Change "construction = noisy" Expanding "quiet construction" December 1, 16:55

If you are doing construction work near your house, you may be worried about the noise.

Many people must have wondered, "How long will this construction continue?"

This time, we covered the quiet and hot technology development of the construction industry, which is working to reduce the noise of those troublesome things.

(Economic Department reporter Asami Terada)

Compared to what you hear?

This tool is for cutting metal handrails.

It's not just a tool.

Even thick metal can be cut with the power of hydraulic pressure.

By not scraping, the noise has been greatly reduced.

This is a tool for driving boards into the ceiling.

The two don't look much different, but try listening to the two and comparing them.

Can't you hear the sound of the tool on the right side slightly softer?

In fact, the tool on the right is devised to reduce the sound.

In fact, when measured with a sound level meter, you can see that the tool on the right is about 15 decibels quieter than the conventional tool on the left.

Noise was reduced by attaching a silencer to the tool and adjusting the driving force to the minimum required.

Aim for "quiet construction"

These tools were developed by small and medium-sized companies in Tokyo that have been involved in exterior wall and interior construction for many years.

The aim of this company is "quiet construction".

Believing that we cannot survive without having strengths that other companies do not have, we have been working with other manufacturers for 13 years to develop tools that can work with less noise than before.

In some cases, the process itself has changed due to the new tools.

For example, tile removal work.

Generally, an electric pick is used to break the tiles into pieces and peel them off.

However, this makes a loud noise and generates dust.

Therefore, we developed a tool to "turn over" the tiles.

The tiles are sandwiched between the tiles, and the tiles are peeled off one by one.

In order to prevent the noise that is still emitted, the company has also developed a high-performance soundproof wall to prevent noise from leaking out of the construction site.

About 30 types of tools have been developed so far.

It is said that inquiries for "quiet construction" are increasing as the need for noise control increases.

Tetsuro Yoshida, Manager, Silent System Division, Marutaka Industry

"I think the biggest thing is that the noise during work is considerably reduced, so you don't feel uncomfortable even if you're working next to it. The difficult part is the performance of the tools, In terms of maintaining speed and quietness, we are making new discoveries every day as we develop.By combining tools and soundproof walls, people around you will not notice that you are working next to them. We aim to reach

These efforts are also expected to lead to work style reforms at construction sites.

In the past, noise complaints forced us to temporarily suspend construction work, extending the construction period.

Some of the sites that used tools to suppress noise were able to relax the time limit and shorten the construction period.

Is the corona misfortune also affected?

Complaints increase due to construction noise

One of the reasons for the increasing need for noise control is believed to be the corona crisis.

Nearly 20,000 noise complaints were received by local governments nationwide in FY2020.

An increase of about 3% from the previous year.

The most common of these is construction noise.

It is believed that the number of people complaining about noise has increased due to the increased time spent at home, such as the spread of telecommuting due to the corona sickness.

How to reduce low frequency mechanical noise?

Under these circumstances, another construction company is conducting research to reduce the low-frequency sound emitted by construction machinery.

At this company, it was difficult to block low-frequency sounds with soundproof walls, etc., and it was a cause of concern that they would affect us far away.

Therefore, a method was devised to make the noise less audible by generating another sound with a wave shape opposite to that of the noise and canceling it.

It is the same principle as the noise canceling function of earphones.

This is a diagram showing the shape of the sound wave before and after the countermeasure.

Yellow represents noise, light blue represents the generated sound, and purple represents the audible sound.

It can be seen that the purple waves have become smaller and the noise has decreased after the countermeasures were taken in which the blue waves became the opposite shape of the yellow waves.

At construction sites, construction machines are equipped with microphones and personal computers to analyze noise in real time.

Generates a canceling sound.

In the future, we would like to work on miniaturization of the device and expand the application.

Katsuo Yaginuma, Chief Researcher, Technical Research Institute, Okumura Gumi

: “The world is becoming quieter and quieter, and construction noise is becoming more noticeable. I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do with the noise, so I want to develop a technology that can help with that."

Interview postscript

When construction starts around your home, you tend to think, "I don't like it because it's noisy."

However, through this interview, I learned that behind the scenes, rather than giving up on the noise, there were companies that boldly took on the challenge of reducing noise as much as possible.

I hope that the development and spread of noise countermeasure technology will progress further, and that the impact on the surrounding area will of course be reduced, and that it will lead to the creation of a comfortable working environment for the people working on site.

Economic Department Reporter

Asami Terada

Joined in 2009

Responsible for distribution, prices, etc.