Acoustics

[mwallace]

Ideal Material and shape for clock chime rod. Traditional grandfather clocks produce a mechanical melody by allowing the movement hammer to strike a series of chime rods. What materials are best to produce the loudest and most resonance? What shape of the chime rod is best to product the loudest and most resonance?

 

[Robertmet]

From my own clock - it has a wonderfull tone and fairly loud.People always comment on the fine tone. There are two straight brass rods ..100" x7" and .115"x8". A smaller wall clock, much older, has a .057"x 36" steel helical chime ,not nearly as nice a tone.Both are far better than the electronic whimpy ones.Of course what it's housed in makes a difference also.

 

[EdStainless]

Resonance is a function of modulus and grain structure. I do know that many organ pipes are made from high lead brasses.
The sound volume will largely be a factor of your sounding board.
Some large clocks use tubular chimes.

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[IRstuff]

I think the answer is that for simplicity, the traditional materials have been demonstrated to have best performance with the least amount of engineering.

However, given that you have an idea of what is needed, you hypothetically can engineer any small group of materials to give the desired performance, assuming that money wasn't an issue.

TTFN

FAQ731-376