The New Blachford Acoustics Laboratory

The new Blachford Acoustics Laboratory was designed and constructed to bring resources typically available only in the automotive industry to the non-passenger car markets. Prior to the opening of this laboratory, engineering tools common in the automotive industry, such as a hemi-anechoic chamber with chassis dynamometer or a reverberation room with a front of dash transmission loss suite were difficult or impossible to find for Class 8 truck, transit bus, or Class A motor home acoustical analysis. This was primarily due to vehicle size and weight, but also due to cooling air and engine exhaust extraction requirements. In a previous paper¹ the author described the design of the laboratory and the acoustical goals for the various test spaces. Challenges included construction cost, sizes and weights of the test vehicles, the variety of potential products to undergo testing, and the selected laboratory site. With the facility now complete and fully functional, this paper describes the capabilities of the laboratory and compares the design goals with the as-built performance.