Enhanced acoustic cell and enhanced acoustic panel, and methods of producing the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10808399-B2
Application number	US-201715782056-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 12, 2017
Priority date	Oct 12, 2017
Publication date	Oct 20, 2020
Grant date	Oct 20, 2020

Abstract

An enhanced acoustic cell for use in acoustic panels is provided. The provided enhanced acoustic cell has a parabolic-shaped cell floor and a receiving object suspended at its focal point. Components of the enhanced acoustic cell may be easily replicated and installed into a face sheet comprising an array of a plurality of interconnected acoustic cells. The provided acoustic cell, and arrays thereof, may be produced using an additive manufacturing (AM) technology.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for creating an enhanced acoustic cell for use in an enhanced acoustic panel, the method comprising:
obtaining a plurality of interconnected acoustic cells, each cell of the interconnected acoustic cells arranged to be open on a top side, have continuous walls, and have a closed original cell floor;
at an acoustic cell of the plurality of interconnected acoustic cells, creating the enhanced acoustic cell by,
altering the original cell floor to create a parabolic-shaped cell floor having a focal point; and
suspending a spherical receiving object at the focal point.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the spherical receiving object has a diameter, and wherein suspending the receiving object comprises attaching a tower structure with a height approximately twice the diameter to the receiving object on a first end and to the enhanced acoustic cell on a second end.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the spherical receiving object is fabricated using Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS).

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the tower structure is fabricated using Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS).

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the spherical receiving object comprises a top dome and a bottom dome.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein a tunability of the enhanced acoustic cell is based on a deflection strength of the tower structure.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the top dome of the spherical receiving object is solid and the bottom dome of the spherical receiving object comprises a plurality of openings.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein each cell of the plurality of interconnected acoustic cells has matching dimensions, and further comprising,
at each cell of the plurality of interconnected acoustic cells,
altering the cell floor to create the parabolic-shaped cell floor having a focal point; and

suspending a spherical receiving object at the respective focal point, thereby creating an enhanced acoustic panel.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein all spherical receiving objects comprise the same dimensions.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein suspending the spherical receiving object comprises attaching the spherical receiving object to a tower structure having a predetermined deflection strength.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein a tunability of the enhanced acoustic panel is based on the predetermined deflection strength.

12. A method for creating an enhanced acoustic panel, the method comprising:
obtaining an array of a plurality of interconnected acoustic cells, each cell of the interconnected acoustic cells arranged to be open on a top side of the face sheet, have continuous walls, and have a parabolic-shaped cell floor; and
for each acoustic cell of the plurality of acoustic cells, suspending a spherical receiving object at the respective focal point, thereby creating the enhanced acoustic panel.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein, for each acoustic cell of the plurality of acoustic cells, suspending the spherical receiving object comprises utilizing a tower structure having a height that is twice a diameter of the spherical receiving object attached to the spherical receiving object on a first end and to the acoustic cell on a second end.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the spherical receiving objects are fabricated using additive manufacturing (AM).

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the tower structures are fabricated using AM.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the spherical receiving objects are hollow, comprising a top dome and a bottom dome, and are attached to the continuous wall or an enhanced acoustic cell ceiling.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein a tunability of the enhanced acoustic panel is based on a deflection strength of the tower structures.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the top dome of each spherical receiving object is solid and the bottom dome of each spherical receiving object comprises a plurality of openings.

19. A method for creating an enhanced acoustic panel, the method comprising:
obtaining a plurality of interconnected acoustic cells, each acoustic cell of the plurality of interconnected acoustic cells arranged to be open on a top side and have a closed floor; and
at each acoustic cell of the plurality of interconnected acoustic cells,
altering the cell floor to create a parabolic-shaped cell floor having a focal point within the cell, and suspending a receiving object at the respective focal point thereby creating the enhanced acoustic panel, the receiving object having an inner spherical shape enclosed by an outer spherical shape.

20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising, for each acoustic cell of the plurality of acoustic cells, suspending the receiving object at the respective focal point using a hollowed out tower structure with a predetermined deflection strength and a height that is twice a diameter of the receiving object.

Assignees

• Honeywell Int Inc

Inventors

• Alstad Shawn
• Schuster William
• Mcnair Mark
• Godfrey Donald G

Classifications

• B22F10/20

  Direct sintering or melting · CPC title

• E04B1/8209 Primary

  sound absorbing devices (E04B1/8218, E04B1/8227 take precedence) · CPC title

• G10K11/002 Primary

  Devices for damping, suppressing, obstructing or conducting sound in acoustic devices (G10K1/06 - G10K1/10 take precedence; for electro-mechanical transducers for communication H04R3/002) · CPC title

• E04B2001/8414

  with non-planar face, e.g. curved, egg-crate shaped · CPC title

• B33Y80/00

  Products made by additive manufacturing · CPC title