North Sea Oil Platform ISO Enclosure Panels

When undertaking a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) maintenance and upgrade contract on a North Sea offshore platform, RBG Limited identified that critical noise levels were apparent in a range of working areas.

Investigating the issue, RBG Ltd commissioned environmental sound testing, which revealed that ambient noise exceeded a specified minimum of 55dB (A) throughout the electrical workshop, store room, hydraulic workshop, subsea office and mechanical workshop, reaching its highest levels of 88-96dB (A) in the mud pit room. Additional noise generated by operating pumps, cranes and machinery would further increase the noise levels in these areas.

As such, RBG Ltd needed to source a high performance industrial acoustic solution that would sufficiently reduce the noise contamination and make the working environment acceptable.

Seeking expert industrial acoustics advice, RBG Ltd briefed CMS Acoustics on the project parameters, who responded with a bespoke ISO Acoustic Enclosure Panel system design.

The Solution

The ISO Enclosure Panel is a prefabricated sound reduction system, designed to create noise-protected structures in industrial environments. A self-supporting and robust construction, it offers the additional benefit of a short assembly time, facilitated by the panels being lightweight and easy to handle.

The industrial acoustics technical team at CMS Acoustics calculated that a combination of 50mm and 100mm thick ISO Enclosure Panels would be required to achieve the specified noise reduction in the different areas. Depending on panel thickness, fire resistance ranging from 30 minutes to two hours can be achieved.

For RBG Ltd, CMS Acoustics manufactured the panels in white and supplied them in ready to assemble kits clearly labelled according to area for installation. Some panels were manufactured to allow removal for maintenance while others were designed to be stud welded to external walls.

To increase system robustness, CMS Acoustics integrated acoustic doors and vision panels into the ISO Enclosure design.