Yamaha Adopts Exmate Resin for Smart Mouthpiece R&D
The adoption of a food-contact-compliant resin for a 3D-printed mouthpiece that quantifies previously intuitive performance movements marks a practical crossover between additive manufacturing and musical instrument R&D.
Reporting from 1 sources: ASCII.jp.
Yamaha Corporation has fully adopted Exmate, a food-safe resin for stereolithography 3D printers, in the research and development of its sensor-equipped mouthpiece SMARTMOUTHPIECE. The material, developed by Expert Material Laboratories, has been used since June 2023 and allows players to safely put the mouthpiece in their mouth during evaluation. The curved internal tunnel of the mouthpiece, which connects the oral cavity to a sensor, cannot be made by molding or cutting and requires integral 3D printing.
Yamaha has been using Exmate since June 2023 for the SMARTMOUTHPIECE, a sensor-equipped mouthpiece that measures oral pressure and reed displacement in real time. The resin, confirmed to comply with the Food Sanitation Act's positive list system, is safe to put in the mouth, which is necessary for player evaluation. The mouthpiece's internal tunnel, which connects the oral cavity to a sensor, has a cross-section of several millimeters and is three-dimensionally curved, a shape that cannot be achieved by molding or cutting. Integral molding with a high-definition stereolithography 3D printer was chosen instead.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.