This revolutionary screw promises to cut in half the noise from your neighbor's shouting, the creaking of upstairs furniture, or the clatter of jackhammers from construction work on your street. It was created by researchers at Malmö University and endorsed by the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.
This system is primarily designed for soundproofing walls and ceilings with a wooden structure. Its creators claim that these types of buildings have more acoustic problems than buildings constructed with concrete and typically use soundproofing methods on walls that occupy a large area.
"With our screw, plasterboard can be mounted directly to the walls, freeing up floor space, and one square meter of floor space can be worth thousands [of euros]," explains Håkan Wernersson, the lead author of the research and a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Applied Mathematics at Malmö University in Sweden.
What's innovative about this screw is its design. It's as if it were cut in half, a spring was placed in the middle, and it was reassembled. When inserted into a wall, the tip of the screw should be threaded into the wood while the head remains flush with the outer surface of the drywall.
Wernerson states that this mechanism mechanically joins the two surfaces, thus dampening sound waves and preventing their propagation. Although this system was already known to the scientific community, Wernerson admits that its patented design and application are entirely novel.
The screw designed by the Swedish researchers is very easy to install. According to its creators, it can be used by anyone and requires no special tools or specific training for its installation.
The team conducted tests in a sound laboratory and the results, they claim, showed a nine-decibel reduction compared to a standard wall. This equates to halving the perceived noise level, the researchers say. They also installed this system on the ceiling of a hair salon where, they claim, they achieved good sound insulation results by replacing the standard screws with the new ones without needing to remove the existing drywall.
"When building apartment blocks, there are legal requirements regarding partitions and certain noise levels. However, these are not mandatory for single-family homes where only one family lives, but of course, our system would also be an excellent solution for reducing noise between rooms," Wernersson explains.
Sound Screws have a spring in the middle. (Akoustos)
This research was included in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences' 2021 list of 100. This initiative recognizes the most interesting Swedish research projects from a sustainability perspective and helps build bridges between the scientific and business communities in the Nordic country.
Although the screws are not yet for sale, the researchers have created a company called Akoustos to bring them to market. The Sound Screws, as they have been named, have generated significant interest in Japan and countries in North and South America, according to Wernersson.
Source: https://www.elconfidencial.com/
