Have you ever assembled a bookshelf or nightstand that you bought from a big-box store? As you unpacked the wood grain panels and the little bag of hardware, you may have unpacked some frustration, too. Specifically, the frustration of a product that fails to put customers first.
As you followed the assembly directions, you may have discovered some assembly methods of your own, methods that worked better than the ones described in the instruction pamphlet. This begs the question: If you, as the customer, can see a better way to assemble the product, why didn’t the product’s designers see it?
The answer, simply put, is that they weren’t looking. They weren’t looking at the product from the customer’s point of view. The designers were thinking about what worked best for them and their production process — not what worked best for the customer.
FSorb’s Installation and Customizations Put Customers First
From its inception in 2009, FSorb has put its customers first. FSorb founder Doug Bixel spent decades in the building industry. As a builder, Doug was often a customer of building supply companies. He knew about the problems hard-to-integrate materials introduce on a job site. Seeing the building process from the builder’s point of view helped inspire and inform every aspect of the FSorb experience.
Today, you can see FSorb’s customer-centric focus throughout our product line, from our panels’ easy-to-integrate 4’x8’ standard size to their durable plastic composition, which allows installers to cut, nail, glue, or suspend FSorb panels without modifying building plans or delaying building schedules.
Putting Customers First with Customizable Panels
In their standard form, FSorb panels already fit builders’ installation needs, but sometimes designers need more control over the appearance of a building.
With this in mind, we’ve created FSorb panels in a vast array of shapes, sizes, and colors. They can be custom cut, shaped, painted, or even screen printed. Installers can even cut FSorb quite easily with an expandable utility knife, and it can be quickly shaped with tools like table saws, track saws, and jig saws. Our cloud and baffle systems multiply the sound shaping power while exponentially increasing design possibilities. This level of customization keeps the building’s designer in charge of the building’s visual aesthetic. This is how it should be. Other types of panels generally ask designers to adapt their vision to match the sound panel’s appearance.
Naturally, FSorb does all this while also providing the best sound absorbing technology in the market.
Putting Customers First Through Simple Installations
When your FSorb panels — in the sizes, shapes, and colors that your design team needs — arrive on the job site, installation can begin. By design, FSorb panels are durable and light. This gives installers multiple choices.
Standard and widely available hardware, such as strong screws or quick-set adhesives, can hold FSorb panels in place. The recyclable PET plastics that make up FSorb panels can easily accommodate either method without compromising their performance.
More importantly, FSorb panels don’t lock installers into one method or into pre-set patterns. Since they have control over the installation process, installers can adapt FSorb panels to the building’s structure — rather than adapting their building to accommodate their panels.
What About Suspending Sound Panels?
In some buildings, simply attaching sound panels to walls and beams will achieve the room’s sound and visual design needs. In more elaborate settings, installers need ways to suspend panels and groups of panels into the space below.
FSorb has made this easy, too. Using ceiling suspension systems, stick pins, hat channels, and cable grips lets installers float panels as needed throughout an interior space. These suspension methods also add a new dimension to the panels’ sound absorption power by allowing multiple sides of the panel to shape sound.
While FSorb manufactures independently supported clouds and baffles that utilize between two to nine hanging points, the use of a ceiling suspension system and our T-Snap or F-Snap attachment options can eliminate a ton of hangers. The ceiling suspension systems are designed to have wire spacings of 4’ x 4’, thereby resulting in the use of a fraction of the hanging points, saving time and money.
This video shows some of these processes at work:
Our Innovations Make Complex Installations Simple
From idea to installation, creating building products requires thoughtful work. Ultimately, this work will be completed by two types of people:
The people who design and manufacture the product
The people who buy and install the product
With many building products, the people who buy and install the products do most of the work. In other words, the customer has to come up with adaptations and new uses of the product they just bought. When you buy FSorb panels, you’re buying a product that has already been designed to anticipate your needs. We’ve already done this work.
While anticipating customers’ future needs, FSorb owner Doug Bixel discovered some ways to improve the installation process. Answering these needs led to several unique solutions, many of which have now been patented.
For example, these innovations include T-Snap and F-Snap cutouts for the Silentline Baffles that allow the baffles to rapidly snap onto a suspension grid. This provides a code-compliant attachment to the structure while also allowing the indexing of the baffle spacing so installers can quickly space the baffles consistently in 2-inch increments. With this method, a 4-, 6-, or 12-inch on center baffle layout can be done without a measuring tape or a spacing tool. This type of mindset eliminates unnecessary labor.
Plus, another ease-of-installation feature is our panels’ reversibility. For instance, the Silentline Ocean, Mountain, and Metro patterns can be flipped 180 degrees to provide either a straight pattern or an undulating pattern. This cuts down the number of different product skews being delivered and speeds up installation. The same concept works with the Quietgrid systems, too.
Collectively, these types of innovations help designers and installers take their interior spaces to the next level. FSorb’s local representatives can help customers learn how to use these innovations to great effect.
FSorb Sound Panels: Installations That Last
Putting customers first means making customers’ lives easier. One of our favorite ways to do this is creating sound absorption solutions that last for decades. When products last, there’s no need to repeat the installation process for the product again and again.
Using FSorb panels lets builders complete the installation once and know it’ll last until the building’s next remodel, which may be decades from now.
This durability is baked into every FSorb panel. Our panels’ recipe includes recycled plastics that melt at different temperatures, creating a natural binding process that doesn’t wear out or give off volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that have to be monitored or mitigated.
Maintenance Is Easy, Too
This ease extends to the maintenance of FSorb panels. Whether a building uses wall tiles, standalone panels, suspended clouds, or any other composition, FSorb’s panels and hardware are antimicrobial. This means they will resist mold and mildew, making them inviting for even the most allergen-sensitive occupants. Occasional dusting with a brush or dry sponge eliminates the natural buildup of particles and helps panels retain their vibrant appearance.
When it’s time to remodel, panels that don’t fit into the next design can be recycled, just like a plastic water bottle.
Start Your Customer First Conversation Today
Reach out to our home office in Woodinville, WA, or to one of our regional reps to learn more about FSorb’s industry leading sound panels and to learn how easy we can make integrating FSorb panels into your next project.
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