US3805665A - Wind type musical instrument - Google Patents

Abstract

A recorder whose mouth piece and body are double-walled and made of inner and outer concentric parts of cellular plastic adhesively bonded to each other or spaced radially to bound a sealed cavity. The outer wall parts may consist of plastic foamed to a greater bulk density than the inner parts for a softer tone.

Description

[451 Apr. 23, 1974 United States Patent [1 1 Oouchi 4] WIND TYPE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT [75] Inventor:

Takashi Oouchi, Hamamatsu, Japan .K C e o lull-ll [73] Assignee: Nippon Gakki Seizo-Kabushiki Kaisha, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan [22] Filed: May 24, 1972 Primary Examiner-Richard B. Wilkinson Assistant Examiner-John F. Gonzales [21] Appl. No.: 256,360

Attorney, Agent, or Firm-J- lans Berman [30] Foreign Application Priority Data ABSTRACT June2l,197l .lapan............. 46-44685 June 21, I971 Japan.........

A recorder whose mouth piece and body are doublewalled and made of inner and outer concentric parts of cellular plastic adhesively bonded to each other or spaced radially to bound a sealed cavity. The outer wall parts may consist of plastic foamed to a greater bulk density than the inner parts for a softer tone.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 1/1970 Mills........

84/384 7 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures BIN WIND TYPE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT The present invention relates to musical instruments, and particularly to wind instruments.

Wind instruments are mass-produced from plastics. It is difficult to provide the molded plastic instruments with perfect inner and outer surfaces. When the molding technique is chosen to produce the smooth inner surface needed for good tone quality, the appearance of the outer surfaces leaves something to be desired, and vice versa.

It is an important object of this invention to provide an improved plastic wind instrument which combines good external appearance with the smooth inner surfaces required for good tone quality.

The plastic wind instrument of this invention has a mouthpiece and body each consisting of inner and outer coaxial wall parts which are either closely fitted or radially spaced apart. The inner parts have the smooth inner surfaces required for tone quality, and the outer parts have an exposed outer surface satisfying appearance requirements. Defects, if any, in the outer surface of the inner parts and the inner surface of the outer parts are immaterial.

ln molding the inner parts, the inner surfaces are cooled from the molding temperature so quickly that depressions in the surface are avoided, and the outer surfaces of the outer wall parts are similarly cooled for the same purpose.

Other features and advantages of the wind instrument of this invention will become apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 shows a plastic recorder of the invention in axial section; and

FIG. 2 similarly shows another recorder of the invention. 1

The invention will be described with reference to recorders, but it will be understood that the invention is equally applicable to other wind instruments, such as fifes, oboes, clarinets, Japanese flutes, and organ pipes.

The recorder illustrated in FIG. 1 consists of three fixedly connected, longitudinal or axial main sections, namely a mouthpiece 10, a body 12, and a bell 14. The mouthpiece consists of a terminal subsection 16 and a generally cylindrically tubular section 18 joined endto-end tothe subsection 16. The subsection 16 is formed with an axial wind passage 20 having an air inlet orifice20a and an outlet orifice 20b. The axial bore 22 of the subsection 18 communicates with the orifice 20b and has a radial opening 24 near the orifice. A partition portion 26 of the subsection 18 bounds the opening 24 and is slanted towardthe orifice 20b. Axial bores 28, 30 in the body 12 and the axially open bell 14 communicate with the bore 22 of the subsection 18 in axial alignment. Radial air holes 32 axially spaced in the body 12 and the bell 14 are opened and closed by the player's fingertips during use of the instrument.

The player blows a stream of air through the wind passage 20 against a leading edge of the partition 26 so that the air partly passes through the aligned axial bores 22, 28, 30, and is partly discharged through the opening 24.

Each of the sections and subsections of the recorder has coaxial inner and outer tubular parts which are axially approximately coextensive and radially bonded to each other in conforming engagement. The terminal subsection 16 of the mouthpiece 10 thus has outer and inner wall parts 16a, 16b. The passage 20 extends over most of its length in the inner part 16a, but its orifice 20a is formed in a tip portion of the outer part 16b. The subsection 18, body 12, and bell 14 essentially consist of inner, generally cylindrical wall parts 180, 12a, 14a, and outer wall parts 18b, 12b, 14b. The subsection 18 has an axial, annular flange received in an annular groove formed between the wall parts 16a, 16b of the terminal mouthpiece subsection 16. The inner wall parts 12a, 14a of the body 12 and bell 14 are connected to each other and to the subsection 18 by bell-andspigot connections. Terminal, radial, integral flanges 18c, on the inner wall parts 18a, 12a axially separate the outer wall parts 18b, 12b and 12b, 14b respectively. A radial, integral flange on the inner wall part 14a of the bell l4 axially secures the outer wall part 14b.

The inner and outer wall parts of each section or subsection and the individual sections and subsections are adhesively bonded to each other. All wall parts are formed of thermoplastic or thermosetting, synthetic resin composition and preferably of cellular or foamed ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer) or AS (acrylonitrile-styrene copolymer). ABS is conveniently injection molded and has high impact strength. The inner and outer wall parts of the same section or subsection may be made of different materials for a preferred combination of tone quality and appearance. Cellular plastics of the outer and inner wall parts may be expanded to different multiples of the original plastic volume by foaming, and thus differ in bulk density. If an instrument is made of more strongly foamed inner wall parts and less expanded outer wall parts, the tones produced are soft or mild. The inverse relationship of the cellular materials produces relatively sharp or shrill tones.

The wall parts of the sections and subsections are 7 formed from plastics by injection or compression molding techniques. The individual component elements so formed are then fitted together and adhesively bonded to each other.

The recorder illustrated in FIG. 2 is similar to that described with reference to FIG. 1. and like reference characters are being used for corresponding elements. The several associated inner and outer wall parts are radially spaced apart to bound respective, annular cavities 16c, 18d. 12d, and 14d in the subsections [6, 18, the body 12, and bell 14. Each cavity is axially sealed. it would be sufficient. however, to seal only the cavities 16c, 14d at their axially outer ends, and the cavities 16c and 18d where the subsections 16, 18 define the orifice 20b and the opening 24. The cavities between the inner and outer wall portions promote resonance in the instrument to produce tones of better quality than in the instrument of FlG. 1.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is essentially similar in construction to the above described embodiment and, as such, like reference numerals and characters designate corresponding parts and elements. Different from the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the recorder shown in FIG. 2 has a construction in which all the inner and outer halves of the body section 12, outlet end piece section 14, blowing end subsection 16 and mouthpiece bodysection 18 are radially spaced apart from each other. As a consequence, generally cylindrical cavities 16c, 18d, 12d and 14d are formed respectively betweenthe halves 16a and 16b, between 18a and 18b, between 12a and 12b and between 14a and 14b, as illustrated. These cavities 16c, 18d, 12d and 14d are shown as closed at their ends so as to be isolated from each other. It is, however, permissible that all or some of these cavities are in communication with each other insofar as the cavities 16c and 14d formed in the blowing end subsection 16 and outlet end piece section 14, respectively, are closed at their axially outer ends and the cavities 16c and 18d in the blowing end and mouthpiece body subsections l6 and 18, respectively, are closed at their ends defining the opening 24 formed in the inner and outer halves 18a and 18b of the subsection 18. Through provision of the cavities between the inner and outer halves forming the instrument, acoustic resonance produced in the instrument can be promoted to a considerable extent with the result that tones with enhanced quality are produced as compared to the instrument of the construction shown in FIG. 1 or in conventional analogous wind instrument.

Because the wind instrument of the invention has a mouthpiece and body consisting of inner and outer wall parts, the exposed inner and outer surfaces of the instrument are free from sink marks or recesses so that good tone quality and pleasing external appearance can be achieved independently of each other. The instrument is well suited for large-scale commercial production.

What is claimed is:

1. A wind instrument comprising a body section having an axis and formed with an axial bore therethrough, and a mouthpiece attached to one axial end of said body section and formed with a passage communicating with said bore, said mouthpiece and said body section having respective tubular inner wall parts bounding said bore and said passage and respective tubular outer wall parts enveloping the associated inner wall parts, said wall parts each consisting of plastic and hav ing an inner face and an outer face, the inner faces of said inner wall parts bounding said bore and said passage respectively, the outer faces of said outer wall parts constituting the outer exposed surface of said instrument, and the inner faces of said outer wall parts conformingly engaging the outer faces of said inner wall parts respectively.

2. An instrument as set forth in claim 1, wherein said plastic is cellular.

3. An instrument as set forth in claim 2, wherein the cellular plastic in one of said outer wall parts differs in bulk density from the bulk density of the plastic in the associated inner wall part.

4. A wind instrument comprising a body section having an axis and formed with an axial bore therethrough, and a mouthpiece attached to one axial end of said body section and formed with a passage communicating with said bore, said mouthpiece and said body section having respective tubular inner wall parts bounding said bore and said passage and respective tubular outer wall parts enveloping the associated inner wall parts, said wall parts each consisting of cellular plastic, the cellular plastic in one of said outer wall parts differing in bulk density from the bulk density of the plastic in the associated inner wall part.

5. An instrument as set forth in claim 4, wherein said inner and outer wall parts of said mouthpiece and of said body section respectively are radially spaced from each other so as to define respective annular cavities in said mouthpiece and in saidbody section.

6. An instrument as set forth in claim 5, further comprising means sealing said cavities from the ambient air.

ciated inner wall part.

Claims (7)

1. A wind instrument comprising a body section having an axis and formed with an axial bore therethrough, and a mouthpiece attached to one axial end of said body section and formed with a passage communicating with said bore, said mouthpiece and said body section having respective tubular inner wall parts bounding said bore and said passage and respective tubular outer wall parts enveloping the associated inner wall parts, said wall parts each consisting of plastic and having an inner face and an outer face, the inner faces of said inner wall parts bounding said bore and said passage respectively, the outer faces of said outer wall parts constituting the outer exposed surface of said instrument, and the inner faces of said outer wall parts conformingly engaging the outer faces of said inner wall parts respectively.

2. An instrument as set forth in claim 1, wherein said plastic is cellular.

3. An instrument as set forth in claim 2, wherein the cellular plastic in one of said outer wall parts differs in bulk density from the bulk density of the plastic in the associated inner wall part.

4. A wind instrument comprising a body section having an axis and formed with an axial bore therethrough, and a mouthpiece attached to one axial end of said body section and formed with a passage communicating with said bore, said mouthpiece and said body section having respective tubular inner wall parts bounding said bore and said passage and respective tubular outer wall parts enveloping the associated inner wall parts, said wall parts each consisting of cellular plastic, the cellular plastic in one of said outer wall parts differing in bulk density from the bulk density of the plastic in the associated inner wall part.

5. An instrument as set forth in claim 4, wherein said inner and outer wall parts of said mouthpiece and of said body section respectively are radially spaced from each other so as to define respective annular cavities in said mouthpiece and in said body section.

6. An instrument as set forth in claim 5, further comprising means sealing said cavities from the ambient air.

7. An instrument as set forth in claim 4, wherein the bulk density of the plastic in said one outer wall part is greater than the bulk density of said plastic in said associated inner wall part.

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