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Hay Re-releases Iconic Bruno Rey Chair, With Mysterious Joinery Method
The Original Ray chair brackets were sand-cast and glued into place with a very strong (and now not legal to produce) glue / resin. It is not possible to find a modern glue with the same mechanical strength that can also meet modern furniture strength tests such as the US BIFMA standards for furniture for public spaces. Therefore I would presume that HAY's development team have had to opt for a screwed connection by modifying the original bracket design. A screwed connection also akes prioduction faster and flat-packing possible. The chemical requirements to glues and paint finishes set by American legislation such as California's Prop 65 which constantly changes has caused a head-ache for any International furniture brand wanting to sell their products on the US market. Core77 ought to look into this and do an article on whether these laws make any real benefits to the market. We Europeans shake our heads at this sort of law, instead of just alligning with international accepted standards for chemical emmissions that have been agreed on between the EU, Asian standards and other countries which previously had their own laws on these matters.
I suspect the black rectangle can be pressed in to release the clips that hold the aluminium connectors to the seat and legs. The glue in the Organ shot looks like it's been (badly) applied later due to probable wear and wobbliness. The screwed version looks like a simplified later style that looks like the original, but has more positive connection. Note it doesn't have the black push button.
A Swiss patent by Bruno Rey from the right time period - might be relevant. Sadly no pictures accompany the text, at least not from the sources I found. https://patents.google.com/patent/CH517469A/de
https://patents.google.com/patent/DE4136611A1/de
Note that the bit you quoted says that Rey started with "sand casting" and then switched to "gravity casting." For those of you who've not worked in a foundry, let me just say that this is some obfuscatory BS. Sand castings are gravity castings since you can't exactly inject molten metal under high pressure into most sand molds. Lost wax castings are also "gravity casting" and unlike sand castings, they can hold a higher level of tolerances with a lower deformation rate. One also doesn't have to do as much clean-up on lost wax casting as you do on sand castings to get the same level of finish.
Yep, that is the noral route of production. Once the sales volume is there, you can invest in a more expensive production method to increase quality and get the unit price down. I have 3 of the original chairs from Kusch, the bracket on these are not sand-cast but die-cast molded.