inside panel of a translucent plastic sheet material that form cells for dampening sound transmission through the enclosure panels. The inside panel has a plurality of apertures to allow sound to enter and be dissipated within the internal cells. A sound masking device is configured within the work-station and projects a dampening sound into the work-station, such as along the opening to work-station to produce a masking sound curtain for sound entering the work-station.

Claims

1. A four sided work-station comprising: a. a left-side wall having an extended end and a connected end; b. a right-side wall that is opposing said first wall, and having an extended end and a connected end; c. a connector wall extending between the connected ends of the left-side and right-side walls to form a work area; d. a ceiling extending over said work area and attached to the left-side wall, the right-side wall and the connector wall to form said four sided work-station having an opening for entry, e. a width, a depth and a height; wherein the left-side wall, the right-side wall, and the connector wall all comprises a translucent panel having at least a 60% light transmission according to ASTM 01003, and comprising: an inside panel consisting of a translucent sheet of plastic; a solid outside panel consisting of a having no apertures therethrough and that extends parallel to the inside panel; an intermediate panel consisting of a translucent sheet of plastic and configured between the inside and outside panels and extending in parallel with the inside and outside panels; a plurality of inside struts that extend substantially perpendicularly from the inside panel to the intermediate panel to produce inside cells having an inside gap distance from the inside panel to the intermediate panel; a plurality of outside struts that extend substantially perpendicularly from the outside panel to the intermediate panel to produce outside cells having an outside gap distance from the outside panel to the intermediate panel; f. a plurality of apertures in the inside panel that allow sound to pass through the inside panel and into the plurality of inside cells to reduce sound within the work-station; wherein the plurality of apertures have a coverage area of at least 20%; g. a sound masking device comprising a speaker that produces a masking sound having at least two frequencies that is projected into the four-sided workstation wherein the translucent panels are obscuring translucent panels, wherein the visibility through the panels is no better than 20/30 as determined with a Snellen chart vision test positioned no more than 5 ft behind the translucent panel and wherein the translucent panels reduce sound passing therethrough, providing at least at least a 10 decibel (dB) reduction in sound.

2. The four sided work-station of claim 1, wherein the ceiling also consists essentially of the translucent panel as described in claim 1.

3. The four sided work-station of claim 1, wherein the translucent panel has a light transmission of at least 80% according to ASTM D1003.

4. The four sided work-station of claim 1, wherein the inside and outside struts have a thickness of no more than 0.25 inches.

5. The four sided work-station of claim 1, wherein the translucent panels are translucent panels, wherein the visibility through the panels is no better than 20/40 as determined with a Snellen chart vision test positioned no more than 5 ft (1.5 m) behind the translucent panel.

6. The four sided work-station of claim 1, wherein the struts extend horizontally across the translucent panels of the left-side, right-side and connector walls.

7. The four sided work-station of claim 1, wherein the inside struts have an offset distance between of more than about 0.5 inch (12.7 mm) and less than about 2.5 inches (6.35 cm).

8. The four sided work-station of claim 1, wherein the outside struts have an offset distance of no more than about 5 inches (12.7 cm).

9. The four sided work-station of claim 1, wherein the intermediate panel comprises a plurality of apertures to allow sound to enter into the outside cells and be dissipated.

10. The four sided work-station of claim 1, wherein the plurality of apertures are at least 1 mm in dimension, and no larger than 5 mm diameter.

11. The four sided work-station of claim 10, wherein the plurality of apertures are circular in shape.

12. The four sided work-station of claim 10, wherein the plurality of apertures extend only through the inside panel to allow sound within the work-station to enter and be dampened within the inside cells.

13. The four sided work-station of claim 10, wherein the plurality of apertures have a coverage area of at least 40%.

14. The four sided work-station of claim 10, wherein the plurality of apertures are configured in a pattern and over substantially the entire inside panel of the left-side wall, the right-side wall and the connector wall.

15. The four sided work-station of claim 10, wherein the plurality of apertures are randomly configured over substantially the entire inside panel of the left-side wall, the right-side wall and the connector wall.

16. The four sided work-station of claim 10, wherein the plurality of apertures are comprised of apertures of different sizes, wherein a first aperture has a first size and a second aperture has a size that is at least double the first aperture size.

17. The four sided work-station of claim 16, wherein the first and second apertures are circular in shape and wherein the second aperture has a diameter that is at least double a diameter of the first aperture.

18. The four sided work-station of claim 1, wherein the sound masking device produces a first frequency that is 90 degrees phase offset from a second frequency.

19. The four sided work-station of claim 1, wherein the sound masking device comprises a speaker that projects sound substantially in a width direction or height direction of the four sided work-station.

20. The four sided work-station of claim 1, wherein the sound masking device comprises a speaker located within the ceiling that projects sound down from the ceiling along the height direction of the work-station.

21. The four sided work-station of claim 1, further comprising a work-surface extending from the connector wall at an offset distance up from a bottom of the workstation.

22. The four sided work-station of claim 21, wherein the sound masking device comprises a speaker attached to the work-surface that projects sound up from the work surface along a height direction toward the ceiling wherein at least some of the projected sound bounces off of the ceiling, left-side, right-side and connector wall and back into the work-station.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.

(2) FIG. 1 shows an exemplary work-station having three wall panels and a ceiling panel.

(3) FIG. 2 shows cross-sectional view of an exemplary translucent enclosure panel.

(4) FIG. 3 shows an inside surface view of an exemplary translucent enclosure panel having a plurality of apertures through the inside panel.

(5) FIG. 4 shows cross-sectional view of an exemplary translucent enclosure panel.

(6) FIG. 5 shows an inside surface view of an exemplary translucent enclosure panel having a plurality of apertures through the inside panel.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS

(7) Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the figures. The figures represent an illustration of some of the embodiments of the present invention and are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner. Further, the figures are not necessarily to scale, some features may be exaggerated to show details of particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention.

(8) As used herein, the terms comprises, comprising, includes, including, has, having or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Also, use of a or an are employed to describe elements and components described herein. This is done merely for convenience and to give a general sense of the scope of the invention. This description should be read to include one or at least one and the singular also includes the plural unless it is obvious that it is meant otherwise.

(9) Certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described herein and are illustrated in the accompanying figures. The embodiments described are only for purposes of illustrating the present invention and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the invention. Other embodiments of the invention, and certain modifications, combinations and improvements of the described embodiments, will occur to those skilled in the art and all such alternate embodiments, combinations, modifications and improvements are within the scope of the present invention.

(10) As shown in FIG. 1, an exemplary work-station 10 has translucent enclosure panels 16-16 that forms an enclosure having an entrance opening 12. The work-station comprises a left-side wall 20, a right-side wall 30 and a connector wall 40. A ceiling, or ceiling panel 50 that extends over the top of the wall work-station and is connected to the three wall panels. The left-side wall 20 has a width 23 from an attached end 22 to an extended end 24, wherein the attached end 22 is attached to the connector wall 40 and the extended end boarders the entrance opening 12. The left-wall has a height 26 from the bottom 27 to the top 25. The right-side wall 30 has a width 33 from an attached end 32 to an extended end 34, wherein the attached end 32 is attached to the connector wall 40 and the extended end 34 boarders the opening 12. The right-wall has a height 36 from the bottom 37 to the top 35. The connector wall 40 has a width 43 from the left attached end 42 to the right attached end 32 and a height from a bottom 47 to a top 45, which may be the same as the left-side and right-side wall heights The ceiling or ceiling panel 50 has a left attached end 52, a right attached end 54, a front opening side 55 and a back side 57. The work-station has a height 13, width 14 and depth 15 that are measured along the inside surface and define an internal volume produced by the enclosure. A plurality of work-stations may be attached together and share a wall. For example, a second work-station may be attached to and share the left-side wall 20 with the work-station 10 shown in FIG. 1 and a third work-station may be attached to and share the right-wall 30 of the work-station 10 shown in FIG. 1. The work-station 10 has a work surface 110 that extends from the connector wall, horizontally across the width 43 of the work-station. The work-surface may be attached to the connector wall and/or the left-side and right-side walls. A plurality of sound masking devices 90-90 are configured within the work-station 10 and comprise a speaker 92 that produces and projects a masking sound 91 into the work-station. The sound masking device 90 is configured in the ceiling 50 and projects sound down into the works station. A ceiling sound masking device may be configured proximal to the opening 12 and project a masking sound down along the opening of the work-station, to create a sound masking curtain 94 over the opening of the work-station. The sound masking device 90 is configured in the work surface 110 and projects up vertically into the work-station. A plurality of sound masking devices 90 are configured with the left-side panel and project sound horizontally across the opening 12 of the work-station and may produce a sound masking curtain 94.

(11) Referring now to FIGS. 2 to 5, an exemplary translucent enclosure panel 16 comprises an outside panel 60, an intermediate panel 70 and an inside panel 80. The outside panel has a smooth flat surface 61 and is non-porous, having no apertures through the thickness 62 of the outside panel. The outside panel may effectively reflect sound off of the surface. The intermediate panel 70 extends between and substantially in parallel with the outside panel 60 and inside panel 80 and has a thickness 72. Outside struts 64 extend from the outside panel 60 to the intermediate panel 70 to produce outside cells 68 having a gap distance 66 from the outside panel to the intermediate panel. The outside struts have a thickness 69 and they extend substantially perpendicularly from the outside panel to the intermediate panel. The outside cells may further reduce and dampen sound from outside of the work-station. Inside struts 74 extend from the inside panel 80 to the intermediate panel 70 to produce inside cells 78 having a gap distance 76. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the inside panel has a plurality of apertures 87 configured in a pattern over the inside panel surface and that extend through the thickness 82 of the inside panel and enable sound from within the work-station to enter into the inside cells. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 the inside panel has a plurality of randomly configured apertures 87. A first aperture 88 is larger in aperture dimension 86 than a second aperture 89. The first and second apertures are circular in shape but as described herein may be polygonal in shape, oval in shape, rectangular in shape, irregularly shaped and the like. The coverage area of the apertures over the inside panel is greater than 40%, as shown in FIG. 3. The apertures may extend over substantially the entire inside panel, such as at least 80% of the inside panel, as measured over the exposed surface area of the inside panel within a work-station. The intermediate panel also comprises a plurality of apertures 87 that extend through the thickness 72 of the intermediate panel and therefore allows some sound to pass unabated through the intermediate apertures from the outside cells 68 to the inside cells 78.

(12) As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the exemplary translucent panel 16 has a plurality of apertures 87 through the inside panel that are randomly arranged and comprise a first aperture 88 and second aperture 89. Again, the first aperture is larger than the second aperture.

(13) It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications, combinations and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Specific embodiments, features and elements described herein may be modified, and/or combined in any suitable manner. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications, combinations and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.