EP2169660B1 - Piano hammer - Google Patents

Abstract

The hammer (10) has a hammer shank (12), and a hammer head (13) that is covered with a cover (14) along a part of a peripheral surface. The cover has varying thickness along the peripheral surface, and the hammer head is adjusted with respect to a position of the peripheral surface with which the head impacts the strings to be struck. The hammer head is formed as a cylindrical roller body with a rotary axle (11) clamped in the hammer shank. The hammer head is fixed in a desired rotational position relative to a hammer handle.

Description

The present invention relates to a piano hammer for striking strings of a piano according to the preamble of claim 1.

Pianos, also referred to as pianoforte or short piano, in the context of the invention include a total of those stringed instruments in which struck by means of a keyboard (keyboard) over so-called hammer clamped strings and are thus stimulated to vibrate and for the delivery of sounds. In particular, pianos are subdivided into two groups, on the one hand the so-called piano, in which the strings are clamped vertically and extend, on the other hand, the wings, in which the strings are arranged in a horizontal orientation.

As already mentioned, in such pianos, the strings typically clamped in a frame are struck with a so-called piano hammer, which strikes two or more strings in parallel, due to a key press on the keyboard on the string or strings. to make them vibrate. For this purpose, the piano hammer is integrated in a complicated mechanism which, in addition to the stop of the hammer, also serves other elements, eg a sound damping. The piano hammer in itself includes a hammer handle and a hammer head, the latter actually occurs on the affirmation of the strings to be attached or the strings to be attached in the confirmation. The hammer head of a piano hammer is in the core as well as the hammer handle often made of wood, but is not limited in principle to this material. This is the core of the hammer head with a support provided with the hammer head then impinges on the strings to be hammered when the corresponding key is pressed on the keyboard. As a material for the pad is usually used today felt, but it has also found leather use. Also, other materials with comparable properties for use as a support are conceivable.

In known pianos of the hammer or the hammer pad is typically drop-shaped with a hitting surface, with which he hits when pressing the appropriate button on the string or on the strings. Thereby, e.g. when using felt for the support of the hammer head, as is now common practice, the density or the compression of the felt an essential role for the sound characteristic or the intonation of the instrument when operating this hammer. For example, in today's manufacturing of pianos in the factory, the felt pads of the hammers in the areas where they impact the string or strings are loosened to tune the tone of the instrument, with certain tools engraving it into the surface and the felt is processed. This work must be done by experienced voice staff and is time consuming. In particular, it is hardly possible to recompress a piano hammer treated by the above-described processing whose support, in particular felt support, has been excessively loosened up by said puncturing. In the worst case, the hammer head, or even the entire hammer still needs to be replaced in production, and the mood must be re-done.

A hammer head for percussion instruments with a turnable felt body is out DE 374 594 known.

Here is to be remedied with the invention by a piano hammer is specified, which in particular allows a much simpler and reproducible tuning, which in particular should also be reversible.

In retrospect, the seemingly simple idea of the invention, which means an almost revolutionary innovation in the field of instrumentation, more precisely of piano construction, consists of the hammer head from the outset along a circumferential surface with which it strikes the strings to be mounted can form, with an edition of different density form. Another essential aspect is that the hammer head, which is located at the current piano hammers rigidly on the hammer handle, with respect to the position of its peripheral surface with which it impinges on the or to be attached string (s) is adjustable.

Through these two measures, it is possible to provide a piano hammer from the outset with defined (and insofar reproducible and reversibly adjustable) different densities of its edition and in a tuning or tonal adjustment of the piano by a position of the position of the peripheral surface of the hammer, with the he appears on the string (s) to make a setting. In other words, an instrument builder or tuner to adjust the tonal coloring of the piano by simply repositioning the hammer head relative to the hammer handle, without having to relax about a felt pad with a spear or similar instrument and a "too much" this loosening even has no possibility of correction any more, except to exchange the hammer head or the hammer in total.

A tonal adjustment of the instrument will not only be much faster to achieve, it can be corrected in particular adjustment errors or the sound setting at a later date again modified and reset.

A simple method to produce the differently dense pads according to the invention is to use a felt pad which is pressed different densities along the peripheral surface. If, for example, a substantially roller-shaped hammer head is used, a felt strip which has been obtained by pressing a felt material of wedge-shaped increasing initial thickness to a uniform final thickness can be glued to the peripheral surface. This results in this case, a continuously changing degree of material density, so that opens up a variety of settings of the hammer head without gradation.

An easy way to design the piano hammer according to the invention is that the hammer head as a rolling body, in particular cylindrical, is formed and clamped with an axis of rotation in the hammer handle around which, he is rotatable and fixed in a desired rotational position relative to the hammer handle. The fixing of the rotational position may be e.g. done by jamming or screwing a retaining screw on the axis of rotation itself or in another suitable manner. The rolling body can be rotated about the axis of rotation, without changing the distance of the hammer head to the point of impact on the string to be attached or the strings to be attached and thereby would result in a different type of mechanics in the key press. A twisting of the thus designed hammer head can be done in both directions, ie back and forth, so that corrections in the tuning of the instrument are possible until the desired intonation is present.

In order that the hammer head in particular also strikes several strings in the piano to be mounted in parallel to produce a single tone, it is advantageous if the different density of the support is present only in one plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation, but a constant density prevails in the direction of the axis of rotation ,

In a further development, it can be provided that the piano chamber has a motor drive, with which the position of the peripheral surface, with which the hammer head on or on the string (s) to be applied (n) occurs, can be adjusted. On the one hand, such a motor drive can facilitate the work overall and shorten the time required for the tuning to be carried out at the end of the manufacture of the piano in the factory. However, this is not the main benefit yet. Rather, with such a drive on the other hand, at a later date, the vote of the piano by adjusting the position of the peripheral surface of a hammer or more hammers and thus the density of the support with which the string or the strings are struck, changed or adjusted , So it is in particular also possible for different uses of the piano, for example, for playing music of different styles or composers the piano one each give up other intonation. Here, for example, in cooperation with a control present in the piano, a preset intonation can be set automatically by controlled control of the respective positions of the peripheral surface of the hammers, with which they then impinge on the individual strings. This significantly increases the variability of the possible use of a piano, one and the same instrument can be played in completely different intonations, for which nowadays, if necessary, two or even more instruments must be kept in concert halls or the like.

Finally, the subject of the invention is a piano itself, which has at least one piano hammer with the features described above.

• Fig. 1 eine schematische Darstellung eines Klavierhammer in üblicher Bauform aus dem Stand der Technik;
• Fig. 2 in einem Ausschnitt den Hammerkopf mit seiner Aufhängung am Hammerstiel eines Klavierhammers in einer Ausgestaltung der Erfindung;
• Fig. 3 in zwei Darstellungen a) und b) eine Möglichkeit, eine Auflage für einen Hammerkopf eines Klavierhammers zu erhalten, die Zonen unterschiedlicher Dichte aufweist; und
• Fig. 4 in einer Darstellung vergleichbar Fig. 3 eine weitere Möglichkeit, eine Auflage für einen Hammerkopf zu erhalten, die in unterschiedlichen Bereichen unterschiedliche Dichten aufweist.

Further advantages and features of the invention will become apparent from the following description of an embodiment with reference to the accompanying figures. Showing:

• Fig. 1 a schematic representation of a piano hammer in conventional design of the prior art;
• Fig. 2 in a section of the hammer head with its suspension on the hammer handle of a piano hammer in an embodiment of the invention;
• Fig. 3 in two representations a) and b) one way to obtain a support for a hammer head of a piano hammer, which has zones of different density; and
• Fig. 4 comparable in a presentation Fig. 3 Another way to obtain a support for a hammer head, which has different densities in different areas.

In the figures, an embodiment of the invention is shown in schematic and by way of illustration only and will be described below. It shows Fig. 1 a piano hammer according to the prior art, the embodiments of the invention are in the FIGS. 2 to 4 outlined.

In Fig. 1 For comparison, a conventional piano hammer 1 is shown, here a piano hammer 1 for installation in a grand piano. The piano hammer 1 is shown here in the installation position, as it strikes the strings from below in the grand piano. For the attack of the piano hammer 1 shown here speeds up with his arranged at the end of the hammer handle 2 hammer head 3 and meets there with the support 4 of the hammer head 3 on the piano string to be pinned. In the process, the hammer head 3, more precisely the support 4 thereon, which typically consists of felt, always strikes the string to be attached with one and the same area of its surface.

In the prior art, such a piano hammer 1 in the sound completion of the grand piano, in which it is installed, of a piano tuner as long as in the area of the surface of the support 4, with the hammer head 3 strikes the string loosened by piercing the felt until the intonation of the grand piano is correct when striking the tone. The hammer head 3 or the support 4 are firmly positioned in the piano hammer 1 according to the prior art with respect to the hammer handle 2 and can not be moved. In that regard, the surface of the support 4, with which this impinges on the string of the wing, can not change in position.

This is different in a hammer 10 according to the invention, which is schematically illustrated in FIG Fig. 2 is shown. Here is located on the hammer handle 12 of the hammer head 13 with a support 14. The hammer head 13 is formed here cylindrical, wherein the support, which here also consists of felt, spans the surface of the roller. The hammer head 13 is rotatably mounted on a rotation axis 11 in the hammer handle 12, which surrounds the hammer head 13 like a fork. Good to see the schematically drawn different areas or zones 15 to 19, in which the support 14 each having different densities.

According to the invention, the hammer head 13 thus equipped with different densities along its peripheral surface can be rotated about the axis of rotation 1, so that the position of its surface (thus also the respective region 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 with correspondingly different density), with which the hammer head 13 occurs on the string to be excited, can be adjusted by simply turning the hammer head 13 about the axis of rotation 11. Once the adjustment has been made, the hammer head 13 can be positioned and fixed relative to the hammer shank 12, eg by blocking the axis of rotation 11 by suitable means.

It will be appreciated that with such a piano hammer 10 according to the invention, the adjustment of the desired intonation of the instrument is much simpler and more reproducible than by mechanical loosening of the felt support 4 in the piano hammer 1 according to the prior art.

In Fig. 2 schematically a hammer head is shown, which has in its circulation 14 zone-wise a total of five areas with different density (areas 15 to 19). Such a support 14, which may in particular be a felt support, can be produced, for example, from a felt by compression, as described in US Pat Fig. 3a shown and designated 20. Here, the starting material used is a felt of constant density with different heights (staircase-like structure), which runs along the line indicated by the arrows in FIG Fig. 3a indicated direction is squeezed and pressed. This creates a felt cover of uniform height, as in Fig. 3b however, it has five areas of different density (from left to right, each with a higher density). Alternatively, to obtain an even finer adjustment, a felt as in Fig. 4a shown and pressed with 20 'are pressed. Then, a support 24 'is obtained which has a continuously increasing density from left to right in FIG Fig. 4b and thus allows a finer adjustment of the intonation of the instrument. Important in terms of the FIGS. 3 and 4 is to mention that the finished felt pads 24 to 24 'in the direction perpendicular to the plane of uniform densities, that change the densities seen only in the plane of the left to right, in the pad 24 from Fig. 3b gradual in five areas, at the felt pad 24 'in Fig. 4b continuously and without jumps.

Finally, it is within the scope of the invention, a piano hammer 12 as in Fig. 2 equipped with a drive (not shown there), which rotates the hammer head 13 driven by a motor about the rotation axis 11 and, for example, holds over a self-locking in a struck position. In addition to the mere possibility of setting a desired intonation motor unique and thus faster and more effective work, this results in particular a further degree of freedom of adjustment of the intonation of the instrument depending on the application situation. Such a motor drive, which can be realized very easily with micromotors and corresponding guided by the hammer handle 12 wiring (power and control signals) can then interact with a arranged in the instrument control, for example, preset preset intonations and accordingly by rotation of the hammer head 1 3.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1

piano hammer

2

Hammerstiel

3

hammerhead

4

edition

10

piano hammer

11

axis of rotation

12

Hammerstiel

13

hammerhead

14

edition

15

Area

16

Area

17

Area

18

Area

19

Area

20

felt

20 '

felt

24

edition

24 '

edition

Claims (6)

1. A piano hammer for striking the strings of a piano with a hammer shank (12) and a hammer head (13) covered with a cover (14, 24, 24') along at least one portion of a peripheral surface, whereas the hammer head (13) is adjustable as regards the position of its peripheral surface with which it impacts the string(s) to be struck, characterised in that the cover (14, 24, 24') has a varying density along the peripheral surface.
2. A piano hammer according to claim 1, characterised in that the cover (14, 24, 24') consists of felt, which is compressed with varying density along the peripheral surface.
3. A piano hammer according to any of the preceding claims, characterised in that the hammer head (13) is designed as a rolling element, in particular in the form of a cylinder, having a rotational axis (11) clamped in the hammer shank (12), around which it is rotary and can be fixed in a requested rotating position with respect to the hammer shank (12).
4. A piano hammer according to claim 3, characterised in that the cover (14, 24, 24') has a varying density in the direction of a circumference of the rolling element situated on a plane vertically to the rotational axis (11), however with a constant density in direction of the rotational axis (11).
5. A piano hammer according to any of the preceding claims, characterised in that it has a motorised drive unit to modify the position of the peripheral surface of the hammer head (13), with which it impacts the string(s) to be struck.
6. A piano having at least one piano hammer (10) according to one of the preceding claims.

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