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A Single-Digit-Micrometer Thickness Wood Speaker

posted by martyb on Monday December 02 2019, @02:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the soft-hardware dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

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

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Monday December 02 2019, @04:52AM (2 children)

    by Immerman (3985) on Monday December 02 2019, @04:52AM (#926989)

    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.

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  • (Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Tuesday December 03 2019, @04:11PM (1 child)

    by linkdude64 (5482) on Tuesday December 03 2019, @04:11PM (#927682)

    massive amount of room to increase volume

    Took me a minute.

    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday December 03 2019, @04:47PM

      by Immerman (3985) on Tuesday December 03 2019, @04:47PM (#927697)

      Heheheh, I totally missed that...