Here’s an important automobile development that matters if you care about road and engine noises. It is from Nissan and it is a lightweight noise-reducing technology known as acoustic meta-metarial.
At present, noise attenuation in cars are mostly achieved heavy rubber board. It works, but its heavy. Nissan’s meta-metarial is a lightweight solution that is made up of lattice structure and plastic film.
This meta-materials controls air vibrations to limit the transmission of wide frequency band noise of between 500 and 1,200 hertz, such as road and engine noise. But why does it matters? Well, it weights one-fourth of the traditional rubber boards but does the same degree of sound isolation.
The lightweight nature in turns makes the vehicle light which limits the environmental impact of driving by improving efficiency – with the boon of having a quieter cabin.
Moreover, because of its simple structure, the material’s cost competitiveness in terms of mass production is almost the same as, if not better than current materials, and therefore its application could on vehicles which has cost implication.
What this means is, you don’t need to own high-end cars to enjoy a quieter cabin motor vehicle. Theoretically, speaking, that is.
Nissan has been research on this meta-material since 2008. Back then, this material was only used in high-sensitivity antennas for electromagnetic wave research. Nissan adapted this material to control sound waves and applicable on motor vehicles.
So, the future of a quieter cabin sure sounds promising. Now, can someone work on the impact of rain drops on our car roof already?
Images: Nissan UK.
