Beyond Bunsen Burners

Beyond Bunsen Burners

Science takes new forms at Johnson Controls’ innovative testing labs

Buzz, Squeak and Rattle isn’t the name of a 1950s tribute band. It is, however, a testing area of a cutting-edge research lab—one that ensures Johnson Controls customers are afforded the latest advances, the most innovative thinking and the newest manufacturing processes.
The Johnson Controls WAVE Lab in Holland, Mich., is a research and testing facility for the acoustics and vibration properties of automotive interior components. Among its capabilities:

The lab can simulate a variety of noise environments—from quiet, open-road driving conditions to a torrential downpour, and buzzes, squeaks and rattles—allowing researchers to craft interior components that address different acoustical needs.
It features drive-in transmission-loss suites that include full-size reverberation rooms adjacent to anechoic and hemi-anechoic chambers, which facilitates the measurement of vehicle floor, door and dash system insulation properties. These tools are used to optimize system designs that ensure outside noises stay outside the vehicle.
By utilizing the reverberation chambers in a different configuration, the WAVE Lab also can test and measure the acoustic absorption properties of materials and components, which further dissipate the noises that do get inside.
Extensive computer modeling tools allow engineers to use the measurement results described above to predict the noise environment that any given vehicle design will have years before the vehicle is even built.

Most important, of course, is what customers think of the sounds they hear, which is summarized by the term “Sound Quality.” This is an area of extensive research at the WAVE Lab, where Johnson Controls is trying to understand and separate the sounds that people want or expect from their automobiles and removing by design those that cause annoyance or displeasure.
The ultimate goal: providing customers—and their customers—quieter and more comfortable automobile interiors. But there’s more: The WAVE Lab has evolved and grown to be a facility in which researchers also can test new technologies, such as Bluetooth-enabled hands-free communication and noise-cancellation systems. In particular, the replication of various sound environments proves critical in determining the overall performance of these audio and electronic components.