TERFENOL‐D manufacturing practices and their design impacts

The manufacture of TERFENOL‐D has a substantial impact on the possible designs of acoustic transducers. As with all transducer materials, a better understanding of the manufacturing process can enable the designer to avoid various pitfalls that impact not only performance but cost as well. This presentation will in essence be a primer on the manufacture of giant magnetostrictive materials. Substantial changes have taken place since the invention of the materials. The history of these changes and the subsequent design limitations will be discussed. The current state‐of‐the‐art of TERFENOL‐D production will be presented, and key features that have design impacts will be highlighted, especially where the design possibilities have been increased through the refinement of the production techniques. This will focus primarily on the crystal growth of TERFENOL‐D but will also include details of characterizing the material and the machining of the driver to its final configuration, which has a substantial impact o...