The Current Status of Standards for Testing Electroacoustic Hearing Protectors

Details

• Personal Author:
  Franks, John R. ; Murphy, William J.
• Description:
  Electroacoustic hearing protectors encompass several classes of electronics: level-limiting, amplitude compression and active noise control (ANC) devices. Each class of protector seeks to enhance performance by overcoming insertion loss and/or improving low-frequency attenuation. Level-limiting devices turn off the amplification when the external sound level exceeds a preset threshold. Amplitude compression devices apply variable gain and limit amplification of signals above the threshold. ANC devices create an out-of-phase signal under the protector to improve the low-frequency attenuation of earmuffs. ANC devices typically perform best in continuous noise that has strong harmonic components that can be predicted and cancelled. The different methods of enhancing protector performance require separate standards to understand both the static and dynamic performance. Testing of ANC devices has further requirements which require knowledge of both passive and active electronic conditions and in noise with different crest factors. This talk will review a variety of tests of the different protector classes. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Ear Electrical Equipment And Supplies Hearing Noise Noise, Occupational Occupational Health Protective Clothing Safety Sense Organs
• Keywords:
  Ear Protection Ear Protectors Electronic Components Electronic Devices Hearing Level Hearing Protection Hearing Threshold Noise Absorption Noise Control Sound Attenuation Testing Equipment

  More +
• Publisher:
  Acoustical Society of America
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Presentation
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DART - Division of Applied Research and Technology
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-15
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20023595
• Citation:
  First Pan-American/Iberian Meeting on Acoustics/144th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Cancun, Mexico, Dec 2-6, 2002. Melville, NY: Acoustical Society of America, 2002 Dec; :1-15
• Contact Point Address:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Hearing Loss Prevention Section, 4676 Columbia Parkway, MS C-27, Cincinnati, OH 45226-1998
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2003
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  First Pan-American/Iberian Meeting on Acoustics/144th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Cancun, Mexico
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6749b121d4f47d24c5756fabec169b666de148eee03f23e6601d3d811d1d8cf3bb5c40659c28241ce1d6f1a26998380ac70f066a44f98be156a35bb3d003bba1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/195941/cdc_195941_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 761.69 KB ]