Reuter Organ Company

On Thursday September 8th, 2014 my Materials and Processing class took a field trip to Reuter Organ Company. Reuter Organ Company is a custom organ manufacturing company that creates custom organs for customers from scratch. Reuter Organ starts off their custom build organ process by designing what the finished organ will look like. They often visit the space to get a better understanding of the space and to see what will look well in the space. After designing every last detail from the exterior details to the inner mechanics, the design layouts get shipped out to the factory floor where they began to create the organ from scratch. The inner workings of the organ are made from poplar because its cheaper and a good structure wood with no knots, whereas woods like cheery and maple are added to the exterior because they are more aesthetically pleasing. while the inner workings are being built the pipes for the organ are also being created. Most of the pipes for the organs are made in-house from scratch. The pipes are made from spotted metal thats created in-house. The spotted metal starts as a liquid and then put into a machine that slides across the table creating a thin sheet of liquid metal that cools into a sheet of spotted metal. The sheets are then cut and formed into pipes of different sizes (64 pipes in one set) and then sent to the tuning room where they are tuned to their note by an expert musician. As the notes are being tuned and the wood is finished being formed, the organ starts to be assembled in the shop. The entire organ is finished in the shop and tested. After everything is put together and tweaked, it is broken down, marked and then shipped to the location where it will be rebuilt and permanently installed.

Most organs built today are electronic and use electricity to blow air through the pipes, send signals to which pipe needs air, and record music played on the organ so that it can be played back later like an mp3. Some organs are still built using mechanics that moved different parts of the organ in order to make a sound. Organs come in all shapes and sizes and no two seem to be alike.