Quick question regarding a piezoelectric transducer

Hi Peter,

I checked the Data sheet, which you probably did too, and found no reference to the material used in the element. I tried to track down Multicomp, the manufacturer, as they should have the information that you need but the lack of this information in the data sheet suggests that it will not be easy ti find it. I noticed that Wikipedia had a good selection of articles on Piezo Electricity and many material were listed. I will continue to think about this question in case I can come up with any more information.

John

Thanks very much, sounds like you were quite diligent! Yes, I've tried a number of different sources, and have had success in finding figures for different ceramics, but nothing solid to suggest what this transducer might be, or how to tell. Peter

lead zirconium titanate - PZT

Look at the same part on the American website:

ABT-441-RC - MULTICOMP - PIEZO ELEMENT, 27MM, 4200HZ | Newark element14

Someone asked for similar information, and it would appear that a curve is given on each element you purchase.

It used to be that only a few PZT materials were widely used with names like PZT4, PZT5) etc. These were developed from work done (I believe) by the US Navy in the 1940s and 50s. There are  a lot more materials available and used now. You will find that buzzer discs are usually made from low cost high sensitivity materials with poor temperature range and stability. (and cheap ones may be poor quality as well).

It's  a while since I've played this game  - I used to design piezo electric accelerometers and at its peak the company I was with made about 500k of them per year - all the suppliers we used have changed name and owners since then.

For technical applications you need to buy piezo materials directly from the manufacturer  - there is  a US company who sells small numbers of end of batch odds and ends at reasonable prices.

www.americanpiezo.com

There are many others.

MK

oh, sorry, I should've been more clear - I know it's PZT, what I don't now is the exact type, of the many slight variations on PZT

ah I see, that's annoying as I now don't have time to wait for a delivery to arrive.

I don't suppose you'd be able to guess approximately at which variety of PZT my transducer is made from? would be good to get the opinion of an expert

Hello peter,

There is  a lot of good tech stuff here:

Morgan Technical Ceramics

but they don't make bulk cheapo stuff like sounder discs.

I couldn't find anyone who says which material they use in sounder discs. When I knew about such things Hoechst Ceramtec used special grades for low cost sounders - optimised for noise and cheapness to make.

They still exist  - you can look here:

https://www.ceramtec.com/ceramic-materials/piezo-ceramics/sonox-p/

P505 and P53,  but how these compare with other things I don't know.

Why do you care - if you have an application where such stuff matters (rather than the sort of noise making specs one usually gets) then why not buy discs from a more mainstream supplier pf PZT.

MK

thanks, your sources were very helpful, think I've basically sorted it out now.

unfortunately it's too late now for me to get new parts - I was conducting a piece of practical work for school, for which I've already done the practical itself, and the write-up is due on Friday - otherwise I would definitely take your advice, rather than going through an amazon vendor, who clearly wasn't geared to clients needing scientific precision.

thanks again