How to Reduce Industrial Fan Noise

Many warehouses and industrial buildings have industrial fans to help circulate air. Sometimes those fans can be so loud that they require mitigation. In other words, something has to be done because the noise is too much for people’s ears. For example, workers might decide to wear earplugs at work to cut down the noise from the fans, machinery, equipment and people where they work.

Industrial Fans Can Sound Like a Crowd at Football Game

Because industrial fans rotate, they typically make a lot of noise. Most manufacturing settings want to maintain noise levels below 85 decibels (at five feet away for 8-hour shifts). Once you get over 85 decibels, that’s like a football stadium with tens of thousands of people cheering or booing, so loudly that it could hurt your ears, especially if that noise level continues for hours on end. Most industrial fans aren’t “too loud” but some might be, and there are ways to do noise reduction.

Here’s How You Reduce Industrial Fan Noise

What are some ways to achieve industrial fan noise reduction? For starters, consider putting a silencer on an open outlet or inlet. The silencer will act like a car muffler, extending the opening in order to muffle the sound. Next, there’s radiant noise that can be dealt with in two ways: increase the thickness of the housing surrounding the fan wheel and/or use a sound insulation jacket. Finally, there’s the fan motor which can be noisy. To reduce that noise, build a sound enclosure around it– ideally, house the entire fan in a sound enclosure to help mitigate the fan motor noise.

Basically, if you work in an environment that’s loud, for whatever reason (fans, etc.), you don’t want your hearing to go bad, right? So it’s important to protect your hearing. You can wear professional earplugs, of course, but you can also suggest some of these aforementioned tips to management so they can make little changes that’ll help reduce overall noise where you work.

Whether you need industrial fans repaired, maintained or installed, learn how the experts at Dynamic Fan can help.