Wedge Refurbishment for NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

IAC Acoustics recently fulfilled a request to replace wedges in a fully anechoic room for NASA at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. To be classified as fully anechoic, an acoustic treatment must be applied to all surfaces within a given space, including on the ceiling, floor and all four walls. The project was necessitated due to state of the previously applied treatments — in addition to damage sustained from their normal use, the adhesive backings were losing bonding strength and disintegrating, rendering the original wedges acoustically useless and aesthetically unpleasant.

Solution
The IAC Acoustics solution provided a design that incorporated existing building components including duplex outlets, light switches and lighting, while maximizing coverage of the acoustic wedge treatment. To remedy the issues at hand with NASA’s wedges, IAC supplied Microdyne™ wedges to serve as replacement parts. Made from a natural gray melamine foam and receiving a Class 1 fire rating according to ASTM E84, they met customer requirements."

Installation
The IAC Acoustics installation crew successfully modified the new Microdyne products to fit snugly around door details improving both wedge coverage and overall aesthetics. What’s more — they utilized a mounting system, eliminating the need for any adhesive. A removable grated flooring system allowed wedges to be easily and quickly replaced on the floor.

The total process of removing the wedges and installing the new wedges took less than 4 days, thanks to the highly experienced IAC Acoustics installation crew, lean installation processes and an efficient design.

Conclusion
As a unique supplier of anechoic chamber products, IAC Acoustics was best suited to engineer and install a solution for NASA with guaranteed performance. Overall, the customer was satisfied with the performance of the room, the professionalism of the installation crew, and the efficiency of how IAC Acoustics executed the overall project.