Wearing protective gear to shield from the extreme heat of molten bronze, workers at one of the last bell foundries in Europe are casting bells weighing several tons. One after another, the artisans carefully pour the molten metal into specially shaped molds held together with steel bands to create 12 bells for churches in Italy, Germany, and Romania. Founded in 1599, the Grassmayr Bell Foundry, in Innsbruck, western Austria, has survived wars, famines, epidemics, and economic challenges, per the AP. These days, the family business is run by brothers Johannes and Peter Grassmayr. During the Renaissance in the late Middle Ages, there were hundreds of bell-makers in Europe, while today only a handful remain on the continent.
The Grassmayrs' secret to success: tenacity combined with innovation, such as 3D printing, scanning, lasers, and computer simulation apps. "Certain things are just like they were 400 years ago," says Johannes Grassmayr. "But we innovated a lot. Especially within the last 20 years, we've changed a lot." The production cycle for making a bell takes three to four months. In the past, cleaning a freshly cast bell and polishing it made up 30% of total production time. Now, with the help of modern tools, that process takes only a tenth of the time.
Grassmayr keeps some of its most innovative production steps a secret, such as a special chamber where the bells are cleaned with a high-pressure sandblaster, not to mention the specialized apps used to calculate the sound of each particular bell. Even with modern technology, the process of designing and forming the molds for a large bell can take up to six months. But it's not only the difficulty of the production that has Grassmayr worried. The modern bell-making industry is under pressure as fewer churches are being built, changing the demand for bells. Rising energy costs due to the war in Ukraine aren't helping, and labor costs have risen 30% since the pandemic in 2020.
The main cost factor of a newly cast bell is still the price of materials. The best bells require high-quality bronze, which is 80 parts copper to 20 parts tin. A few years ago, the price of bronze was about $9.25 per kilogram, compared with more than $26 today, Johannes says. To keep the business going, the family has increasingly turned to restoring old bells, often with the help of modern tech. Bells made by Grassmayr can be found in more than 100 countries, ranging from Japan to the US. One of the largest the brothers have cast was for Romania's National Cathedral in Bucharest. Cast in 2016, it's 10.8 feet tall and weighs more than 27.5 tons. More here.
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