How are Microphone Capsules Made???

[mics]

Hi Folks, I was making a batch of K47's today and decided to take a quick video on my iphone,so here it is.

Capsule manufacturing in reality is not the placing of the diaphragm over the brass plate, it is the manufacture of the plate itself. This manufacturing process is very complex and requires exacting tolerances and repeatability. When we first started to manufacture entire capsules, the manual process we used was just like Neumann and Gefell did in the early days, it involved tools such as indexing wheels and manual block tooling. We were able to achieve a great result but mistakes were easy to make and the entire process was a 9 hour journey.

We now use CNC (Computer Numeric Control) machinery to speed the process and improve repeatability. With just 1 large CNC machine a Microphone manufacturer can produce around 10000 capsules per year.

Take a look at the video, sorry it is only short but it will give you a brief introduction to capsule manufacture.

I will keep an eye on this thread over the next few days and if you have any questions, i will be only too happy to answer them.

Link 1 http://www.beesneezmicrophones.com.au/media/K47_C&C.MOV
Link 2 http://www.beesneezmicrophones.com.au/m ... _C&C_2.MOV

cheers