The 60x60 sound-deadening ceiling panel system is offered in a range of finishes (above two). For a Spanish Town Hall project (below), architects specified partition walls and sound-deadening panels.

Italian prefinished sound-deadening ceiling and wall panel systems
Patt, a division of the Italian company Fantoni Group, specializes in the production of prefinished flooring and sound-deadening panels for work and home environments. The company’s award-winning 60x60 sound-deadening panel measures approximately 23.3" x 23.3" (equal to 60 x 60 centimeters, hence the name). The ceiling system is offered in a choice of four standard finishes—white, maple, beech, and aluminum—and two types of bar: flat or channeled.

Two other acoustic products from Fantoni were recently specified for the Town Hall project in Benidorm, Spain, designed by Spanish architects Juan Añón, Ramón Calvo, José Luis Camarassa, and Rafael Martinez. Fantoni’s Akustiwall partition and storage walls define the various workstations and corridors in the project, while Topakustik sound-deadening panels with a beech finish were installed in the noisier areas in front of the elevators. To increase the sound-deadening effect, extra-thick doors were custom designed for the space at the request of architect José Calvo.

A system that consists of a series of sound-deadening panels in strips, used to clad ceilings, walls, and partition walls, Topakustik panels are available in four types of perforation and milling treatments and four decorative melamine surfaces: white, maple, beech, and silver. Both Topakustik and Akustiwall are ideal for performance halls, theaters, cinemas, restaurants, sports facilities, offices, and homes. Patt/Fantoni Group, Udine, Italy. www.patt-srl.it   [ Reader Service # 208 ]

New protective glass interlayer offers improved sound reduction
SaflexAC is a new protective interlayer for laminated glass from Solutia that offers improved sound reduction while maintaining performance and processing characteristics similar to the company’s standard polyvinyl butyral (PVB), with the same overall glass thickness. Ideal for applications including residences, hospitals, and office buildings, SaflexAC can provide up to a 10-decibel sound reduction in the project design (dependent on proper glass configuration and glazing technique). Tests conducted at an accredited National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) acoustic laboratory on 7¼16" laminated glass configurations with SaflexAC show a sound-transmission rating of 36. This represents a 2-STC (Sound Transmission Class) unit improvement over standard laminated glass of the same configuration. The presented data was derived by tests on glass only with rigid framing and constant pressure. This anchoring mechanism has demonstrated improved correlation between glass-only tests and traditionally glazed architectural windows. Laminated glass made with SaflexAC also delivers excellent visual quality and blocks more than 99 percent of incoming UV radiation, resulting in significant reduction of light damage and fading. Solutia, St. Louis. Mo. www.solutia.com/pages/films [ Reader Service # 209 ]

Tough panels
The South Metro Public Safety Training Facility in Minnesota (top) features two state-of-the-art shooting ranges for scenario-based law-enforcement training. Installed on the walls and ceilings of the vestibules leading into each shooting range, the black SONEXone Panels specified for the project dramatically reduce airborne sound energy. The panels have recently been introduced in a new light gray color (bottom). illbruck, Minneapolis. www.illbruck-sonex.com [ Reader Service # 210 ]