A sliding wall that also softens the sound in the room is a useful thing to specify on a villa or apartment fit-out. Santerson Acoustic Sliding Panels sit in our Sliding Panel Systems range alongside glass and textured versions, and like everything else we build they are cut to the opening on site rather than supplied in standard sizes. Buyers who want those panels under their own brand, or matched to a finish schedule they already control, normally reach them through OEM work. Here is what that route actually looks like, step by step, and what we expect from you at each point.
What OEM sourcing means when the panel is bespoke
OEM manufacturing means our factory builds to your drawings and your documentation instead of to our catalogue. You keep the design authority; we supply the engineering, the panel production and the hardware set that goes with it. That is different from buying a panel off a spec sheet, and it matters most on projects where the wall system has to agree with joinery, doors and ceilings drawn by someone else.
For a development with several identical bedroom walls, or a furniture brand reselling wall systems under its own name, the OEM route lets one approved detail be repeated across units. As a custom furniture and interior products manufacturer, we handle that kind of repeat production alongside loose furniture, cabinetry and other interior products for the same building, which is why most OEM enquiries reach us as a package rather than as one item.
Step 1: The brief and the opening dimensions
Send us what you already have: room drawings, elevations, a finish schedule, or a mark-up of the wall you want to close off. We work from the finished opening dimensions and the floor-to-ceiling condition, and we need to know how the panels are expected to move — one plane, returning around a corner, or pocketing into a wall cavity.
At this stage, also say who is on site. A factory-made panel that arrives in the wrong sequence for the trade installing it costs more than the panel is worth. Telling us the installation method early changes the track layout, the number of leaves and the hardware we quote.
Step 2: Face material, finish and hardware selection
The acoustic version is one face option in a wider panel family. Our Santerson Textured Sliding Panels take a textured surface, and the same wall line can be ordered as glass panels or in the matching acoustic wall panels from our Paneling Systems group. We quote a shortlist of face materials and finishes against your schedule, then produce a sample leaf or a finish board so you can sign off colour, grain and edge detail before the order opens.
Hardware is quoted with the panel, not bolted on afterwards: track, hangers, guides, handles and any lock or latch. If your project already has a preferred hardware brand, send the model and we will confirm compatibility rather than assume it.
Step 3: Confirming what the acoustic specification has to achieve
This is the step most buyers skip, and it is the one we insist on. “Acoustic” covers several different jobs — absorbing reflection inside the room, limiting sound passing through the wall, or simply closing off a noisy zone. Each needs a different build.
Give us the performance you are being held to: a rated value from the consultant, a room-to-room separation requirement, or a material with a test report attached that you want us to match. We then confirm the configuration, core and sealing detail that meets it, in writing, for the exact panel size you have ordered. Published catalogue pages on our site do not carry acoustic figures for every configuration, so the number is agreed per project rather than assumed.
Step 4: Prototype, sign-off and order release
For a new OEM programme we make one prototype or sample section first, following the Custom & OEM service described on our site — design and prototyping, bespoke finishes, OEM production, and flexible minimum order quantities. You review the sample, mark it, and we revise. Nothing goes into series production until that sign-off is returned.
Once released, the approved detail is locked. If the panel carries your brand — an engraved plate, your label on the packaging, your own packing list format — that branding is produced in the same run, so the goods arrive ready for your own receiving process.
Step 5: Production, inspection and packing for the site
Panels are made in sequence and packed by opening, with each crate labelled to the room or elevation it belongs to. Sliding wall systems go wrong in the unpacking order far more often than in the manufacturing, so a crate list matched to your install programme is worth as much as the tolerance check.
Before closing the containers we photograph the packed sets and the assembled sample of the hardware pack, and send the record to the buyer. That gives you something to check against when the goods land, without waiting for an inspector.
Step 6: Freight, documentation and installation support
Our logistics service covers freight forwarding by sea, air and rail, export paperwork and door-to-door delivery, so a wall system can travel with the cabinetry, wardrobes and lighting from the same order instead of arriving from three suppliers on three dates. Import terms, duties and transit time are confirmed for the destination port on your shipment; they are not figures we quote from a general list.
After delivery we support site installation, snagging and spare parts. For wall systems we also send fixing drawings for the track and the head restraint, because the structure above a sliding wall has to be set out before the ceiling closes. Installation support arranged with the order is far cheaper than a call-out after the ceiling is boarded.
Where acoustic sliding panels earn their place on a plan
- Bedroom dressing areas, where a sliding front closes a walk-in run without the swing clearance a hinged door needs.
- Study or media walls in a villa, where the surface has to read as joinery when closed and absorb reflection when open.
- Open-plan apartment zones that need to be separated at night, especially where the same finish is carried across the rest of the wall.
- Hotel and serviced-apartment suites, where one repeated detail is ordered across many identical rooms and must be replaceable later from the same specification.
Where the requirement is a fixed wall surface rather than a moving one, the matching Santerson Acoustic Panels in the Paneling Systems group are the simpler and cheaper specification. We will tell you when the sliding option is not the right answer.
What to have ready before you send the enquiry
- Finished opening sizes, floor to ceiling and wall to wall, with the tolerance you can actually hold on site.
- The acoustic requirement stated as a target value or a reference product with a test report.
- The finish schedule for the surrounding joinery, so the panel face is matched to what is already ordered.
- Quantities by room, and the phasing of the site — the first floor to be closed out matters more than the total count.
Send those four items and we can come back with a configuration, a hardware set and a price that holds, instead of a number that has to be reopened after the drawings come back. That is what makes OEM sourcing of a wall system predictable.
If your project needs acoustic sliding panels built to your drawings and delivered with the rest of the fit-out, send us the openings and the acoustic target and we will confirm the configuration for them. More about the services behind this process is on our Custom Furniture Manufacturer and One-stop Furniture and Building Materials Supplier pages.