Acoustic board

Information

  • Patent Grant
  • 6352134
  • Patent Number
    6,352,134
  • Date Filed
    Tuesday, July 18, 2000
    24 years ago
  • Date Issued
    Tuesday, March 5, 2002
    22 years ago
  • Inventors
  • Examiners
    • Nappi; Robert E.
    • Lockett; Kim
    Agents
    • A & J
Abstract
An acoustic board includes a rectangular frame, a rectangular panel formed with a plurality of conical holes and sized to engage with the rectangular frame, a plurality of large sound collecting members each having an open end and mounted on an inner bottom of the rectangular frame, and a plurality of small sound collecting members each having an open end and mounted on the inner bottom of the rectangular frame, whereby sound will be confined within the sound collecting members thereby largely decreasing noise in magnitude and therefore effectively isolating the noise from one side to another.
Description




BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION




1. Field of the Invention




This invention is related to an improvement in the structure of an acoustic board and in particular to one which can effectively isolate the noise from one side to another.




2. Description of the Prior Art




It has been found that various conventional acoustic boards have been developed to meet the increasing need of isolating a noise from one side to the other. However, some are too bulky in volume and difficult to construct while others are too expensive for most people.




Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an acoustic board which may obviate and mitigate the above-mentioned drawbacks.




SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION




This invention is related to an improvement in the structure of an acoustic board.




It is the primary object of the present invention to provide an improvement of an acoustic board which can effectively isolate the noise from one side to another.




It is another object of the present invention to provide an improvement of an acoustic board which is low in cost.




It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improvement of an acoustic board which is simple in construction.




According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an acoustic board includes a rectangular frame, a rectangular panel formed with a plurality of conical holes and sized to engage with the rectangular frame, a plurality of large sound collecting members each having an open end and mounted on an inner bottom of the rectangular frame, and a plurality of small sound collecting members each having an open end and mounted on the inner bottom of the rectangular frame, whereby sound will be confined within the sound collecting members thereby largely decreasing noise in magnitude and therefore effectively isolating the noise from one side to another.




The foregoing objects and summary provide only a brief introduction to the present invention. To fully appreciate these and other objects of the present invention as well as the invention itself, all of which will become apparent to those skilled in the art, the following detailed description of the invention and the claims should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Throughout the specification and drawings identical reference numerals refer to identical or similar parts. Many other advantages and features of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.











BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS





FIG. 1

is a perspective view of the present invention;





FIG. 1A

is a sectional view taken along line A—A of

FIG. 1

;





FIG. 1B

is a sectional view taken along line B—B of

FIG. 1

;





FIG. 2A

is a sectional view of the large sound collecting member,





FIG. 2B

is a perspective view of the large sound collecting member,





FIG. 2C

is a sectional view of the small collecting member.





FIG. 2D

is a perpective view of the small sound collecting member.





FIG. 3A

is a perspective view of the panel;





FIG. 3B

is a sectional view of the panel;





FIG. 3C

is an enlarged view of a portion of

FIG. 3B

;





FIG. 4

is an exploded view of the present invention;





FIG. 5

is a cutaway view of the present invention;





FIG. 6

is another exploded view of the present invention;





FIG. 7A

is a sectional view taken along line A—A of

FIG. 6

;





FIG. 7B

is a sectional view taken along line B—B of

FIG. 6

;





FIG. 7C

is an enlarged view of a portion of

FIG. 6

;





FIG. 8

illustrates an application of the present invention;





FIG. 9

is an exploded view of a second preferred embodiment of the present invention;





FIG. 9A

is an enlarged view of a portion of

FIG. 9

;





FIG. 10

is a perspective view of the sound collecting board;





FIG. 11

is another perspective view of the sound collecting board;





FIG. 12

illustrates a first working view of the present invention; and





FIG. 13

illustrates a second working view of the present invention.











DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT




For the purpose of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention, reference will now be made to the embodiment illustrated in the drawings. Specific language will be used to describe same. It will, nevertheless, be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended, such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated device, and such further applications of the principles of the invention as illustrated herein being contemplated as would normally occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates.




With reference to the drawings and in particular to

FIGS. 4

,


5


and


6


thereof, the acoustic board


100


according to the present invention generally comprises a frame


1


, a panel


3


and a plurality of large and small sound collecting members


22


and


2


.




The frame


1


is a rectangular member formed with a plurality of large and small openings


12


and


122


, and a groove


11


extending along the circumference thereof(see

FIGS. 1

,


1


A and


1


B). Further, the frame


1


has an inner bottom formed with a plurality of recesses


12


adapted to receive the sound collecting members


22


and


2


.




The panel


3


(see

FIGS. 3A

,


3


B and


3


C) is a rectangular member formed with a plurality of conical openings


31


each having a chamfer


32


at its larger diameter.




The large sound collecting member


22


is shown in

FIGS. 2A and 2B

. As shown, the large sound collecting member


22


is a conical member (or a cylinder) with an open top and a convex bottom


222


and sized to fit into a respective large opening


12


. The open top of the large collecting member


22


is formed with a chamber


221


. Referring to

FIGS. 2D and 2E

, the small sound collecting member


2


is also a conical member (or a cylinder) with an open top and a flat bottom and sized to fit into a respective small opening


122


. The open top of the small collecting member


2


is also formed with a chamfer


21


.




In assembly, the large and small sound collecting members


22


and


2


are fitted into respective large and small openings


12


and


122


of the frame


1


and the panel


3


is mounted on the front side of the frame


1


(see

FIGS. 7A

,


7


B and


7


C) so that the sound will be confined within the sound collecting members


2


and


22


thereby largely decreasing the noise in magnitude and therefore effectively isolating the noise from one side to another.




As shown in

FIGS. 1

,


1


A,


1


B and


8


, a plurality of the acoustic boards


100


may be assembled together to form a large acoustic board by engaging the grooves


11


of the acoustic boards


100


with a frame


4


.




Furthermore, a large acoustic board can be easily formed by joining a plurality of frames


1


by high frequency welding and then affixing a plurality of panels


3


to the frames


1


by high frequency welding thereby making it unnecessary to prepare large molds for manufacturing large acoustic boards and therefore lowering the cost of manufacturing large acoustic boards.





FIGS. 9 and 9A

illustrate another preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown, a plurality of large and small sound collecting members


2


are integrally formed with a sound collecting board


25


(see also

FIGS. 10 and 11

) which is sized to fit into the frame


1


, so that when in assembly, the sound collecting board


25


is arranged inside the frame


1


and then a cover


15


is engaged with the bottom of the frame


1


to form an acoustic board. The cover


15


may be formed integrally with the frame


1


.




Referring to

FIG. 12

, the acoustic boards according to the present invention can be easily mounted on the ceiling as a ceiling board. In addition, the acoustic boards according to the present invention can be mounted on two sides of a free way and used as a noise barrier (see FIG.


13


).




However, it should be noted that the sound collecting members


2


and


22


are not limited to cylindrical in shape and may be of any other shapes without sharp edges.




It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together may also find a useful application in other types of methods differing from the type described above.




While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and described and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intended to be limited to the details above, since it will be understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.



Claims
  • 1. An acoustic board comprising:rectangular frame having a groove extending along a circumference thereof, said frame having a bottom integrally formed thereof; a rectangular panel formed with a plurality of conical holes and sized to engage with said rectangular frame, said conical holes of said panel being chamfered at large diameter thereof; a plurality of large sound collecting members each having an open end and mounted on an inner bottom of said rectangular frame; and a plurality of small sound collecting members each having an open end and mounted on said inner bottom of said rectangular frame, said sound collecting members being integrally formed with a sound collecting board; whereby sound will be confined within said sound collecting members thereby largely decreasing noise in magnitude and therefore effectively isolating the noise from one side to another.
US Referenced Citations (4)
Number Name Date Kind
5912442 Nye et al. Jun 1999 A
5962823 Asahara et al. Oct 1999 A
6125965 Wang Oct 2000 A
6135238 Arcas et al. Oct 2000 A