Cone material/Design

[Shawn_K]

I have been thinking about cone materials and cone design and don't know why more manufactures don't make poly cones with reinforcing ribs similar to the Tang Band W4-1052SD. Plastic cones suffer from low modulus of elasticity to mass ratio but have better damping properties vs metal cones or conventional paper cones (I say conventional because some of the composite paper cones have very good dampening and stiffness). Maybe the cost of the tooling to create a poly cone with reinforcing ribs is too expensive - I would think the consistency would be very good. I see that ETON makes some paper cones with reinforcing ribs. I think the ribs on the Tang band driver are ugly and could have been more stylish.

Thoughts,
(I thought if I brought it up on the discussion forum - a driver designer may read this and get it might get they creative thought wheels turning)

[guitar maestro]

Maybe the cost of the tooling to create a poly cone with reinforcing ribs is too expensive

I think you hit the nail on the head. I think it's both tooling and the whole manufacturing process that has to be taken into account. It has to pad the manufacturer's bottom line in the end.

[craigk]

I think you hit the nail on the head. I think it's both tooling and the whole manufacturing process that has to be taken into account. It has to pad the manufacturer's bottom line in the end.

Poly is actually the cheapest and easiest of the cone materials to manufacture. As far as the modulus issues I think Audio Technologies would disagree. It is very easy to add components to the poly to create the properties you want. You really don't need ribs in poly, I think TB did this to look different and maybe add some mass to extend the bass a little.

[Wolf]

The TB is done for rigidity purposes, as the cone is very thin and likely vacuum formed poly.

Later,
Wolf