Film laminate for planar driver

[Eric12]

Hi,

Anyone who knows a good source for thin film laminates like mylar/aluminum, teflon/aluminum or kapton/aluminum for a planar or "ribbon" driver?

The aluminum layer should be approx 9 microns and the plastic film layer about 4-9 microns.

Thanks,
Eric

[michaelpage26]

For plastic films of 3.8 micron look at ER-Audio

[LineSource]

Hi Eric,

You can cut open low resistance power capacitors to get some materials to experiment with. You will likely find 2-5 microns of aluminum sputtered to 5-15 micron polyimide or mylar.

From my experiments, sputtered metals are "noisier" then well designed metal foil laminates, but are much lighter and easier to obtain. Sputtered metals can be found in high enough resistance/square to avoid the need for a transformer.

The high magnetic forces in a ribbon can easily de-laminate a metal-film and create a buzzzz. This is a common discussion point on Magnepan forums.

[markp]

Originally posted by LineSource
Hi Eric,

You can cut open low resistance power capacitors to get some materials to experiment with. You will likely find 2-5 microns of aluminum sputtered to 5-15 micron polyimide or mylar.

From my experiments, sputtered metals are "noisier" then well designed metal foil laminates, but are much lighter and easier to obtain. Sputtered metals can be found in high enough resistance/square to avoid the need for a transformer.

The high magnetic forces in a ribbon can easily de-laminate a metal-film and create a buzzzz. This is a common discussion point on Magnepan forums.

You mean film type caps of course!

[Eric12]

Thanks for the information and comments.

Seems to be hard to find finished laminates or sputtered films in different thicknesses out there.

Eric

[SY]

Metallized films are used commonly in food packaging. You might check with suppliers to that industry- though you may have to buy more than you need.

[markp]

Originally posted by SY
Metallized films are used commonly in food packaging. You might check with suppliers to that industry- though you may have to buy more than you need.

Most likely to thick for audio use, but you never know what you'll find.

[setmenu]

Originally posted by Eric12
Hi,

Anyone who knows a good source for thin film laminates like mylar/aluminum, teflon/aluminum or kapton/aluminum for a planar or "ribbon" driver?

The aluminum layer should be approx 9 microns and the plastic film layer about 4-9 microns.

Thanks,
Eric

I have used laminates that are made for the 'flexi' pcb industry.
Companies such as Espanex and Toray make these .
The thinest polymide substrate they use appears to be 9 micron.
Unfortunately they use copper rather than aluminum cladding,
but thickness can be as little as 3 micron with products from Toray.
The above makers use adhesiveless techniques for bonding the copper.
Another down side is obtaining small sample quantities, this can be near impossible with some of the very thin laminates that
tend to be used less often by mass producers.

This company makes aluminum laminates:

http://www.gts-flexible.co.uk/index.htm

But they do use adhesive to bond the materials, which can add
unwanted thickness/weight.


Good luck

Setmenu

[dnsey]

Try a 'scrapstore' or similar, which takes surplus industrial materials and resells them for craft purposes. My local store has a range of plain and metallised films (packaging materials, unslit videotape etc.), which have potential for l/s use - all I need is sufficient time to experiment

[Few]

Try

http://www.modelresearchlabs.com/products.htm

It's a site dedicated to RC model airplane builders. They have multiple types of mylar down to 1.5 micron thickness--some of it metalized, graphite "pulltrusions", boron... I can't guarantee they have what you want, but they do have related fun stuff for the tinkerer.