Waste = Food

Waste = Food is a documentary that showcases the ideas and work of William McDonough and Michael Braungart. The film explores the theory of ecologically intelligent design and green design. Their main points are to one day have manufacturers' waste be completely recyclable in the environment or become biodegradable food for the biosphere. In the film, we learned that their are major corporations that are adopting these ideas, fueling an ecologically inspired industrial revolution. Methods that will allow for this include using completely non-toxic and sustainable production methods. Corporations that are doing so include a Swiss textile factory, Nike shoes, and Ford. This is a great step in the right direction for us so that we can continue to manufacture products at a high level, but actually leave a better 'footprint' on the world that we live in. McDonough is an architect that has environmental designs where buildings function like trees, and actually become a part of the nature surrounding it, instead of hurting it.

Phone Dissection

Zahner

Besides having to drive to and from Kansas city in the pouring rain, I had a great time on this trip. My step dad owns a metal fabricating business back in Chicago, IL., so it was neat to see a similar factory/plant and how they're tools and processes differed. Zahner makes products like metal building pieces, facades, structural parts, and more. Mainly these are for universities, major cities, stadiums, and amphitheaters. I liked how they only bought materials specifically for a project; they never have any extra materials lying around or have to waste pieces if they bought too much. Materials they use includes copper, stainless steel, zinc, ceramic, glass, silicone, brass, and more. Technologies they use includes robotic welds, CAD modeling inputed into machines, sheering, punching, water jet, CNC router, welding, and accurpress. For finishing they do things like embossing, sanding, and bead blasting, which I find to be the best looking finish they did. My favorite machine in the shop was that they had one that was for the bending of metal. The machine calculates the bending of the metal and over compensates for the angle depending on the size and material because when metal is bent, it will always fold back a little bit. And the calculation allows it so that when the metal folds back, it will be at the right degree.

The Electronic Wasteland

Like Sketches of Frank Gehry, I had already seen this video before. It is a truly remarkable piece that really opens up your eyes to what electronics, and especially the materialism of us in the United States, is doing to the world. It is crazy that our country throws away 130,000 computers a day, and 100 million cell phones a year. Some of the metals they described in the video that are contained in electronic waste are lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, and more. And then, also looking at what is going on in China with our waste is terrible. The video stated something along the lines of, '21st century objects are being taken down, broken down, etc., in a 17th century environment and with 17th century processes/etc. That is awful to know and especially awful to know that there are over 45 recycling companies in our country that were willing to sell the color tubes from monitors to China for a lot of money.

Sketches of Frank Gehry

I had already seen this movie prior to us watching it in class on Thursday, but it was great to see again regardless. It is an interesting take on a documentary of the amazing architect, Frank Gehry. It is really interesting to see his process for designing buildings. I thought all the models that he uses are intriguing and definitely makes me want to always make models for objects/etc that I am designing, for the rest of my life. It was awesome to hear that one of his architect teachers said he was in the wrong major, and then ended up being one of the greatest architects of all time. His style is incredible. It makes me want to use some of his abstract form and structure ideas in my work because of how awesome it is.

Hallmark Cards Production Center

Our most recent field trip was spent at the Hallmark production center in Lawrence. I was first somewhat amazed by how massive the center was. Also, I figured they actually designed and printed the cards there, but in fact they get the card templates, that are already designed, shipped to them. They produce ribbon products, bows, and the final stages of the card effects. They also deal with the packaging stages of all of their products. Materials that they use include paper, foil, hot foil, corrugate (for shipping), polypropylene pellets, and plastics. Their processes include embossing press, crinkle press, injection molds, foil roller press, flocking, flitter, virko, dye-cutting and UV spot center. Around 1.5 to 3 million cards are shipped out the door per day. The factory runs 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. They are usually the most busy around Mother's Day. Little to no hand applied work goes on inside the factory. I really liked their virko processes; they do this to raise words a tiny bit above the paper card with plastic and adhesive. The UV spot center is for scratch-n-sniff cards and iridescent over foil and UV matte over foil. To make their ribbons they use the polypropylene pellets, a blowing agent, and coloring. The most fascinating fact about the trip was that they have engineers to make their own machines that are specifically made for certain processes of the card making that goes on. The man that took me on my trip actually showed us one of the machines that he helped create. It was the robot arm machine that manually slides cards under the arm, where the arm will pick up and paste plastic beads onto it in certain spots that are programmed in, depending on the card.

Star Signs

Star Signs makes products that include environmental graphics and signage. They have also designed bus stops in Kansas City. Their primary material is aluminum; they use a lot of aluminum, and for many reasons. Aluminum is lightweight, strong, and combines well with other metals. Their signs need to be able to bear the outdoor elements, so they mainly use coatings and anodizing to stay away from corrosion and oxidation. Other materials that are used include steel, plastics, acrylic, vinyl, polycarbonate, PVC, and hardwoods like maple and walnut. The finishing processes for their products is one of the most important stages because their products are meant to be viewed and to last a long time, wherever they are placed. They use the matthews paint system (automotive grade paint) to make sure that their signs hold their color and look through time. They also sandblast and use photopolymer, clear coatings, and vinyl graphic wrapping. On to their processes, they mainly use a CNC router, 2D & 3D printing, welding, CAD design, sanding, priming, painting, curing, and electrical wiring.

Reuter Organ Visit

Our visit to the Reuter Organ manufacturer was my first real look, or tour, through a full size production plant. It was interesting to see the plant's step-by-step stations and procedures that they go through to build an organ straight from scratch. I specifically thought it was awesome how they cast their own metals. At the church that I used to attend when I lived in Illinois there was a massive organ and I loved to hear it being played, and this trip really made me think about the actual parts and functions of the entire instrument. I liked seeing what actually happened on the inside from the first key press all the way to the sound output through the different tubes at the top. Reuter Organ seems like a pretty successful business since it sells about 10 to 15 organs a year at $450-500,000 each. The manufacturer features a wide variety of materials, including many woods and metals. They try to use poplar because of its tendency to have less knots. The main metals they use are copper, zinc, tin, lead, brass, and steel. I thought it was interesting that some of the piano keys they make are made from cow bone, ivory, and leathers from animals like sheep, lamb, goat, and kangaroo. Leather is a key material for their instruments because there is no substitution for it. They have many different procedures for forming and cutting their materials. I took interest in the cnc router and how they can carve/laser cut out the most complex patterns. They use many different finishing processes for their materials, and I personally think the polish and clear coats looked the most appealing on their materials. After seeing the entire manufacturing plant and all the steps that it takes to fully build an organ, I understand how they can only complete a small amount each year.