Dimensional Innovations

This Thursday we had the privilege of going to visit Dimensional Innovations. They have been around since the mid 90's, when they primarily did work for theaters.  Today, their clientele has expanded tremendously through custom manufacturing.

DI is definitely a true innovator when it comes to bridging the gap between design and engineering.  All areas of DI work seamlessly to produce one of a kind creations for each client they work with.  The main benefit of DI is that all work is done in-house, except for some machining jobs. This allows for cheaper products, less build time, increased communication skills, and overall improved products.

Typical fabrication materials consist of aluminum, acrylics, polycarbonates, and more; most of which are machined in-house.  I was impressed upon learning that they have custom designed machines specifically manufactured for their patented processes, along with the expansive machining section of the facility.

This work setting is the type of place that I could see myself working at.  I tend to be the type of person who tries to be on top of everything constantly, and I think this work scenario would be right up my alley.

 Fabrication of a modern chandelier.

This is the display stand that will hold one of Toyota's new cars, also displaying their new slogan.
(I know it at you don't)

Mardis Gras: Made in China

It is safe to say that one of America's biggest parties is the Mardis Gras festival held each year in New Orleans. If you are familiar with this festival, you are familiar with the beads that are exchanged for partial nudity.  Most people fail to see where the beads come from. These beads although rather cheap and simple, are manufactured manually and produced on a large scale.

The beads come from China, and are manufactured in work-camp type scenarios by people who will work to complete a quota for around 14 hours straight.  They eat, sleep, and work in these factories 300 days out of the year, only leaving on Sundays and for the Chinese new year.

Although the workers are there by choice, the conditions are kind of terrible. Ten people to a room with five beds, cafeteria style meals each day, shared showers/bathrooms are among the few things they deal with each day.  The beads are composed of polyethylene and polystyrene.  Polystyrene is also a carcinogenic.  The factories are not well ventilated so toxins are constantly inhaled by most, if not all workers.

I believe if that the workers are there by choice, the people in charge of the factories need to step up their game when it comes to working conditions. Although the money the factory makes isn't on such a grand scale as the US, but pay the workers real wages for the work they do, and keep them safe.

Droid X Dissection

As our class has been studying the effects of E-waste on the world, we found it necessary to dissect the most common form of technology today: the cell phone.  Traditionally I keep all of the cellphones I have put in use, and I destroy the ones that I didn't like.  Fortunately, I kept my old Motorola Droid X, now outdated but still useful.

As I disassembled the specimen, I was interested in seeing that very little (if any) glue was used in the construction of the phone. Through our research, we learned that glue used in the technology manufacturing field is very toxic, and is rather carcinogenic.  This Droid was held primarily held together with screws of various sizes, which allows me to think that some of the phones on the market are built for deconstruction.

All together, there were six primary layers of the phone which includes the:

• screen cover which covers...
• the screen itself which rests on... 
• the chassis that holds the...
• motherboard, protected by...
• the back cover.

Sketches of Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry is one of the most inspiring people in todays realm of architectural design. I have seen the autobiography called "Sketches of Frank Gehry" multiple times. The first time I saw this film was in Mr. Allen's humanitities class, and it actually helped me understand what I wanted to do with my life.  Prior to seeing this video, I had thought i wanted to be a businessman like my father.  Obviously, after seeing this enlightening video, I had realized that this choice would not suit me best.

In Highschool, I was a CAD junkie. I spent all of my time in the CAD room hand-drafting, model making or doing computer modeling.  I never even thought that I could do this for  a living until I saw Sketches of Frank Gehry for the first time.  It made me realize that I should do architecture, after all, I had been doing work like this for the last four years.

Since I already been accepted into the University of Kansas business school, I had to fly to KU and present my portfolio to the dean of architecture, who proceeded to tell me that he loved my portfolio, but he didn't think I should be an architect.  My heart dropped and I figured I had just wasted two or three days for nothing.  Then he said that he is going to call Brian Hanabury of the Industrial Design department, and he pushed me out of his office to talk to him.

I met with Hanabury and he enjoyed my work, so he told me to submit a portfolio to the design department.  Needless to say, I was accepted to the ID program solely due to the "Sketches of Frank Gehry".

Zahner

For over 115 years Zahner has pioneered the architectural metal industry by applying aerospace engineering to the fabrication of art and architecture. Zahner is internationally renowned for intelligent engineering and precision craftsmanship on buildings throughout the world. The museum-level craft and engineering that Zahner consistently provides can be found in the Americas, Europe, Asia & the Middle East. (source:www.azahner.com)

This past week our Materials class had the privilege of experiencing Zahner's shop settings. Zahner usually has clients that are architects that want to have free-form/flowing buildings that require extreme engineering efforts. The client that I am most impressed by is Frank Gehry, whom Zahner helped produce his pavilion in Millenium Park, in Chicago. Seeing this sculpted pavilion every day produced endless questions for me to ponder, now I know some of the answers.

Zahners' primary materiall choices consist of copper, steel, aluminum, stainless, titanium, and certain types of infused steels.  More recently, Zahner has been experimenting with newer materials like copper infused glass, and other glass materials.  

With the current age of technology, most of Zahner's processes require CAD modeling, and CAM to produce a lot of the pieces that we see in the world today.  Most of Zahner's tooling is multi-functional, which allows Zahner to produce product more cost effective and efficiently. Although a considerable amount of processes are accomplished with the use of multi-functional robotic technology, some techniques are too intricate for them, requiring humans to step in and complete the job. 

Hallmark Cards

The Hallmark production center in Lawrence Kansas was first opened in 1958.  With a facility of 650,000 square feet, it produces nearly 12 million cards during a busy production week.  This facility is one of three manufacturing facilities in the United states.  Besides cards, Hallmark also produces ribbon, bows, film-wrapped items, invites, and stickers.  This facility accounts for nearly 40% of the Hallmark trade.

Materials commonly used by hallmark include paper, foil, film, corrugated cardboard, ribbon or bows (extracted mixture).  One thing that is noteworthy about Hallmark is that they only throw out 2.5% of their garbage, making them a highly sustainable manufacturer.

The cards are laid out digitally on the computer, then they are die cut, sorted and boxed.  All of the paper that is not utilized is to be recycled.  Depending on the style of card, there are a lot of finishes that can be applied. Most of these finishes are heat applied, some of them use glue.

Finishing technologies:

• halftone hot foil
• cloisonne
• textured prism background
• halftone dot prism
• prism without background
• flitter/laser
• puff print
• gold bronze 
• white lithography
• varnish
• flitter/flock

I found myself most impressed with how sustainable the company is.  With all of the materials and scraps that are produced, I imagined that the production floor would be covered with paper and other things.  Another aspect that impressed me was that nearly everything is produced in house!  With less out-sourced manufacturing, Hallmark is a dominating force in the world of cards. 

Star Signs

Star Signs is a local business located in Lawrence Kansas.  We had the opportunity to visit Star Signs to see how they worked in their shop, and to see what kind of tools they use.

Star Signs designs and manufacturers signs of all types for companies around the globe.  They specialize in signs for: civic and fine arts, sports and entertainment, corporate, healthcare, and retail.

To manufacture these signs, they first have industrial designers draw up a plan in the drawing room, then to the computers to stylize and finish the idea. Once the client approves the design, creation can begin!  Star Signs constructs their signs out of a variety of materials including:  polycarbonate, steel, aluminum, acrylic, vinyl, polyurethane, maple, walnut, etc.

Most of these materials are shipped in with stock sizes and measurements.  They have all the utilities necessary to fabricate signs from start to finish. some of these materials include a giant steel sheer, large CNC routers, full paint booth and also a curing room.

Not all of Star Signs is involved in huge industrial signs to be placed outside! They also incorporate large flat bed printers to lay out large murals that can be adhered to walls.

The thing I found most interesting about Star Signs is that there is a lot more going on than meets the eye.  I was particularly impressed with the amount of processes they can handle under one roof, as well as how many different products they are able to create simultaneously.

 large bed CNC (computer numerical control)

converted Ford automotive paint booth.