What’s inside a sound panel? Wool? Fiberglass? Cellulose? Foam?
With most panels, you’d have to cut the fabric to find out. Beneath this outer layer, you’d see some kind of filler material encased in plywood framing.
FSorb acoustical panels are different. By setting out to engineer the most value in the market, we found a simpler solution: Using the same material on the inside of our panels that you see on the outside.
So if you cut into an FSorb panel, you’d see, well, more FSorb panel. This consistency in our material reflects the consistency in our values — values that extend throughout the life of every FSorb panel.
So What are the Values that FSorb Provides?
It’s easy to talk about values. It’s harder to deliver them. Our customers experience the value of FSorb panels throughout the process of ordering, installing, using, and even recycling them.
These FSorb values include:
The Value of Availability
We distribute the sound panels we make in our Woodinville, WA factory to local dealers across North America. As a result, builders throughout our market can get panels delivered to their job sites quickly.
This ease of access helps avoid costly delivery and installation delays. Our network also gives builders a local contact who can answer questions about their order or about proper installation. Local dealers also stock standard and widely available hardware used to install FSorb products, which helps enhance our system’s versatility.
The Value of Design Flexibility
Ordering ½-inch panels from our available inventory gives customers the choice of 24 colors. We’ve also added natural wood grain finishes. With so many choices, most designers can find a color that fits their vision for the new indoor space.
Still, some designers need more choices, so we provide them. We can ship any panel in our custom colors. We can also apply logos, wording, multiple colors, and custom shapes or designs — anything a designer needs.
Then, designers can unlock yet another dimension by combining our panels into multi-dimensional shapes. Popular panel combinations include screens, baffles, grids, and clouds, but the sky is the limit. Our panels’ light weight, combined with our patented attachment options, creates endless possibilities for designers.
The Value of Seamless Installation
Doug Bixel worked as a builder before he founded FSorb in 2009. Since he understood the challenges of building, Doug wanted to create sound panels that integrated easily with standard building practices.
FSorb delivers this value to every job site. Multiple attachment and suspension options provide versatility when installing FSorb products. This reduces planning and installation time. Standard panels ship in 4-foot by 8-foot sheets, but installers can also cut FSorb panels on-site as needed.
FSorb panels also comply with local building codes and are easy to integrate, shortening building schedules.
The Value of Cleaner Air
Binding the various materials in most sound panels together requires adhesives. The panels need to stay together for years despite varying states of temperature and humidity, so panel manufacturers often use strong adhesives that emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into a building’s air.
FSorb panels require no adhesion and release no VOCs. The different types of fibers in our panels melt at different temperatures, creating a natural binding process that lasts as long as the panels. The binding is baked into the panels themselves.
The Value of High Performance
Value aside, the primary purpose of a sound absorption system is to absorb sound. A system that sacrifices performance to deliver value won’t meet the long-term needs of a building and will cost more in the long term.
FSorb delivers the best sound shaping in the industry without sacrificing value. In fact, since value is engineered into the core of our panels, an FSorb system’s value enhances its performance. For example, the consistency of our material improves FSorb’s ability to shape sound, and the simplicity of our design makes our panels easier to install and free of VOCs.
In other words, we don’t add value to our panels. We engineer value into each and every panel.
The Value of a Calmer Environment
Shaping and minimizing sound creates a more peaceful environment. Visitors — whether they’re customers, clients, patients, or students — want to stay in a place where designers paid attention to the soundscape.
Studies show that employees who work in a space where sound is shaped are more productive and happier people.
The Value of Our American-Made Commitment
We design and build our sound panels in Washington State, but our commitment to developing our domestic economy isn’t strictly geographic.
We’ve earned (and exceeded) the Buy American designation from the State Department. This means all of the raw materials in our panels come from the U.S. or a nation with free trade status that complies with the Buy American Act. Everyone who helps create our panels earns a fair wage for their work.
The Value of Eco-Friendliness
We make our panels from recycled plastic — and we don’t use specialized, hard-to-recycle plastic. We use PET plastic, the original plastic introduced in the 1970s. PET plastic can be recycled in almost every municipality in the U.S.
By using recycled plastic, our panels are keeping bottles out of landfills and oceans while also creating jobs for the people who sort recyclables.
Of course, we expect our panels to last a very long time, but sooner or later, a building will need a redesign and panels may no longer be needed. In that case, they can be easily recycled rather than thrown away.
FSorb Value is Intentional Value
As you can tell, everything about FSorb was carefully thought out. As we engineered our products, we explored ways to make our panels stronger, lighter, more colorfast, and simpler. We wanted consistent fiber length and denier (the thickness of the fiber) and color selections.
We tried different densities and thicknesses to find the optimal acoustical performance as well as the ideal functionality of all the panels.
Once we found the right recipe, we chose to ship panels in standard 4-feet by 8-feet sheets because builders throughout North America recognize this standard and know, by instinct, how to incorporate this standard into their projects. This makes ordering, layout, and installation easy.
We didn’t stumble upon these choices. We didn’t adapt our designs to add value. Value was part of FSorb founder Doug Bixel’s intentional goal from Day 1. These decisions are baked into the core of every panel we ship.
Continued Innovation Creates More Value
Our value-centric philosophy continued after FSorb launched in 2009. When designers needed more choices to seamlessly integrate multiple panels into new combinations, FSorb responded with patented installation systems to make the process easier.
This has made installing complex but code-compliant systems quick and easy for experienced pros and novice installers alike.
We continue to work with our customers to enhance the value our systems create.
How to Contact Us
When you’re ready to install acoustic technology that delivers continuous value while it absorbs sound, you’re ready for an FSorb system.
Contact us to receive a brochure or samples, or check with your local FSorb rep to explore our wide range of designs, all of which are engineered from the inside out to meet your building’s ongoing needs.
At FSorb, we are motivated by improving human health and do so by creating eco-friendly acoustic products. Our mission is to help designers build beautiful spaces that reduce excess ambient noise while calming the human nervous system. With over 25 years in the acoustic business we stand behind FSorb as a durable, environmentally friendly, and low-cost product. If you want an acoustic solution that is safe to human health at an affordable price, then we are your resource.
(844) 313-7672