Manufactured in India, supplied in Chicago
Wood wool acoustic panels in Chicago
We manufacture wood wool acoustic panels at our own plant at Palwal in Haryana, India, and supply them into Chicago. Made at our own plant in India, shipped into an East or Gulf coast port and railed inland, with that leg quoted separately so the dates are real.
- Panel size
- 1200 x 600 mm
- Thickness
- 20 mm
- Density
- 400 kg per cubic metre
- NRC
- 0.30
- Test standards
- ASTM C-423 and EN ISO 354
- Lead time
- 4 to 7 working days for standard sizes
- Minimum order
- 500 sq ft, about 46 sq m
- ASTM C-423 and EN ISO 354
- Made at our own plant, Palwal, Haryana, India
- One batch across the order, no blending between runs
Manufacturer, not reseller. We hold no local approvals and will not imply we do. You get the price the factory quotes, material that matches across a large order, and advice that sometimes talks you out of a purchase.
01 / The product
What this is, and what it changes in a Chicago room
Wood fibre bound into a rigid board with an open texture. Robust, paintable and used where the surface takes knocks, which is why it ends up in schools, sports halls and plant rooms.
Work reaching us from Chicago is mostly two-flats and three-flats, high-rise apartments, offices, venues, schools, clinics.
American homes are timber frame with gypsum board on both faces, so a party wall or a basement ceiling has almost no mass. Adding a second leaf with a limp membrane between does more than any amount of surface treatment.
- Direct fix Mechanically fixed to the soffit or wall. Durable and simple.
- On a cavity Mounted on battens with an air gap, which is where the low mid performance comes from.
- With a porous backing Board over mineral backing where the room needs more than the board alone gives.
- What it will not do At 20 mm it is a mid and high frequency absorber, not a bass solution, and painting it heavily will close the surface and reduce what it does. If a room needs low frequency control, depth or a cavity has to come from somewhere.
Full specification
Thickness, density, NRC by frequency, fire class, standard sizes and build-up detail for wood wool panels are on the main product page. This page covers what that means for a project in Chicago.
02 / Specification
The numbers, and they do not move by city
The specification below is the same everywhere we supply, because a specification that changed by city would not be a specification. What changes is which grade and build-up is the right buy, and that is what the rest of this page is about.
- Natural20 mm. Plant rooms, back of house, industrial
- Painted20 mm. Classrooms, halls, visible ceilings
| Panel size | 1200 x 600 mm |
|---|---|
| Thickness | 20 mm |
| Density | 400 kg per cubic metre |
| NRC | 0.30 |
| Test standards | ASTM C-423 and EN ISO 354 |
| Surface burning | Class A to ASTM E84 |
Consultants get the raw data, not a sales sheet. That is the whole of our side of the job, and it is set out under working with acoustic consultants.
03 / What drives the brief
The Chicago conditions that change the answer
- Elevated rail past the window
Trains at window height put noise in through the glazing, not through the wall. The facade is where the money should go first.
- Brick outside, timber inside
Two-flats and three-flats have solid masonry outside and timber floors between families. Footfall travels down and masonry does nothing about it.
- Sealed against hard winters
Buildings close up for months and mechanical systems run hard, so sound accumulates inside rather than escaping.
- No port, so plan the inland leg
Everything arrives at a coast and rails in. We quote the sea leg and the inland leg separately.
- Assembly and performance rooms
Churches, school gyms and multipurpose halls double as performance spaces, which means a room designed for neither speech nor music has to carry both.
- School and campus buildings
Public school buildings run long corridors with hard floors and lay-in tile ceilings that were chosen for cost, not for speech. Classroom reverberation and corridor spill are the two complaints, and both respond to ceiling area rather than wall panels.
For a Chicago practice, the useful thing is a detail you can put in a drawing set, not a brochure. See how we support architects.
04 / Climate and durability
What the Chicago climate rules in and rules out
Chicago is mild summers and cold, wet winters, and that narrows the sensible material list before acoustics is even discussed.
Cold external walls and long heating seasons make condensation behind a lining the thing to design out. PET felt is unaffected by damp air.
The risk we design against here is condensation and cold bridging behind new linings.
Interior designers tend to arrive with the look already decided. We will tell you which finish gets there without losing the acoustics. See how we work with interior designers.
05 / Route to site
How material reaches a Chicago site
| Ships from | Palwal, Haryana, India |
|---|---|
| Arrives at | An East or Gulf coast port, then rail and road inland |
| Dispatch | 4 to 7 working days |
| Freight | Sea, then rail inland |
| Packing | Palletised flat, edge protected. Boards are rigid but the edges chip, so they travel protected. |
| Lead time | 4 to 7 working days for standard sizes. |
Standard items dispatch in 4 to 7 working days. The sea leg from India is long, so plan the full door to door window into the programme. We give real dates, not optimistic ones.
Sea freight into an East or Gulf coast port, then rail and road to Chicago. Air freight for samples and urgent quantities.
The same 500 sq ft minimum applies on export.
| Any finish | 500 sq ft, about 46 sq m |
|---|
A panel is 1200 x 600 mm, which is 0.72 sq m or about 7.75 sq ft, so the minimum is roughly 65 panels.
06 / Before you buy
What we will tell you that a reseller will not
-
The wrong product for the problem
At 20 mm it is a mid and high frequency absorber, not a bass solution, and painting it heavily will close the surface and reduce what it does. If a room needs low frequency control, depth or a cavity has to come from somewhere.
-
Square footage quoted before the room is understood
Anyone can price a wall. Working out how much material the room actually needs usually reduces the order, which is why not everyone does it.
-
Local approvals that nobody actually holds
We hold no Chicago certification and we will not borrow one. The test data we publish is ours, and we will send the reports rather than describe them.
Chicago: questions we are actually asked
Do you manufacture wood wool acoustic panels in Chicago?
No, and we will not say otherwise. We manufacture at our own plant at Palwal in Haryana, India, and supply into Chicago as the manufacturer rather than through a dealer. Made at our own plant in India, shipped into an East or Gulf coast port and railed inland, with that leg quoted separately so the dates are real. You buy at factory prices with one consistent batch across the order.
What decides the specification for a Chicago project?
Trains at window height put noise in through the glazing, not through the wall. The facade is where the money should go first. Two-flats and three-flats have solid masonry outside and timber floors between families. Footfall travels down and masonry does nothing about it. Those two things move the build-up far more than the panel figure does.
Is this the right material for Chicago conditions?
Chicago is mild summers and cold, wet winters. Cold external walls and long heating seasons make condensation behind a lining the thing to design out. PET felt is unaffected by damp air. The failure we design against here is condensation and cold bridging behind new linings.
What is the delivery time into Chicago?
ships from: Palwal, Haryana, India, arrives at: An East or Gulf coast port, then rail and road inland, dispatch: 4 to 7 working days. Standard items dispatch in 4 to 7 working days. The sea leg from India is long, so plan the full door to door window into the programme. We give real dates, not optimistic ones.
When are wood wool acoustic panels the wrong purchase?
At 20 mm it is a mid and high frequency absorber, not a bass solution, and painting it heavily will close the surface and reduce what it does. If a room needs low frequency control, depth or a cavity has to come from somewhere.
What quantity do we have to order, and in what packaging?
The same 500 sq ft minimum applies on export. Any finish, 500 sq ft, about 46 sq m. A panel is 1200 x 600 mm, which is 0.72 sq m or about 7.75 sq ft, so the minimum is roughly 65 panels. Palletised flat, edge protected. Boards are rigid but the edges chip, so they travel protected.
Next step
Tell us the room, we will tell you the build-up
Send what you have. We will give you a layer by layer build-up, a bill of quantities and a date material lands, and we will flag anything in the brief that will not achieve what you want.