New Zealand
Australia
United States
United Kingdom
IrelandReimagining Frontier™ Raft: Continuous Improvement in Action
A more considered approach to acoustic design
At Autex Acoustics, innovation is not always about creating something entirely new. Sometimes, it means taking an existing product and asking how they can make it better, not only in how it looks and performs, but in how it is made, installed, and considered across its lifecycle.
Our reimagined Frontier™ Raft Acoustic Beams are an example of this approach in action.
“This product is an evolution for us: an acoustic beam that has an elegant, streamlined profile, available in three styles,” says General Manager of Sales, Marcel Herbke. “Its suspended acoustic beams enable commercial projects like airports, theatres, atriums, and office buildings to achieve a better look and the feeling of a higher ceiling than traditional plasterboard, while also providing a great reduction in reverberation.”
But the most significant evolution is less visible.
Historically, our Raft range has used an aluminium channel to assemble the beams. In rethinking Frontier Raft, they saw an opportunity to reconsider this component and reduce the product’s embodied carbon.
“Our goal was to decarbonise these products, so we are now using pelletised PET waste offcuts to do the same job as the aluminium previously did,” Marcel explains. “Our pelletiser has been in development for a few years, and in the last 12 months, we’ve created a system that uses those recycled PET pellets to make installation components like clips and fixings.”
By transforming manufacturing offcuts into components that can be used to assemble and install Frontier Raft, they are finding new value in material that would otherwise be waste. The result is a 63% reduction in embodied carbon, demonstrating how changes to individual parts of a product can create a significant collective impact.
Operating across New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, there is an opportunity to positively impact interior spaces around the globe. “It’s a pretty significant step for us,” says Marcel. “If you think about the size of all of those commercial markets, it’s acres of space that need acoustic treatment. As we start to manufacture and deliver those products at scale in ways that reuse our waste and reduce our embodied carbon, we can make a huge difference for both our customers and the planet.”
That spirit of continuous improvement extends beyond how Frontier Raft is manufactured. Five new colours, Marina, Park, Petra, Colosseum, and Rushmore, broaden the palette available to designers, while the local manufacturing model allows us to respond closely to the needs of individual markets and projects.
“By staying in close contact with our customers and manufacturing our products locally, we are able to really understand the needs of each market,” Marcel says. “If you have a 2.9m ceiling, we’ll make you 2.9m panels, rather than importing a fixed-dimension product that you then have to rework on site.”
For Marcel, Frontier Raft also points to where their ceiling offering can go next. Autex Acoustics has established extensive finishing possibilities for wall applications, including print, texture, form, and precision detailing, and are exploring how greater customisation might translate overhead.
“We invest heavily in prototyping and design,” Marcel says. “A lot of that translates into exciting product developments that we can put directly in front of local industry professionals through the comprehensive support from our New Zealand sales team. Whether you’re in Queenstown or Whangarei, we can get an Account Manager there doing a presentation, showing you exactly how the system could work for your next project.”
Frontier Raft is the latest expression of that thinking: looking closely at what already works, challenging themselves to improve it, and designing more considered acoustic solutions for what comes next.
