Factory Tour

Welcome to our virtual tour of the Gemeinhardt factory. We continue to produce flutes and piccolos are produced here, at our factory, in the heart of Elkhart, Indiana. We invite you to enter our factory doors and see how we make a Gemeinhardt flute.

The Manufacturing Process

Gemeinhardt flutes are made of different metals - student flutes are made of nickel alloy; conservatory flutes are silver plated and solid silver; and the professional flutes are solid silver and solid gold. As you enter the "Press Room" you will find all the metal material stored. At different machines in this room the metal is being "forged," "stamped" and "trimmed" to form the flute parts.

Now we enter the Press Assembly area where the component parts of a key are assembled and prepared for soldering. Before soldering, the keys are immersed in flux solution. The job of flux is twofold, it helps the soldering process and protects the metal while being soldered. The parts that help the flute parts move, hinge tubing and spring hooks, are also soldered here to the appropriate bars.

After soldering, the parts go to the degreasing room. The virtual tour is the safest way to visit this room -- it holds degreasing tanks and special baths for cleaning the flute parts. This solution is so strong that one dip takes off all flux and grease from the flute metal. Once cleaned, the keys are inspected, counted and sent to the "Buffing Room" to be polished.

The flute parts are constantly cleaned throughout the manufacturing process. The parts go through a sonic cleaning to degrease the parts. Before sending the parts onto the next manufacturing step, the parts are always inspected.

Next is the most visual part of the flute making process. This is the tone-hole pulling department. A straight piece of tubing, used as the body of the flute, has tone holes pulled out of it. As the machines pull out the tone holes, the area is uneven and sharp. Through a process called "facing and rolling" this smoothes out the uneven parts.

The flute parts are constantly cleaned throughout the manufacturing process. The parts go through a sonic cleaning to degrease the parts. Before sending the parts onto the next manufacturing step, the parts are always inspected.

Next is the most visual part of the flute making process. This is the tone-hole pulling department. A straight piece of tubing, used as the body of the flute, has tone holes pulled out of it. As the machines pull out the tone holes, the area is uneven and sharp. Through a process called "facing and rolling" this smoothes out the uneven parts.

Putting It Together

Now all the pieces start to come together. The ribs are jigged into place and soldered down to the body. The barrel is then soft soldered onto the body tubing. The lip plate is soldered to the tapered head joint tubing. And the embouchure hole, where the flutist places his mouth, is formed and shaped.

The "Barrel Stamping" room is where the Gemeinhardt name, Elkhart, Indiana and the individual model number is stamped onto the brass barrel. Kurt Gemeinhardt took great pride in engraving his name into every one of his instruments, and 60 years later every instrument is still engraved with the Gemeinhardt name.

We now enter the Post-alignment department. Because metal resists change, we constantly inspect the shape of the flute. To help the flute parts keep their shape, we drill posts so the steel will fit through the holes and support the key mechanisms. Once the Post-alignment process is completed, the edges are smoothed off leaving a flat surface on each side of the post.

Every head joint and foot joint is hand fitted. Throughout the manufacturing process Gemeinhardt also takes an extra step of perfecting its instruments by hand polishing each flute. We prepare every part of the flute to this point and then send the parts to the plating company. When the parts are returned to us, once again they are cleaned and inspected.

We enter the Line Fab area where the plated keys are assembled. The keys slide onto a stainless steel rod, and are checked for fit and alignment and oiled. The keys that are slid onto the rods are called "section keys," and are made for the left-hand section, right-hand section and trill section of the flute.

Once the keys are placed onto the appropriate section they are sent to Pinning. Pinning is the process of placing the pins into various spots of the flute. This procedure holds the parts onto the rod, and allows for the independent movement of each key.

The keys are ready to be corked and padded to finalize the manufacturing process. Once the cork and pads are placed onto the keys, the crown assembly is placed in the headjoint. The crown assembly, which assures proper acoustical response, is what makes the flute work -- when the flutist blows into the flute the air goes up and hits the crown assembly and that will reverberate down through the flute, thus giving the instrument sound.

The Finishing Room is where the final assembly is done. All keys are assembled onto one flute body, the springs are cut and the tension is adjusted -- now the flute is ready to be fine tuned. The pad cups are centered over the tone holes, proper openings are set and the pads are leveled (when it is level it should touch the tone hole in the front, back and sides at the same time).

Gemeinhardt has introduced an objective quality measure at this point, called Magnehelic Testing. This unique device testes the seal of an instrument using suction while the keys are lightly closed. A flute with pads that are not sealing well against the tone holes will be taken apart at this point so the pads can be “shimmed” to seal better. Gemeinhardt finishers employ the laborious method of partial shimming, even at the entry level of instruments, to guarantee excellent and reliable playability for the student.

When the finisher is satisfied with final adjustments made to the flute, the instrument is sent to the testing room. Once it passes all the testing requirements it is cleaned, wrapped and cased with a guarantee card. No flute will leave the Gemeinhardt factory until it is hand tested and meets Gemeinhardt's stringent approval playing requirements.

Gemeinhardt employees take part in manufacturing these magnificent flutes and piccolos. Many of our employees have been with Gemeinhardt for years, and have passed on their flute making skills to newer generations. We are pleased to share with you how we make our flutes and piccolos, and invite you to come back anytime to learn more about Gemeinhardt and our factory.