Symposium Buy Quiet Inducing "Buy Quiet" purchasing attitudes through simplified product noise ratings 25 August 2016 - Hamburg (Germany) An International INCE Symposium organized by BAuA (Germany)

Despite efforts to reduce product and machinery noise emissions, noise from machines is still a major reason for excessive noise at workplaces and in communities. Even legal requirements were not effective in some cases. For example, the European Union requires manufacturers to design machines to the lowest noise levels and to provide noise emission information to potential purchasers, allowing the customer to select quiet machines. However, a recent European investigation (NOMAD) showed that from the checked more than 1500 instructions for machines 80 % of the noise emission declarations were incorrect and did not provide the necessary information.

As a consequence, the information provided does not allow purchasers of these machines to choose a comparatively quiet one. The general concept of making the machinery market transparent with respect to the noise emission of machines has had little success in this market. There are other markets, such as the IT industry and some home appliances, where noise declarations are readily available to the public and have likely contributed to lower noise levels. In general, however, there is a pressing need for further efforts to better promote the idea of buying quiet across market segments.

I-INCE has identified this problem and therefore will continue the "Buy Quiet" initiative by organising a "Buy Quiet" symposium in 2016. This is a follow-up to the Buy Quiet symposium held in Paris in 2011, and is part of the I-INCE Technical Study Group 10 work on Buy Quiet programs.