ISAR ACOUSTICSNVH ENGINEERING

Engineering office for noise and vibration

Services

Two kinds of assignment: defining how something should sound before any hardware exists — and finding the cause once it does and behaves wrongly. For each field you will find here when I get called, what I do, and what ends up in your hands.

Before there is hardware

Concept and advance engineering

While the product is still taking shape. This is where the decisions are made that later determine the effort — and where acoustics is cheapest to get right.

Acoustic concept and advance engineering

Defining the acoustic behaviour before there is anything to measure.

When I get called

  • A new vehicle or machine is taking shape and acoustics is nobody’s topic yet.
  • A drive or design variant needs assessing before hardware exists.
  • A concept is up for decision and nobody can quantify the acoustic consequences.
  • A new field — automated driving, for instance — brings requirements the company has no experience with.

What I do

  • Acoustic concept for the overall system and its subsystems, open points included.
  • Target cascade from the complete product down to assembly and component.
  • Variant assessment with documented assumptions instead of opinions.
  • Risk view: which decision will be the most expensive to reverse later.

What you receive

  • An acoustic concept that records the decisions taken and the reasoning behind them.
  • Testable targets at each level, against which somebody can measure later.
  • A recommendation with the assumptions stated openly alongside it.

This field comes from practice: as lead NVH engineer, the acoustic concept work for a highly automated shuttle programme (level 4) across several target markets — from requirement to validation.

Benchmarking and target setting

Knowing where the competition stands before fixing a target.

When I get called

  • A target value has to be set but the reference is missing.
  • Your product is considered loud — except nobody knows measured against what.
  • A customer demands "at least as good as competitor X", and somebody has to turn that into numbers.

What I do

  • Planning and organising the benchmark: selecting the comparison objects, sourcing them, writing the measurement plan.
  • Comparative measurements under genuinely identical conditions.
  • Evaluation with objective and psychoacoustic metrics, not just levels.

What you receive

  • A defensible position for your own product instead of a gut feeling.
  • Targets with a rationale that survives a discussion with your customer.
  • A comparison data set that still has value in the projects after this one.

Requirements and verification

Acoustic targets that can be tested and survive the evidence.

When I get called

  • The specification says "pleasant acoustic behaviour" and nobody can say whether it is met.
  • There is a dispute with the customer about whether a requirement was achieved.
  • A standard or directive demands evidence, and nobody in-house knows what it looks like.

What I do

  • Rewriting requirements so they are measurable, and therefore no longer arguable.
  • Setting up verification and tracking it across the project.
  • Working directly in your tools — IBM DOORS and Codebeamer.

What you receive

  • A requirement set in which every line carries a test criterion.
  • A verification matrix showing what is proven and what is still open.

Project and programme management

When the subject is bigger than one measurement.

When I get called

  • Several suppliers, one shared deadline, and nobody leading on the technical side.
  • A programme is drifting and there is no one who understands the engineering behind it.
  • A position is vacant and filling it will take months.

What I do

  • Schedule, cost and risk management with defensible status instead of traffic lights.
  • Supplier steering, technically and commercially.
  • Status reports a management level can actually read.

What you receive

  • A schedule that reflects the dependencies, not just the desired date.
  • A maintained risk register with named owners.

Certified as PMP (PMI), Scrum Master and Product Owner, plus PMI-CPMAI for AI-assisted project work.

Once the hardware exists

Analysis and validation

When the hardware is there and doing something it should not — or when it has to be proven that it does not.

Root-cause analysis for noise and vibration

Naming the source, not describing the symptom.

When I get called

  • A noise appears that was not there during development testing.
  • Complaints are piling up but the workshop finds nothing.
  • Two suppliers are blaming each other and the evidence is missing.
  • A component fails in the field and the cause is unclear.

What I do

  • Run-up and order analysis, Campbell diagrams, order cuts.
  • Transfer path analysis — airborne and structure-borne contributions cleanly separated.
  • Operating deflection shape analysis and experimental modal analysis.
  • Psychoacoustic assessment: loudness, sharpness, roughness, tonality.

What you receive

  • The source named, with frequency, order and transfer path.
  • Proposed measures, ranked by expected effect and effort.
  • A measurement report that carries the statement — including in front of your customer.

Test and validation

Measurement campaigns that produce figures instead of impressions.

When I get called

  • A test programme has to be set up and the capacity is not there.
  • Results scatter and nobody knows whether it is the part or the setup.
  • A release is due and the evidence for it is still missing.

What I do

  • Test planning: load cases, measurement points, repeat conditions.
  • Setup, wiring and calibration of the instrumentation on the rig.
  • Running and supervising the measurement campaign.
  • Evaluation and assessment against the agreed targets.

What you receive

  • A test plan that is repeatable and that a third party can follow.
  • A measurement data set with fully documented boundary conditions.
  • A report with a clear release recommendation — even when that recommendation is "not yet".

Vibration monitoring on machines

Catching the damage before the plant stops.

When I get called

  • Unplanned downtime on drives, gearboxes, pumps or fans.
  • Maintenance runs on intervals rather than on condition.
  • A bearing failure caused an expensive outage and must not repeat.

What I do

  • Measurement concept: points, sensors, sampling rates, operating points.
  • Metrics and limits in line with ISO 20816 and ISO 10816.
  • Evaluation logic, trend analysis and alarm thresholds.
  • Briefing the maintenance team on how to read the results.

What you receive

  • A monitoring concept that fits your plant, not a manufacturer’s catalogue.
  • A limit catalogue with a rationale for each measurement point.

Acoustic sensing

Sound as a measurand rather than a nuisance.

When I get called

  • The condition of a machine should be detected acoustically instead of by dismantling it.
  • An automated vehicle should hear emergency vehicles before it sees them.
  • A product should report its own fault without additional sensors inside it.

What I do

  • Selecting and positioning the sensors, MEMS microphones and arrays included.
  • Signal pre-processing and feature extraction from real measurement data.
  • An honest feasibility assessment: what is acoustically distinguishable and what is not.

What you receive

  • A feasibility statement based on measurements rather than assumptions.
  • A sensor concept with a rationale for number, position and type.
  • A prototype processing chain that makes the result traceable.

Equipment

Instrumentation and tools

The measurement chain is assembled per project — available at your site, rented, or purchased. That way you are not paying towards the utilisation of somebody else’s equipment, and what enters the project is what fits the task.

Acquisition systems

  • Dewesoft
  • HEAD acoustics
  • Müller-BBM PAK
  • imc STUDIO
  • Reilhofer KG

Evaluation

  • ArtemiS
  • PAK
  • imc FAMOS
  • Dewesoft
  • MATLAB
  • Python

Sensors

  • Measurement microphones and arrays
  • Acoustic cameras
  • Accelerometers
  • Speed and operating-data references

Requirements and project

  • IBM DOORS
  • Codebeamer
  • Power BI

What I do not offer

So that you do not request the wrong quotation — and so that everything else on this page stays credible.

  • Building and room acoustics

    Sound insulation in buildings to DIN 4109 and room acoustics to DIN 18041 are a separate discipline with their own certification duties. That is not the same craft as order analysis on a machine.

  • Employee leasing

    No deployment on a staff position under external direction. A work or service contract with defined deliverables — anything else jeopardises my status and your procurement process.

Your subject is not listed?

The list reflects what has been asked for so far, not the limit of what is possible. If it involves noise, vibration or instrumentation, the question is worth asking — and if I am the wrong person, I will say so in the first conversation.

Describe your subject