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What is 'acoustically stable' metal/material?

JNieman

Titanium
Joined
Nov 12, 2011
Location
Greater St Louis Area
While speaking with a customer's metrology department, (which is why I ask in this forum section) their manager asked about the type of work we do... long story short, he's requesting we make some step blocks and gage blocks for him. He mentioned that it has to be machined without raising the surface temperature, the word 'crystal structure' came up though he was kind of speaking all over the place. He said A2 would be great, but NOT hardened. I told him that's obviously no big deal and we can keep it flooded with coolant while it's ground and see if that works for him, to which he said that'd be ideal.

However - what the heck is "acoustically stable" material? My google-fu appears weak because I cannot come up with material properties that clue me in. Anyone know?
 
I am not sure, but am wondering if this might be related somehow. We have a hammer (a bit more sophisticated! LoL) that you plug into a machine that reads the vibrations when you tap on something. It checks harmonics and vibrations (or something like that), but maybe this is what he was talking about, ie some really dense material? I have no idea why a step block would need anything even remotely close to this, unless maybe they are extremely large...?
 
I am not sure, but am wondering if this might be related somehow. We have a hammer (a bit more sophisticated! LoL) that you plug into a machine that reads the vibrations when you tap on something. It checks harmonics and vibrations (or something like that), but maybe this is what he was talking about, ie some really dense material? I have no idea why a step block would need anything even remotely close to this, unless maybe they are extremely large...?

I've yet to receive the sketches he said he'd whip up and send me so I can't say for sure. He seemed fine with the process I described so I said we'd take a stab at it, but the term just got me curious and made me think there would be something new to learn. Maybe if I end up talking to him at a later point, I'll pick his brain.
 
While speaking with a customer's metrology department, (which is why I ask in this forum section) their manager asked about the type of work we do... long story short, he's requesting we make some step blocks and gage blocks for him. He mentioned that it has to be machined without raising the surface temperature, the word 'crystal structure' came up though he was kind of speaking all over the place. He said A2 would be great, but NOT hardened. I told him that's obviously no big deal and we can keep it flooded with coolant while it's ground and see if that works for him, to which he said that'd be ideal.

However - what the heck is "acoustically stable" material? My google-fu appears weak because I cannot come up with material properties that clue me in. Anyone know?

Sounds a little obtuse, without having a lot more detail. It is possible that the customer has a specific application in some specific environment where there is some specific acoustic input condition. Your description of the conversation does make it sound like your customer is fishing with no bait on the hook, though.

I have had situations specific to interferometric measuring processes where the acoustic environment, coupled with some otherwise innocuous design features of the measurement instrument, created vibration signatures due to resonance that made nanometer-scale measurements impossibly noisy and inconsistent. Interestingly enough, one of the worst was in Missouri, and it took a lot of work to get acceptable results. "Acoustically stable" as a description has almost nothing to do with material properties, and everything to do with part design, instrument design and environment, in my experience.
 
All the things said so far are within my intuition and deduction of what "acoustically stable" would entail. I'll just assume that my humble parts he's requesting we make would be but a small cog in a large metaphorical machine that must be acoustically stable :) It's always possible he doesn't even know what he wants either.

But it he wants to order something with specific instructions, I'm more than happy to fulfill the requirements and deliver whatever he wants. Simply maintaining a maximum, low, temperature while making things as simple as step blocks and gage blocks... easy work.
 








 
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