Basics Screening

PREFACE & WARNING:

Please note that for professional RF screening (i.e., against mobile phone transmission towers, mobile phones, DECT portable phones, radar etc.), a hermetically sealed enclosure, a so-called “Faraday cage”, MUST be constructed. Various dubious suppliers do not inform their customers about this fact for making quick money with the nescience of their customers. For example, canopies WITHOUT proper grounding and inferior screening material is being offered in heaps.

Often, suppliers even claim that screening a small part of a wall or a window in direction of the radiation source (for example, a transmission tower) is always enough to provide protection. This is total nonsense and WRONG and its only purpose is making the supplier some quick money. These claims.

CONCLUSION:

Be SURE to get are often additionally supported with misleading animations on the suppliers’ homepages. Don’t get fooled! In the worst case, such a partial screening installation can even WORSEN the situation due to reflections, which will give you an even HIGHER exposure than before! Don’t get fooled either by the popular, yet nonsensical claims that a Faraday cage protects completely against “natural” radiation. This claim is also pure rubbish and its only purpose is to support sales of inferior screening material!

Examples of equally useless products are stickers, ICs, salt crystals, or even ELECTRICAL appliances (how foolish can it get?) of any kind. Various lawsuits for fraud have been targetted against these suppliersour professional and FREE advice before you pour your money down the drain! Your health and that of your family, and also your money should be enough reason.

You should also read: The “99% lie” or why a good screening performance is so important.


Basics

Electric and electromagnetic waves are everywhere in our modern environment. They form in any place where electrical energy is being produced, distributed or consumed. CONSIDERABLE exposure by LOW-FREQUENCY (LF) alternating fields in your home and at work is omnipresent. They are mostly caused by “invisible” power cables in walls and ceilings of any building, but also by appliances connected to those, like lamps, computers, TVs, fridges etc.. Also, regular power lines (high-voltage lines) can cause EXTREMELY HIGH exposures even when hundreds of metres away. In addition to the mentioned LF radiation, exposure to pulsed RADIO- (RF) or HIGH-FREQUENCY fields is getting more severe in recent years. This is, among others, one of the consequences of our modern communications technology. For example, the meanwhile almost 30000 mobile phone transmission towers provide service for more than 20 million users of mobile phones throughout Germany. 40000 more are already planned when the new UMTS standard (in the 2GHz band) goes online.

Leading to, of course, an even higher exposure to pulsed RF radiation.

The downside of this development is, of course, the fact that the well-being of an ever-increasing number of people is being affected by this phaenomenon commonly known as “Electrosmog”. Even though possible health risks represented by RF and LF fields are not fully known and subject to controversial discussions even among scientists, it makes sense to minimize the exposure to Electrosmog radiation as a precaution – especially in homes and there particularly in bedrooms and childrens’ bedrooms.


Aaronia Shielding & Screening Materials

The various currently available screening systems all differ vastly in their screening and cost efficiency. They are made especially for the novice, but also for professional customers, and most of the time they are far too sophisticated and thus far too expensive.

Furthermore, customers currently often need TWO seperate screening products as products against RF fields mostly do not offer hardly any protection against LF fields and vice-versa.

Consequently, Aaronia has developed highly-efficient, very cost-effective and, particularly for the novice, easy-to-install screening products. In contrast to many solutions from other suppliers, Aaronia only offers REAL solutions:

1.) Aaronia screening products always offer the highest possible screening performance. Many supplies try to fool their customers with percentage figures. Specifications like “90% (10dB) or 99% (20dB) screening” try to impress with an alledgedly high screening performance. Serious architecture-biological exposure limits are mostly not even remotely met by such a screening performance, depending on the intensity of the existing radiation! But: Conformance with exposure limits or recommendations should always be the primary aim of any screening effort! Mostly, only with screening performances of 99,999% (50dB) or higher!, these requirements can be fulfilled. Though, often screening of more than 100dB, like with Aaronia X-Dream, is required. The number of ‘9’s after the decimal point is of SIGNIFICANT importance if screening performance (damping) is specified as a percentage! Do not get fooled here, either!

You should rather consider the figures shown in dB, as these are much more meaningful and “neutral” than allegedly impressive percentage figures. Also, it is much easier to calculate the efficiency of a screening product using the dB figure.

The following example demonstrates the importance of a high screening efficiency, using the probably well-known dB(A) table:

Volume Table in dB(A)

Example:

dB(A) reading:

Perception/impact:

Screening example:

Jet plane

130dB(A)

Hearing damage

Jackhammer

120dB(A)

VERY PAINFUL

Rockband, Disco

110dB(A)

PAINFUL

Souped-up car

100dB(A)

UNBEARABLE

Assumed common electrosmog exposure

Circular saw

90dB(A)

UNBEARABLE

10dB screening (90%)

High-traffic motorway, daytime

80dB(A)

Hearing damage from 85dB

20dB screening (99%)

Main road, daytime

70dB(A)

Circulatory diseases

30dB screening (99,9%)

Main road at night

60dB(A)

VERY LOUD

40dB screening (99,99%)

Quiet residential area, daytime

50dB(A)

Communication problems.

50dB screening (99,999%)

Quiet residential area at night

40dB(A)

Issues with concentrating and learning

60dB screening (99,999.9%)

Ticking alarm clock

30dB(A)

Sleeping disorders

70dB screening (99,999.99%)

Whispering leaves

20dB(A)

Quiet

80dB screening (99,999.999%)

Normal breathing

10dB(A)

Very quiet

90dB screening (99,999.999.9%)

Silence

0dB(A)

Unnoticable to 1dB(A)

100dB screening (99,999.999.99%)

Notice: When working with dB(A) figures, 10dB mean a change by a factor of 10. Examples: 100dB(A) noise is 10 times stronger than 90dB(A) or a hundred times stronger than 80dB(A) etc.
dB as a damping unit means a tenfold increase at 10dB, 20dB being ten times as much as 10dB, 30dB being 100 times as much as 10dB, etc.
© Aaronia AG, D-54597 Euscheid, www.spectran.com, Phone: ++49(0)6556-93033

In our example, we will relate a common level of exposure to electrosmog with the noise level of a “souped-up” car perceived as unbearable at 100dB(A) (See table 1). So, if our screenings were made for damping noise instead of electrosmog, the following sample calculation would apply:

Using a screening with 99% (20dB) efficiency, there would still be a noise level of 80dB(A). This would still be roughly equivalent to causing hearing damage (caused by 85dB(A)).

Even when using a screening of 99,9% (30dB) efficiency, a noise level of 70dB(A) would still be present. This would be equivalent to traffic noise next to a main road which would cause circulatory diseases.

In contrast, using a screening product with 99,999% efficiency (50dB as with Aaronia-Shield), a noise level of only 50dB(A) would remain. This would “only” be equivalent to the noise exposure next to a quiet road in a residential area. Even more, a 100dB screening efficiency, like Aaronia X-Dream offers, would actually give you a “perfect” screening. Using our example, the following situations could be derived:

Screening canopies:

Would you like to be exposed to the noise level of a motorway or main traffic road when using a regular 20-30dB (99% to 99,9%) screening canopy, or maybe rather tolerate a quiet residential road using an Aaronia high-performance screening canopy with 50dB damping (99,999%) made from Aaronia-Shield?

Room screenings:

Would you like to be exposed to the noise level of a motorway or main traffic road when using a regular 20-30dB (99% to 99,9%) screening canopy, or maybe rather enjoy the “absolute silence” using a high-performance 100dB screening product like Aaronia X-Dream? We think that your answer is obvious in both cases…

2.) Aaronia AG’s screening products always offer protection both against EMF E-fields AND RF radiation. All Aaronia screenings can (and should) always be grounded and thus also offer optimal protection against EMF, IN ADDITION to RF screening.

3.) Aaronia screening products always offer, especially in the higher GHz ranges, outstanding screening performance, while other products have severe problems giving any noteworthy performance at all. Screening in the higher GHz ranges is particularly important because current wireless networks (WLan) already use these frequency ranges and are being installed at a dramatically fast pace (for example, 5,8GHz WLan). Also, future mobile phones and their transmission towers etc. will use ever higher frequencies. Thus, Aaronia screening products are future-proof already today and do not need troublesome and costly replacement by new products in the future.

The secret behind the high screening performance of Aaronia products is our utilisation of state-of-the-art materials and processing procedures, utilizing the newest research of leading institutes and of Aaronia’s own laboratories.

The following table impressively demonstrates the results of our efforts to offer cost-effective high-performance screening products, which even fulfill military standards, for almost any application imaginable:


Damping specifications

Damping specifications for Aaronia high-performance shielding products:

Product:

Frequency:

Damping in dB:

Damping factor:

Damping in %:

Application examples:

A2000+

1GHz
10GHz

20dB
10dB

100
10

99,0%
90%

Indoor and outdoor shielding
Low exposure

Aaronia-Shield®

1GHz
10GHz

50dB
45dB

100.000
30.000

99,999%
99,992%

Textile applications (Canopies, clothing, curtains etc.)
Low and high exposure

Aaronia X-Dream®

1GHz
10GHz

100dB
80dB

10.000.000.000
100.000.000

99,999.999.99%
99,999.999%

Indoor shielding, measurement chambers
High to highest exposure

Notice: When using the dB unit, an increase of 10dB is equivalent to a 10fold increase in strength. For example, 100dB is 10 times as strong as 90dB, or 100 times as strong as 80dB, etc.
© Aaronia AG, DE-54597 Euscheid, www.spectran.com, Tel. ++49(0)6556-93033

Damping specifications for Aaronia high-performance magnetic shielding:

Product:

Damping in dB:

Damping factor:

Damping in %:

Application examples:

Aaronia MagnoShield FLEX

7-8dB

5-7fach

50-70%

Creating small, self-supporting screening cases

Aaronia MagnoShield FLEX PLUS

7-8dB

5-7fach

50-70%

Self-screening for small areas, or housing units. Shielding plate collisions and transitions.

Aaronia MagnoShield VERBUND

7-8dB

5-7fach

50-70%

Large-scale screening and high-frequency fields by combination of materials (composite system)

Aaronia MagnoShield DUR

10-14db

10-13fach

90-93%

Large-scale screening of buildings, measuring chambers, transformer stations.
For high to highest exposure.

Notice: When using the dB unit, an increase of 10dB is equivalent to a 10fold increase in strength. For example, 100dB is 10 times as strong as 90dB, or 100 times as strong as 80dB, etc.
© Aaronia AG, DE-54597 Euscheid, www.spectran.com, Tel. ++49(0)6556-93033


Our Products

For low exposure, we offer Aaronia A2000+ screening tissue. It offers an average damping of 20dB while being very cost-effective, though it should only be used with really low exposures (for high exposures, see Aaronia X-Dream®). It is based on a fabric with interwoven stainless steel fibres and a special conductive coating. The tissue is easy to handle and to lay. No damage is taken by folding this tissue. Further it is immune to freezing temperatures, strong, does not decay or rot and can even be put inside walls or concrete. As such it is also applicable for outdoor use and can replace regular reinforcement fabric, thus saving additional cost.

Again for low exposures, but also high exposures, Aaronia-Shield® screening fabric has been developped. It offers an amazing screening efficiency of approx. 50dB while still being highly transparent. Especially in the higher GHz ranges (future mobile phones, radar, military radio), Aaronia-Shield® still offers exceptional screening performance while several other “solutions” fail dramatically. Aaronia-Shield® is based on an extremely thin polyamid fibre which is inseperably adjoined to a highly efficient silver coating using a patented processing procedure. It can even be washed without losing its screening characteristics. In conjunction with a specialized, highly efficient weaving technique, a true high-efficiency screening fabric is formed, which can be processed like regular fabric and still offers high transparency and air permeability. Due to its high content in silver (20%), Aaronia-Shield® is, thanks to the so-called oligodynamic effect, even anti-bacteriological, reduces body odours and even cigarette smell in no time. Additionally, Aaronia-Shield® is extremely transparent, permeable to light and air, and anti-static. Aaronia-Shield® can be used to manufacture curtains, fly screens, canopies, protective garments (for clinical, industrial or aerospace use), etc. We offer complete canopy solutions made from Aaronia-Shield®. Hence you can furnish beds with a highly efficient screening which, depending on the level of exposure, can even conform with the rigorous Aaronia exposure limits.

If a high screening performance for rooms or buildings is needed or extremely strong exposures are present, Aaronia X-Dream® high-performance screening fleece is the appropriate solution. Aaronia X-Dream® can be applied like Aaronia A2000+, but offers, depending on frequency, an up to 10.000.000 times!!! better screening of approx. 100dB. Thus, Aaronia X-Dream® is the intelligent screening solution and offers a degree of protection against RF AND EMF radiation otherwise only available to professionals in the industry, at an affordable price. Hence, it is even possible to construct bug-proof environments or high-grade metering chambers. Also, Aaronia X-Dream® is probably the best solution to conform to rigorous Aaronia exposure limits. Due to its extremely high screening performance in the high GHz range, rooms screened with Aaronia X-Dream® are also future-proof for the coming exposures from 5,8GHz WLan etc.

© Aaronia AG