CA1241432A
Expired / Lapsed
CA
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
End weighted reed sound transducer
Assignee: Magnavox Government and Industrial Electronics Co
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Filing: 1983-06-23
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Granted: 1988-08-30
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Expires: 2003-06-23
Abstract
Abstract ABSTRACT: "End weighted reed sound transducer". A cylindrical shell enclosure has mounted interiorly thereof in cantilever manner four upstanding laminated planar flexible resilient electroacoustic trans-ducer reeds. A separate inertia weight is affixed to the top edge of each reed. An acoustic wave impinging on the side wall of the submerged enclosure will cause relative movement between the enclosure and a weight if the wave direction has a component transverse to the plane of the reed on which the weight is mounted. The reeds are mounted in quadrature so that wave direction detection is provided by comparing the electrical outputs of the reeds. Visco-elastic damping pads may be affixed between the side ends of each of the weights and respective upstanding rigid arms secured to an interior surface of the enclosure.
Inventors
- 👤 Rayford A. Loftin
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
CA
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-08 02:22
CPC Classifications
G; G01; G01V; G01V1/00; G01V1/16; G01V1/18; G01V1/186; B; B06; B06B; B06B1/00; B06B1/02; B06B1/06; B06B1/0603; G01V1/181
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 20
Claim 1
Independent Claim
305 words
TEE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS: l. Electroacoustic transducer apparatus for sensing and providing acoustic wave directional information in a fluid acoustic medium comprising: a rigid support base having a substantially planar support surface; a wall having a wall area; said wall being attached to and extending substantially perpendicularly from said surface to form a walled base; an inertia weight; a flexible, planar, resilient reed having an electroacoustic transducer laminate on at least one side thereof that bends to convert between an electrical signal and a corresponding degree of reed bend; said reed having a first edge and a second edge opposite to said first edge; said reed being cantilevered from said support base surface at said first edge and extending substantially perpendicularly from said surface; said weight being affixed to said reed in spaced relation from said support surface to form a weighted transducer reed; said weight being movable relative to said base in a direction that has a component transverse to the plane of said reed whereby sound waves impinging on said wall and having a directional component transverse to the plane of said reed will cause relative transverse movement between said base and said weight to apply a bending moment to said reed; means for suspending said base in a fluid acous-tic medium and being free of contact with a solid surface so that said base can move in said medium in correspondence with acoustic waves impinging on the area of said wall; the larger the wall area impinged upon the larger the force between said base and said weight for moving said base in said medium relative to said weight thereby increasing the degree of the bend of said reed and increasing the ampli-tude of the corresponding electrical signal.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
25 words
The apparatus of Claim 1 wherein said wall extends continuously around the periphery of said base to provide a substantially omnidirectional acoustic wave wall surface.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
10 words
The apparatus of Claim 2 wherein said wall is cylindrical.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
36 words
The apparatus of Claim 2 including a cover for said wall whereby said base, wall and cover form an hermet-ically sealed enclosure; said reed extending in the direction of said walls and being within said enclosure.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
19 words
The apparatus of Claim 1 wherein said weight is affixed to said second edge of said weighted transducer reed.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
19 words
The apparatus of Claim 1 including a plurality of said weighted transducer reeds, each reed having a separate weight.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
16 words
The apparatus of Claim 1 including means to dampen the movement of said weighted transducer reed.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
43 words
The apparatus of Claim 7 including a viscoelastic material; attaching means to attach said viscoelastic material between said weight and said walled base to mech-anically couple said weight to said walled base for damping relative movement between said weight and said walled base.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
40 words
The apparatus of Claim 8 wherein said attaching means comprises a rigid bracket arm having one end canti-levered to said base and extending outwardly from said sur-face; said viscoelastic material being between and bonded to said weight and said arm.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
100 words
The apparatus of Claim 9 wherein said attaching means comprises a second rigid arm cantilevered to said base; said weight having opposite ends; one of said arms being positioned at one of said opposite ends of said weight; and the other of said arms being positioned at the other of said opposite ends of said weight; said viscoelastic material comprising two por-tions, one of said portions being bonded between one end of said weight and one of said arms and the other of said por-tions being bonded between the other end of said weight and the other of said arms.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
29 words
The apparatus of Claim 10 wherein each of said portions is tapered outwardly from the respective end of said weight to the respective arm to provide motion propor-tional damping.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
34 words
The apparatus of Claim 1, 8 or 9, including a second of said weighted transducer reeds, the plane of said second reed being substantially orthogonal to the plane of said first mentioned transducer reed.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
42 words
The apparatus of Claim 1 including a planar insulative flexible resilient reed having a conductive layer on each side thereof; a sheet of piezoelectric material having a con-ductive layer on each side thereof being bonded to each conductive layer of said reed.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
30 words
The apparatus of Claim 13 wherein said sheet of piezoelectric material extends from said base approximately .4 of the distance of said second end of said reed from said base.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
104 words
The apparatus of Claim 1 wherein said wall extends continuously around the periphery of said base to provide a substantially omnidirectional acoustic wave wall surface; the apparatus further comprising a cover for said wall whereby said base, wall and cover form an hermetically sealed enclosure; said reed extending in the direction of said walls and being within said enclosure; a cable; a plurality of said enclosures, each of said enclosures having at least one of said weighted transducer reeds mounted therein; each of said enclosures having a positive buoyancy and being attached to and buoyantly supporting said cable to form an array of enclosures.
Claim 16
Independent Claim
291 words
A method for sensing and providing acoustic wave direction in a fluid acoustic medium using an electroacous-tic transducer having a rigid support base having a sub-stantially planar support surface; a wall having a wall area and attached to and extending substantially perpen-dicular from said surface to form a walled base; an inertia weight; a flexible, planar, resilient reed having an elec-troacoustic transducer laminate on at least one side thereof that bends to convert between an electrical signal and a corresponding degree of reed bend; said reed having a first edge and a second edge opposite to said first edge; said reed being cantilevered from said support base surface at said first edge and extending substantially perpendicular from said surface; said weight being affixed to said reed in spaced relation from said support surface to form a weighted transducer reed; said weight being movable rela-tive to said base in a direction that has a component transverse to the plane of said reed whereby sound waves impinging on said wall and having a directional component transverse to the plane of said reed will cause relative transverse movement between said base and said weight to apply a bending moment to said reed; comprising the steps of: suspending said transducer in a fluid acoustic medium so that said base and wall can move in said medium to bend the reed between the weight and the base to convert between a reed electrical signal and an acoustical wave, the larger the wall area confronting the acoustical wave pressure the larger the force for moving the base relative the weight and the greater the bending of the reed; processing the reed electrical signals for obtaining correspondence between the signals and the acoustical wave confronting said wall area.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
12 words
The method of Claim 16 including the step of damping the weight.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
28 words
The method of Claim 16 including the step of damping the weight by applying a viscoelastic coupling between the base and each of opposite ends of the weight.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
21 words
The method of Claim 16 wherein the step of pro-cessing the reed electrical signals obtains an acoustical wave directional response pattern.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
35 words
The method of Claim 19 wherein there are two of said transducers mounted in quadrature on said surface and wherein the response pattern of said processing step is a sine like and cosine like pattern.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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