Zahner

Zahner

When I first arrived at Zahner, I was immediately impressed by the scale of their architectural projects they worked with. Just sitting outside was a massive prototype that took up nearly a whole parking lot. It is hard to grasp the scale of things that are placed on top of buildings and such until you are standing right next to them. That was definitely a first for me. Zahner is a local architectural and metal fabricating company that has been around for nearly 115 years. They primarily use zinc, copper, steel, aluminum and most non composite metals. To cut they're metal they use an extremely powerful water jet than can slice through thick metal without a problem. They have chimbo punch that allows them to create and patent they're own designs in the metal. They also have common CNC routers and laser cutters. They actually used rivets to attach most of they're metals together which surprised me at first. Before we started the Light/Lite/Structure/Skin project I did not see rivets being used often. This was the largest manufacturing company I have been able to see so far and enjoyed the visit in Kansas City.

Materials: Titanium, steel, zinc, copper

Forming: Punch and finger breaker

Cutting: Water jet and shears

Joining: Joints, rivets

Finishing: Polish, oxide