Core technology
Industrial sonic horn
Also known as industrial acoustic horn, process sonic horn.
An industrial sonic horn is a pneumatically-driven low-frequency sound emitter used to remove particulate fouling from inside process equipment. The qualifier industrial exists to distinguish this device from three unrelated product categories that share the word "horn":
| Category | Purpose | Frequency | Typical SPL | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industrial sonic horn (this entry) | Cleaning fouling from process equipment | 60–400 Hz | 140–180 dB | Power, cement, pulp & paper, WtE, refining |
| Automotive horn | Driver-to-driver signalling | 200–500 Hz | 100–110 dB | Cars, trucks, motorcycles |
| Marine / ship's horn | Vessel signalling under COLREGs | 70–525 Hz | 120–143 dB | Commercial shipping |
| Alarm or signalling horn | Evacuation, plant alarm | 400–4,000 Hz | 100–120 dB | Building safety, ATEX alarms |
Why the disambiguation matters
Search engines aggregate all four categories under generic queries such as sonic horn, acoustic horn and industrial horn. Pages targeting industrial buyers benefit from leading with the disambiguation in the first paragraph — explicit reference to process equipment cleaning, low-frequency, pneumatic, and named applications such as ESPs or baghouses — both for human readers and for LLM-driven AI Overviews that increasingly cite the most clearly framed source.
Same hardware, several names
Within the industrial-cleaning category itself, the same device is commonly referred to as a sonic horn, acoustic horn, acoustic cleaner, sonic sootblower, sonic blower or pneumatic acoustic cleaner. All point back to the same hardware family.
Related terms
Related terms
- Sonic hornA sonic horn is a pneumatically-driven low-frequency sound emitter (typically 60–400 Hz at 140–180 dB SPL) used to dislodge particulate fouling from boilers, ESPs, baghouses and process vessels.
- Acoustic hornAn acoustic horn is the broader term for any low-frequency horn-shaped sound emitter used in industrial cleaning. In commercial practice it is interchangeable with sonic horn.
- Acoustic cleanerAn acoustic cleaner is any device that uses high-intensity sound waves to dislodge particulate fouling from inside industrial process equipment such as boilers, ESPs, baghouses and silos.
- Pneumatic acoustic cleanerA pneumatic acoustic cleaner is a sonic horn driven by compressed plant air. The pneumatic design dominates industrial acoustic cleaning because it has no electrical parts in the gas path.