cornell researchers 3D print a fully functional loudspeaker

cornell researchers 3D prints a fully functional loudspeaker
image © jason koski / cornell university

researchers at cornell university have created a fully functioning loudspeaker, seamlessly integrating the plastic, conductive and magnetic parts, using only 3D printers. the piece of audio equipment was developed by apoorva kiran and robert maccurdy, graduate students in mechanical engineering, who are working with hod lipson, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

‘everything is 3D printed,’ explains kiran. ‘it even consists of plastic for the housing, a conductive coil and a magnet,’ he adds. ready for use almost as soon as it comes out of the printer, the speaker only requires minimal assembly before it can be hooked up to an external device. to make it work, the electronic components are made with two customizable 3D printers: a special silver ink extrusion is used for the coil and a viscous blend of strontium ferrite is used for the magnet.