Office Chair Noise

Office chair noise mainly originates from solid sound and airborne sound, and can be addressed through physical shock absorption, system optimization, and isolation design.

Noise Generation Principles and Classification

Office chair noise can be classified into two types:

1. Solid Sound (Structural Sound): When moving the chair, impacts or friction between the chair legs and the floor generate vibrations that propagate through the building structure, with slow attenuation and long propagation distances. For example, noise may be generated due to component friction or sealing issues during the operation of pneumatic or mechanical lifting systems.
2. Airborne Sound: External environmental noise propagates through the air and may be reflected or amplified by the chair structure, such as the sound from air conditioners or ventilation equipment being enhanced after reflection off the chair back.

Influencing Factors

1. Type of Lifting System: Third-party testing shows that pneumatic lifting chairs generally have lower noise levels than mechanical ones, with a more uniform frequency distribution. Mechanical lifting chairs are prone to generating high-frequency noise due to friction between components such as gears and chains.
2. Materials and Design: The friction coefficient between the chair leg material (such as hard plastic or metal) and the floor, as well as the sealing at component connections (such as the gap between the lifting column and the base), directly affect the noise level. For example, the noise generated when metal chair legs slide on tiled floors is significantly higher than that with rubber foot pads.

Solutions

1. Physical Shock Absorption for Noise Reduction:
   • Install silicone, rubber, or felt foot pads to absorb impact energy through damping effects and reduce vibration propagation. For example, rubber foot pads can reduce the impact sound between the chair legs and the floor by 10-15 decibels.
   • Laying carpets or using composite-structure foot pads (such as rubber layer + silicone layer) can further reduce noise, especially in hard floor environments.
2. Optimize the Lifting System:
   • Manufacturers can reduce noise during lifting operations by improving sealing (such as the design of the sealing ring for the pneumatic rod), selecting low-friction materials (such as polytetrafluoroethylene coating), or optimizing the mechanical structure (such as reducing gear clearance).
3. Physical Isolation Design:
   • Some high-end chairs adopt adjustable soundproof chair covers combined with sound-absorbing materials (such as polyester fiber cotton) to block external airborne sound interference, suitable for open office environments.
4. Active Acoustic Noise Reduction (Cutting-Edge Technology):
   • A few high-end office chairs integrate noise reduction systems in the headrest or backrest, which emit anti-phase sound waves to cancel out environmental noise (targeting airborne sound). However, this technology is costly and requires regular maintenance.

Testing and Standards

Third-party experiments test office chair lifting noise according to national standards (such as GB/T 22840-2008), including A-weighted sound pressure level (reflecting human subjective perception), frequency analysis, and subjective perception evaluation (such as sharpness). Consumers can refer to such test reports when purchasing and prioritize products with low noise levels and good stability.