Cryogenic treatment of music wire

Abstract

Cryogenic Treatment is a technique applied to metallic alloys to improve its mechanical properties through stress relief and the formation of micro-precipitates. Recently there have been attempts amongst musical instrument makers to perform cryogenic treatment on musical instruments. While there are claims that these instruments experienced improved tonal performance after Cryogenic treatment, there have been no attempts to examine and qualify these claims.This study is an effort to characterize music wire in acoustic systems before and after cryogenic treatment. Improvements due to the treatment process are evaluated according to changes in material, mechanical and acoustic properties. Treated strings are found to posses a brighter timbre and greater sustain as well as improved mechanical properties. A mechanism is proposed for the changes after cryogenic treatment. In the process, a novel approach to the acoustic analysis of music wire has been developed.