U.S. patent number 3,721,840 [Application Number 05/180,397] was granted by the patent office on 1973-03-20 for sound generator.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Nittan Company, Limited. Invention is credited to Hayao Yamada.
United States Patent |
3,721,840 |
Yamada |
March 20, 1973 |
SOUND GENERATOR
Abstract
A sound generator having a relatively thin diaphragm and a
piezoelectric disc element with electrodes bonded to opposing sides
thereof adhered to one side of said diaphragm and means supporting
the edge of said diaphragm.
Inventors: |
Yamada; Hayao (Kita-ku, Tokyo,
JA) |
Assignee: |
Nittan Company, Limited (Tokyo,
JA)
|
Family
ID: |
22660307 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/180,397 |
Filed: |
September 14, 1971 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
310/334; 310/324;
381/173; 310/345 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04R
17/00 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H04R
17/00 (20060101); H04r 017/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;310/8,8.2,8.3,9.1-9.4,8.5-8.7 ;179/11A,11R |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Miller; J. D.
Assistant Examiner: Budd; Mark O.
Claims
I claim:
1. A sound generator comprising a piezoelectric disc having
opposing faces, an electrode electrically connected to each face of
said disc with one of said electrodes being in the form of a disc
having a diameter greater than said piezoelectric disc, a thin
circular synthetic resin plate having a central circular opening of
a diameter greater than the diameter of said piezoelectric disc and
smaller than said electrode disc, and means securing said electrode
disc in overlying relationship to said opening with the
piezoelectric disc disposed concentrically of said opening.
Description
This invention relates to a sound generator and more particularly
to an improved structure for supporting the vibrator of a sound
generator including a piezoelectric vibrator.
Various structures have been proposed for supporting a
piezoelectric vibrator of a sound generator, but most of them are
so complicated in structure that the cost of manufacture is
generally high and many problems have been encountered in design
and manufacture. This is especially true in the case of the design
of a waterproof sound generator.
Accordingly, one object of this invention resides in the provision
of a sound generator having an improved vibrator supporting the
structure which is simple, inexpensive, and waterproof.
According to this invention, a piezoelectric vibration element made
of piezoelectric material such as barium titanate and having a pair
of electrodes adhered on both faces thereof is adhered to the face
of a thin plate made of synthetic resin, and the thin resin plate
is fixed at its circumference to a supporting base member.
The invention will be more clearly described hereinunder with
reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view representing one embodiment of a
vibrator supporting structure according to the invention;
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view representing another embodiment of
a vibrator supporting structure according to the invention;
FIG. 3 is a graph for use in explaining a feature of the structure
of FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view representing a further embodiment
of a vibrator supporting structure according to the invention;
and
FIG. 5 is a graph for use in explaining a feature of the structure
of FIG. 4.
Throughout the drawings like reference numerals are used to denote
corresponding structural elements.
Referring to FIG. 1, the vibrator is composed of a piezoelectric
element 1 in the form of a circular disc of piezoelectric material
such as barium titanate and a pair of electrodes 2 and 3 adhered or
deposited on both faces of said piezoelectric element 1. The
vibrator is adhered to the face of a thin circular plate 4 made of
synthetic resin. The thin plate 4 is supported at its circumference
by a supporting member 5 which is generally a portion of a housing
and fixedly secured by an overlying member 6 to the member 5.
Though various kinds of synthetic resin can be used for the thin
plate 4, it has been found that polyethylene terephthalate and
cellulose triacetate are especially suitable. The thickness of the
thin plate 4 should be selected so as to maximize the transducing
efficiency, and may preferably be 0.1 to 0.5 millimeters, for
example. As readily found from the drawing, the thin plate 4
functions as the diaphragm of the sound generator and, at the same
time, serves a function of a waterproof bulkhead for the internally
contained elements (not shown).
The embodiment shown in FIG. 2 resembles the embodiment of FIG. 1
but the thin resin plate 4 of FIG. 2 has a central opening 7 and
the vibrator (electrode 3) is adhered at its circumference to the
resin plate 4 so as to cover the opening 7. The effect of the
opening 7 as shown in FIG. 3 illustrates the relation of the load
and sound volume to the diameter of the opening 7. In the figure
the solid curve A shows the load in ohms and the dashed curve B
shows the sound volume in decibels. As clearly evident from this
figure, the load decreases and the sound volume increases with an
increase in the diameter of the opening 7. However, the diameter of
the opening 7 is limited by the size of the vibrator since the
bonding strength of the vibrator and the thin plate 4 must not be
lower than a specific value. It has been found that this allowable
lowest bonding strength is reduced when the diameter of the
piezoelectric element 1 is smaller than the diameter of the opening
7 to provide more efficient vibration.
The embodiment of FIG. 4 includes a vibrator-diaphragm structure
similar to that of FIG. 1, but annular resilient materials 8 and 9
are disposed between the thin resin plate 4 and the supporting
members 5 and 6. The resilient material may be foam rubber,
polyurethane foam or the like. The acoustic efficiency is increased
with decrease of the density of the resilient material as shown by
the density-load curve of FIG. 5.
As described in the above, the vibrator supporting structure of
this invention is simple in construction and inexpensive to
manufacture and will provide a water-tight structure for the sound
generator.
* * * * *