Product category:
Technical Equipment
News Release from: Trelleborg Bakker | Subject: Andre laminated natural rubber bearings
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 20 November 2007
Maintain silence at Birmingham ICC
Andre laminated natural rubber bearings from Trelleborg Engineered Systems maintain silence at Birmingham's ICC.
One of the prime design criteria for Birmingham's International Convention Centre (ICC) was perfect acoustics despite a main rail-line running beneath it Andre laminated natural rubber bearings from Trelleborg Engineered Systems were used to support and isolate the eleven auditoriums
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 8 Jul 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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A design team including Over Arup, architects Percy Thomas Partnership and the Artec acoustic consultancy built the eleven auditoriums of Birmingham's International Convention Centre (ICC) in the UK.
They faced a variety of challenges, notably the fact that a rail tunnel runs directly under part of the site.
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Among its functions, the building houses the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), so perfect acoustics was one of the prime design criteria.
The proposed solution was to isolate the building raft on Andre rubber laminated bearings from Trelleborg Bakker, an operating unit of Trelleborg Engineered Systems.
This was backed by a long list of similar applications starting in 1965 with a luxury London apartment block - the first building ever to be isolated from an underground railway by natural rubber bearings.
The final design involved over 2,000 bearings each measuring 300mm x 300mm x 125mm deep (12 inches x 12 inches x 5 inches).
These were precisely compounded to take working loads of up to 40 tonnes each and to isolate dominant frequencies of around 40Hz.
Positioned in groups of eight on the column heads rising from the piled foundations, they carry the concrete raft from which the superstructure of the building rises.
The rubber supports provide a physical barrier between the building and its foundations.
Although the Andre bearings are the main component of the isolation package, the engineers also had to ensure that there were no "acoustic bridges" between the isolated and non-isolated parts of the building.
Pipes, cables and conduits are suspended on rubber bushes and equipped with elastomeric expansion joints.
There is also an invisible gap running all the way round the building raft, which is filled with a ceramic blanket fire shield and covered by a steel plate mounted on rubber strips and hidden beneath the floor screed.
Recent tests on the Andre bearings revealed virtually no signs of creep or aging after more than 15 years in situ.
The findings were in line with expectations as the bearings, which are bonded "sandwiches" of natural rubber reinforced with internal steel plates, operate under a high compressive load - the best condition for long fatigue life.
In these conditions, there is virtually no risk of ozone cracking, while the thickness of the rubber block, incorporating anti-oxidant and anti-ozonants, means that any aging is superficial and confined to the surface.
In fact, the bulk properties of a correctly compounded and molded rubber bearing are little affected over time, as numerous installations around the world testify.
"The Birmingham International Convention Center was a key moment in the history of Andre bearings".
"It was not the first time we had isolated an auditorium from the noise and vibration of a nearby rail tunnel, but it was a prestige project with high visibility around the world," says Ashley Haines, Design Manager for Trelleborg Bakker.
This visibility was further underlined by the growing international prominence of the CBSO.
Since the ICC opened its doors, many architects, consultants and acoustic engineers have visited to check the results with their own ears.
They were no less impressed than classical music fans and the ICC was followed by a long list of similar applications for Andre bearings.
To mention only the most prestigious entertainment venues, the list includes London's Barbican Centre and Royal Opera House, the Benaroya Concert Hall in Seattle, the Jazz Theater at the AOL Time Warner Center in New York, Frank Gehry's Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CBC's Toronto Broadcast Center, the Bastille Opera House in Paris and the Glasgow and Belfast concert halls.
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