Researchers have created an audio speaker using ultra-thin wood film. The new material demonstrates high tensile strength and increased Young’s modulus, as well as acoustic properties contributing to higher resonance frequency and greater displacement amplitude compared to a commercial polypropylene diaphragm in an audio speaker.
[...] The process for building the ultra-thin film involved removing lignin and hemicellulose from balsa wood, resulting in a highly porous material. The result is hot pressed for a thickness reduction of 97%. The cellulose nano-fibers remain oriented but more densely packed compared to natural wood. In addition, the fibers required higher energy to be pulled apart while remaining flexible and foldable.
At one point in time, plastics seemed to be the hottest new material, but perhaps wood is making a comeback?
Journal Reference:
Wentao Gan et al. Single-digit-micrometer thickness wood speaker, Nature Communications (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13053-0
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02 2019, @02:22AM (1 child)
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02 2019, @04:15AM
Boring....
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday December 02 2019, @02:27AM (3 children)
new speaker/rare/ultra-expensive
Audiophile: "want. Here, have a kidney"
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02 2019, @02:29AM
Want stereo, take both kidneys.
(Score: 3, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Monday December 02 2019, @02:54AM (1 child)
Oh great, now I'm hungry. Thanks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02 2019, @03:30AM
Name checks out. Don't eat me, bro.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02 2019, @04:15AM (1 child)
Speaker cones used to be made from pressed wood pulp, you know, that stuff that paper plates and cardboard are made from. Is this any different?
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday December 02 2019, @05:43AM
This process maintains the orientation of the cellulose fibers allowing it to be sufficiently strong while being thinner and lighter than the old paper speaker cones.
Unlike the magic rocks and tuning the room via a very special phone call, this may actually make an objective improvement on a stereo's performance, but I suspect it's still well into the audiophile domain.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Monday December 02 2019, @04:52AM (2 children)
I strongly suspect this is an application of the "superwood" technology from early last year, when (presumably the same) Liangbing Hu was involved a the new process to densify wood to make it stronger than steel.
It wouldn't be my first choice for a superwood application, but I can see how superwood-diaphragm speakers might well have wonderful visual and accoustic properties that could well carve a niche in the highly profitable auidiophile market. And it's a great market as well for improving the cost effectiveness of the technology, as there's a massive amount of room to increase volume to equip lower-tier speakers as the per-unit cost falls.
Hopefully, once the technology has had some time to mature and establish volume production lines, they'll be able to scale up to more substantial applications. Superwod does seem like it could be an incredible building material for a whole lot of things.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Tuesday December 03 2019, @04:11PM (1 child)
Took me a minute.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday December 03 2019, @04:47PM
Heheheh, I totally missed that...