How loud is tree removal gear.

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Try inverting the formula for calculating db at range. Each doubling of distance roughly reduces noise levels by 6db. So halving it should add 6 db.... I think. So if a 1590 is roughly 85db at 50 feet according to the EPA, then it should be roughly 91db at 25 feet, 97db at 12 feet, 103db at 6 feet and 109db at 3 feet. So operators should experience noise in the range of 97to 109 db on that math.

:cheers:

Correct. And each 6db increase creates an apparent doubling of sound level. However, this can be impacted by other objects either reflecting or blocking sound levels. But overall is a good textbook calculation. That is in the same approximate sound level as a rock band concert.. best keep on PPE :)
 
Thanks Guys

Thanks all for your contributions.

TMD sorry I caught you on a bad day.

Anyhows I have to go and listen to a rock concert in green. Have a great day Y'all.:cheers:
 
Koa said buy a decibel meter, Dan said do your own damm assignment, (I think :))

I'm guessing you are young. the answers are easy, with a little work performed besides typing. arborist 101 still requires more effort than asking silly questions. this being IMHO.

I have 4 teenagers, amazing what kids expect others to do.

check out Plas, he wrote the book, and actually has learned his $hit. :clap::clap:
 
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Koa said buy a decibel meter, Dan said do your own damm assignment, (I think :))

I'm guessing you are young. the answers are easy, with a little work performed besides typing. arborist 101 still requires more effort than asking silly questions. this being IMHO.

I have 4 teenagers, amazing what kids expect others to do.

check out Plas, he wrote the book, and actually has learned his $hit. :clap::clap:

I have a dB meter. Next time I'm around Dan's Bandit 90 XP I'll measure it.
 
I beleive it is 10db that creates an apparent doubling of loudness.

I've got a db meeter from the seventies that I used to set up equalizers using pink noise bands on a vinyl record. It took into account riaa...room effect and speakers! It took a long time to set up a system and I moved to a real time analyzer in the early eighties.

Yea, it's a logarithmic scale, not linear.
 
The first source that came to my mind is OSHA. I don't like govt regulatory agencies any more than anyone else but, if someone's going to monitor the loudness of equipment, it's going to be OSHA. I know they have noise limits which a piece of equipment can't excede. I would think that it would be public information to inquire as to whether or not they have actual readings on particular saws, chippers, grinders, etc.

A google search of OSHA might give a contact number as a starting place...?
 
Treeco, I have to disagree, the loudest noise a chipper makes is when one end of the branch is being touched by the knives and the other end comes into contact with your earmuff.:)

BC - Google???? what the hell is that? I was looking for specifics, not averages. But what did you put in as your search argument. From memory I put in ''sound pressure level wood chippers bandit 1590XP", and variations thereof. Incidentally I would have visited 40+ pages looking for the required info.

In fact it was OOMT's suggestion of re-arranging the formula that sorted it for me, I simply did not think of doing that. Once he suggested it and I had done it I had my answer.

Incidentally I handed in the (final) assignment yesterday but you can all keep telling me to do my research if it makes you feel good.:) I only wish you had all been there to help me pass the climbing exam!:popcorn:
 
I would think the the loudest noise would be when the material is cut and thrown agaisnt the metal inside. Sounds like the loudest on my chipper but I don't know.
So EdenT, you an OSHA rep? :cheers:
 
Nah, everyone knows the loudest noise on a chipper is the one I make when you pick up a handful of gravel with that brush and throw it through my brand-new-just-bolted-in-knives. Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :bang:
 
The centrifugal fan in a chipper, which on a modern hydraulic feed type chipper is integral to the flywheel and cutting disc, makes a lot of noise itself. The scroll type design of the housing is very similar to that of a siren. You can hear the siren effect more clearly on the older chuck-and-duck type chippers.
 
I would think the the loudest noise would be when the material is cut and thrown agaisnt the metal inside. Sounds like the loudest on my chipper but I don't know.
So EdenT, you an OSHA rep? :cheers:

Heck Dan, if i was an OSHA rep I wouldn't even know what a chipper was, I would just demand that they be banned from the world because they're sooo dangerous and noisy (and not safe for kiddies to play with). :)

I am a firm believer of safety in the workplace but I am more in line with your own common sense approach. I don't need to know how many dB, just that it's loud and me and my crew will suffer injury if we don't wear PPE.

:cheers:
 
I beleive it is 10db that creates an apparent doubling of loudness.

I've got a db meeter from the seventies that I used to set up equalizers using pink noise bands on a vinyl record. It took into account riaa...room effect and speakers! It took a long time to set up a system and I moved to a real time analyzer in the early eighties.

Gee may have to dig out my physics books an papers. (I studied Physics in the 1970's.. got my BSc .. and then never actually did any work in that area - oh well - tree work has something to do with physics)

There are three key names related to this that I can think of.. maybe more but this will give enough info.

Stanley Stephens - think he was from Harvard - did some of the first studies in this area in the 1950s - he published a paper and then later a book indicating that a 10db increase or decrease in sound level caused an apparent doubling or halving of the sound level to the human ear. This in fact was what many of us learned from using text books.

Richard Warren also published some information in the 1970's which ranged from review of issues related perceived increasing intensity and the existing measurement scale. Richard concluded that sound level precept ion doubles at 6db.

More recently, John Neuhoff has written several papers and a book on this as well and he indicates that our hearing is more sensitive for rising sound levels than for declining levels - and that two scales should be used. Declining levels, according to John Neuhoff half at every 10db as per what was originally published by Stanley Stephens. However, rising sounds double every 6db - more in line with that stated by Richard Warren. (I will check my library if I still have, but believe my info on this may have come from the New York Academy of Science where I used to have membership)

So, there are several papers, publications and theories. When I studied, it was easy, but there are some conflicting theories now. My 6db was aligned to that stated by Richard Warren and then again by John Neuhoff. However, if you have older texts then they would likely quote 10db as doubling on rising sounds - as I had originally learned in University.

Ok.. enough trivia and drivel.
 

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