Plates being stacked and clattering off the counter. Loud noises in (large) kitchens cause stress and hearing damage. A French company has found the solution: tableware made of part glass and part rubber. Silent and (almost) unbreakable.
A French start-up has succeeded in making ‘silent tableware’. If you stack it up or put it in the dishwasher: you hear virtually nothing. “It seems very simple, but it is technically very complicated. It has been tried many times, a lot of research has been done, but no one has managed to actually make it before,” says founder Sophie Moritel of the company Quiet.
How does the silent tableware work?
The company now makes two types of plates and a bowl. If you put them together, there is hardly any sound. To be precise: 85 percent less noise. “The top, where you eat from, is made of tempered glass. The bottom is made of elastomer.” The latter material is a kind of rubbery plastic that allows you to stack quietly. The elastomer is not recognizable as a separate layer. The plastic bottom and the glass top form one white whole.
Due to its composition, the tableware is not only ‘quiet’, but also three times as strong as regular tableware, Quiet promises. It hardly breaks. And if a plate falls to the ground, it does not break into a thousand shards, but into one or two pieces. The elastomer also gives it grip: a plate does not easily slip out of your hands.
“Crockery in the dishwasher is exposed to high pressure, heat and chemical cleaning agents. Technically it was a major challenge to ensure that the two layers can withstand all that and stay together. Because we didn’t want to use glue. I’m not allowed to say how we attached the two materials together. That is a trade secret.”
Quiet developed the process together with scientists from the University of Lyon. That took more than four years, with laboratory work and test phases. For example, it was also important that no food remains stick to the rubbery bottom.
Future in commercial kitchens
In France, the tableware is called ‘a revolution for commercial kitchens’. In large kitchens of restaurants, companies and hospitals, for example, staff are exposed to the clatter of dishes on a daily basis. “That is often a long time, all day long. It is not monotonous, but there are unexpected peaks of sound. The noise in a kitchen can go up to 95 to 105 decibels,” says Moritel.
Usually 100 decibels is used as a limit for what can be a ‘pleasant’ sound level. If you are exposed to louder noise for a long time, hearing damage is likely to occur. “And it is known to lead to stress and fatigue among kitchen staff.”
That may now be over, says Moritel. “There is a lot of demand for our product. We made a first start with sales, but had to stop immediately because we are not yet producing enough tableware. We received orders from schools, universities, hospitals and healthcare institutions. We will really start sales at the end of this year. We also want to start selling outside France in 2025. And we want to expand the tableware with other plates and bowls.”
Moritel is also already thinking of new applications. The quiet and robust tableware is ideal for travel and vacation, she says. In the tent, in the camper or even in (sailing) boats. The only problem that remains: recycling. It is possible to recycle glass, but this option does not yet exist for elastomers.
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