MUSIC TRADES November 2015

In 1999, Steinway & Sons faced acritical manufacturing dilemma.The O.S. Kelly Company ofSpringfield, Ohio, its sole supplierof piano plates, had just lost key

customers including Baldwin, Aeolian,and Wurlitzer andwas on the brink ofbankruptcy. Atough choice con-fronted manage-ment: abandon itssand cast iron plate,a key componentthat had distin-guished Steinwaypianos for almost150 years, and finda new source ofsupply overseas; orget into the platem a n u f a c t u r i n gbusiness by pur-chasing O.S. Kelly.“It was a very tricky decision at thetime,” recalls Andrew Horbachevsky,vice president of manufacturing,Steinway & Sons. “With so many of theparts that go into our instruments, wehave deep sources of supply, but oursand cast piano plate is so specializedand difficult to make. We couldn’t find

any foundries capable of meeting ourspecifications so we opted to buy O.S.Kelly to protect this key source of sup-ply.” Piano experts will debate the merits of

sand cast piano plates, like those pro-duced by Steinwayat the O.S. Kellyfactory, versus V-Pro plates, whichare commonplacewith high-volumeAsian producers.“It would havebeen easy for us tojust go to Chinaand get a cheaperV-Pro plate,” offersH o r b a c h e v s k y.“But our sand castplate is different, aslower productionprocess that we feelyields a better

sound. It’s a critical component.” Headds, “Our cast-iron frame, also calledthe plate or harp, is responsible for sus-taining the massive tension of the stringswhich by some measures must supporttensions of up to 40,000 pounds. Thereis no margin for error when you are deal-ing with this type of tension.”

MUSIC TRADES November 2015

INVESTING IN THE US

Steinway’s State-Of-The-ArtPlate FactoryPiano maker invests millions in Ohio plate

foundry with plans to supply global

production

A broad range of engi-

neering knowhow and

craftsmanship is required

to build today’s Steinway

piano. A foundry worker

above at the company’s

Springfield, Ohio-based

plate factory checks

molten metal before pour-

ing it into a sand mold.

The resulting plates then

receive extensive finishing

work.

Finished piano plates have passed allinspections and are now ready fordelivery to Steinway factories inHamburg, Germany and Long IslandCity, New York.

Ten years after acquiring O.S. Kelly,Steinway again faced a serious impasse.The factory and its team of 50 employ-ees were producing quality plates forboth the New York and HamburgSteinway factories. However, agingequipment and rising costs forced man-agement to again make an importantchoice: plan for the future and commitmillions in capital expenditures or closedown the plant and find an offshoreplate supplier. In 2010, management again sided with

O.S. Kelly and pledged a commitmentto invest in a multi-million dollar capi-tal campaign to modernize the agingfactory. The investments, initiated in2012, are just now coming to a closewith the completion of a new 25,000-square-foot factory, state-of-the-artCNC machining center, and high-techrecycling systems that will not onlymake O.S. Kelly a more environmental-ly friendly facility but lower operatingcosts as well.“Night and day” is an apt description

of the new O.S. Kelly facility versus the19th century shop it replaces. Poorly litareas with sand-covered floors have

been replaced by new brightly lit roomswhere operators load molds with a spe-cial mix of sand and binders. Thesemolds then move by rail to the castingarea where operators fill them with amolten mix of iron that can weigh up to400lbs if it’s a plate for a Steinway con-

cert grand piano. A new high-tech recy-cling system now eliminates the needfor carting hundreds of thousands ofpounds of sand used in creating moldsto landfill sites each year. Sand nowgoes through a heat system where it’srecycled to be used again in creatingnew molds.The new systems in place at the O.S.

Kelly factory are decidedly differentfrom anything a visitor would see ateither of the Steinway factories in NewYork or Hamburg. Steinway is aboutwoodworking and handcraftsmanship,while O.S. Kelly is all about metallurgyand metal working. “We’re very proudthat we have a manufacturing and engi-neering team that can not only visualizecomplex systems like this, but makethem a reality,” continuedHorbachevsky.Horbachevsky and his Springfield,

Ohio-based engineering team are espe-cially proud of their new “school-bus”-sized CNC machining center—whichcan take a 400 lb. concert grand plate,flip it over, and with 48 computer-con-trolled tools, drill all the holes for hitchpins, agraffes, and tuning pins—and atthe same time, deburr all the soundholes. It’s a proprietary machine with aprice tag well north of $1 million that,according to Horbachevsky, “will notonly bring a new level of precision butalso allow us to expand production andtake on additional work.” The plate thatemerges from this machine is then readyfor the painstaking finishing processthat includes a powder coating andsanding followed by two rounds ofpaint and a final matte satin finish.Springfield, Ohio at one time was the

piano plate capital of the world withnearly one thousand workers producing250,000 plates per year at O.S. Kellyand the now defunct Wickham PianoPlate company. Although volumes atO.S. Kelly today are much lower, thefactory is busy supplying thousands ofplates to Steinway’s factories in the U.S.and Hamburg as well as a few otherdomestic and foreign-based piano man-ufacturers. Horbachevsky sums up,“The precision we use today wouldnever allow us to return to the volumesof the past, but we now have the capa-bility to not only produce the finestplate in the world, but to expand pro-duction as well.”

MUSIC TRADES November 2015

Steinway engineers have just completed the installation and programming of a

massive CNC machining center at their all-new plate factory in Springfield, Ohio.

With the aid of 48 computer-controlled tools, the new machine will drill all the holes

for hitch pins, agraffes, and tuning pins—and at the same time, deburr all the

sound holes. Pictured above are: Ray Stacy, plant manager, O.S. Kelly; Andrew

Horbachevsky, v.p. manufacturing, Steinway & Sons; Bob Vitoux, chief financial

officer, Steinway Musical Instruments.

Don’t look for this machine in many

piano factories. As part of a “Green”

initiative, Steinway will now use this

new machine to recycle 95% of the

sand it uses for forming the molds

used for piano plates.

STENWAY’S NEW PLATE FACTORY