Steels for Caribbean Steel Drums

Abstract

The Caribbean steel drum also known as the pan or steelpan is a percussion instrument which has its beginnings in the twin island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The instrument surfaced around WWII and for more than seven decades a majority of pan makers have continued to fabricate these instruments from used 55 gallon oil barrels. Barrel material which is predominantly low-carbon steel has long been the de-facto material for the production of these instruments in part due to its low cost and high availability in addition to having tuning methods centred on its usage. The manufacture of oil barrels is a regulated industry with standards that stipulate the grade of low-carbon steel that is to be used for the construction of oil containers. These grades of steels may not be entirely suitable for pan making and at times grades of steels which do not conform to the specifications for drum making may be deliberately or ignorantly used. Currently, there is no material standard for Caribbean steel drums. In this work, three low carbon steels were examined and compared on the basis of vibration damping properties. The results indicate that a pan standard must incorporate specifications on chemical composition and vibration properties for the recommended steels.KeywordsTest StripTest StructureStrain AgeingSteel StripInterstitial FreeThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.