Hi, I'm wondering if a subwoofer made of kevlar with carbon (hybrid fiber) is any good.
Kevlar or aramid fiber has very high stiffness but little damping whereas carbon fiber has better damping but less stiffness.
So, would a hybrid fiber that has aramid and carbon in its composition have the advantages of each of the materials?
When I say hybrid fiber, I mean the two materials intertwined in a single structure, different from a cone made with carbon at the top and Kevlar at the bottom.
The picture below is a fabric made from Aramid and Carbon Fiber, as I said.
Kevlar or aramid fiber has very high stiffness but little damping whereas carbon fiber has better damping but less stiffness.
So, would a hybrid fiber that has aramid and carbon in its composition have the advantages of each of the materials?
When I say hybrid fiber, I mean the two materials intertwined in a single structure, different from a cone made with carbon at the top and Kevlar at the bottom.
The picture below is a fabric made from Aramid and Carbon Fiber, as I said.
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I believe this has been done but I can’t remember who made them. Lot of manufacturers do paper with added Kevlar or fiber like HiVi among others. The idea is to keep it light and stiff while having good internal damping.
Looks like the Usher 8137a was another one, but I'm not sure if it's still available.
http://www.wavecor.com/html/kevlar_carbon.html
"New product launch January 2023 . . . cone of interwoven Kevlar/Carbon fibers"
http://www.wavecor.com/html/kevlar_carbon.html
"New product launch January 2023 . . . cone of interwoven Kevlar/Carbon fibers"
It surely is a good material for a subwoofer or mid cone.
You can also take a paper diaphragm and use aluminium foil as Diy tweak
Look here
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...how-off-my-new-18in-build.365764/post-6711139
You can also take a paper diaphragm and use aluminium foil as Diy tweak
Look here
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...how-off-my-new-18in-build.365764/post-6711139
As the two examples above show, a lot of it comes down to exactly how the things are made.
The Usher has a pretty large breakup region in the midrange that looks harder to deal with, while the Wavecors are smoother (in the data I can see anyway). Whether that's important to you is a matter of personal preference. Some people don't like breakup regions near the use range, while others just use a notch filter to minimize their impact.
For ultimate detail retrieval, some people want a harder/stiffer cone with minimal internal damping (they often want the former and glues to be stiffer also).
Other people want an inherently smooth frequency response, so lossy cones/glues/formers are desirable to them.
Even more so than in the midranges, the trend in many woofers is toward stiffer cones. The breakup region is often seen as far enough above the use range that it's irrelevant. But again, it all comes down to how you intend to use the driver and which performance aspects are more important to you. That's why there's everything from ceramics and metals to old-school paper used in various speakers still.