Zahner Field Trip

Zahner is a Fabrication company that specializes in metal to be applied to art and architecture. They are an internationally known company that has done work for the likes of Frank Gerry. They have made some of Kansas City's most well known sculptures and buildings, such as the Bartle Sky Stattions, and more recently, the Kauffman performing arts center. But they also work on projects from around the world, from Brazil to china. Zahner’s mission is “To surpass the expectations of our clients by expanding the boundaries of high quality metal and glass used in art and architecture. Zahner will push the levels of technology while providing a worthwhile, challenging and safe environment for our present and future employees and associates.” Their self proclaimed history; “Zahner has been engineering and producing advanced sheet metal surfaces for over 116 years. Andrew Zahner, great grandfather of current CEO/President L. William Zahner, ran a small business called Eagle Cornice Works in Joplin, Missouri in the late 1800′s. He provided custom architectural metal cornices to many of the surrounding towns in southern Missouri and Eastern Kansas. In 1897, Andrew Zahner uprooted his business and moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he founded the A. Zahner Company.”

 A huge part of their business is the creation of software. They sell software to companies to design complex forms and architectural elements. Their business model is that these companies often turn to Zahner to then build what they design in their software. ZEPPS, ZIRA, and Tesselate are other unique software they offer. Their patented ZIRA software enables artists and architects to automatically translate an image, graphic, or design to metal, using imagery of their choosing onto a metal surface of any size using any combination of selective embossing, cutting, or perforation of the metal. Zahner will even make custom dies and punches for their clients. Their ZEPPS software allows clients to design complex facades with a smooth profile. Zahner is then able to take the profile and translate into a series of constructible planes, each panel aligning with the next panel on the same plane, so that the total effect is smooth form. I found this business model to be very clever. Zahner primarily works with all types of natural metal.  However, they have experimented with many different materials.  For their cutting process they didn’t use laser cutting, but used a water press instead.  They said this process prevents the laser’s heat from altering the edges of a piece.