Quality assurance policy
The SOAB database of building products are used by many consultants and advertisers (manufacturers), to calculate sound insulation and sound pressure levels in adjoining spaces. The calculations are made with the software BASTIAN, CadnaB or SONarchitect, according to the international standards EN 12354 1-3 (ISO 15712). Such calculations may be used to optimize building constructions, as well as to document conformity with sound requirements of apartments, offices, schools etc. It is therefore of vital importance, that the input data applied to such calculations are reliable, i.e. they should reflect the acoustic properties of the products in the building works as close as possible. The construction should be unambiguously described to allow the consultant to determine an optimal product for the individual application.
Quality assurance systems, as well as the Swedish building regulations (BBR), have laid stress on these requirements. Until May 2007, each advertiser (manufacturer) has had the sole responsibility for the description of his product and its acoustic data in the databases, and this product information was not validated by a third party. Since May 2007, a policy is applied to all commercial products being advertised in the database, in order to ascertain the users of the databases that product data are as reliable as possible. However, the manufacturers are still responsible for the performance of their products and their documentation, since only they have the full details of the production process and technical properties under control.
We do not supervise tests, nor do we perform own tests of the products being advertised in the database, unless this is clearly stated. Generic constructions, referring to available publications from SINTEF (NBI), SBUF, Nordtest and other institutes, are not covered by this policy and the reliability of these data are not guaranteed by us.