Field Trip: The Reuter Organ Company

INDD 508 Materials & Processes 

Field Trip Notes
Who is/ what is the Reuter Organ Company?

• They are a company located in Lawrence, Kansas who produce custom pipe organs. They were originally located in Illinois, but moved to Kansas in 1919.

Products & Services: What do they do/ what do they make?

• They make custom pipe organs for customers around the world. Most customers, however, are churches while the remaining majority of their other customers tend to be colleges and private universities. 

Markets for whom do they make it?

• As mentioned above, they produce their custom pipe organs for mainly churches while also doing custom work for universities and colleges. On some occasions, they may get a customer who wants to buy a pipe organ for they own personal uses.

Materials:

• Larger pipe organs are generally constructed using copper or zinc. They also may use tin on some occasions. Copper and zinc are favored due to the sound qualities they are capable of producing. 
• They also have their own in-house lumber mill to make custom lumber for various parts. Out of all the variety of woods they carry in-house, poplar is most commonly used since there are very few knots in the wood.
• Keys on the pipe organ are generally made from plastic, wood, and bone while valves may be made of sheep skin or kangaroo skin.

Cutting Technologies:

• Reuter carries complex cutting tools such as a CNC router which is used to drill holes and route out corks in wood. The CNC router also has the ability to cut out complex patterns. 

Joining Technologies:

• Materials such as the metals used in the process of producing custom pipe organs at Reuter are joined be welding or soldering. Glues are also used for non-metal materials such as parts made of wood or plastic. 

Finishing Technologies:

• To keep metals from contamination and to give them a shiny quality, lacquer is used to coat the metal pipes. Pipes are also "aged" for production to further enhance their sound producing characteristics. For copper pipes, Reuter will sometimes allow for oxidation in order to give the pipes a patina. They can also achieve this finish by introducing chemical compounds to the copper such as carbonates, sulfates, sulfides, and oxides.

Overall Impressions/ Epiphanes/ Aha Moments?

• I was impressed by the fact that such an intricate instrument such as the pipe organ is mostly hand made. The precision by which they are produced is so impressive, it's hard to believe that a group of craftsman are able to produce these complex instruments with consistency.