Advertising

You are here

dwell » How they make it

The 9090

Alessi—In the 1970s, Alessi invested $300,000 to develop its first cooking appliance: a stovetop espresso maker by Richard Sapper. The northern Italian family business had made stainless steel serving accessories for decades, but the risk of engineered cookware proved contentious. Alberto Alessi’s uncle, Ettore, the technical guru, was so incensed by the project’s challenges that he once stormed out of a meeting, “leaving me and Sapper very embarrassed,” Alessi recalls. Today, the 9090 is an icon housed in the MoMA collection, and Alessi produces 50,000 of them a year.

Slideshow Photo
The factory contains a wide array of hydraulic presses. The cagelike bins hold groups of cold-pressed objects left ready for the next phase of production. Alessi's facility manufacture fifty-thousand 9090's per year.

  • Photo

    Cold Press

    The factory floor is a city of tall hydraulic presses. Humming and chinking sounds bellow down aisle after aisle. Workers wearing light-blue gloves spray grease onto sheet-metal pieces, place them in a mold, and lower a press. In a single motion, a sheet instantly becomes a cutout shape or molded surface. If the curve of a surface is steep—as is the one on the 9090’s angular boiler body—it acquires its shape after a series of presses that slowly increase the incline. After four to five presses, the metal, having reached the limits of deformation without breaking, spends a night in the annealing furnace. Prolonged heat realigns the molecular structure to maintain ductility.

    In a given day, bits of the 9090 in various stages of production are scattered around the factory in bins. “We don’t work in an assembly line,” explains Danilo Alliata, head of
    product development since 1980. “Our approach is more artisan. Every day the factory workers are doing different tasks.” Making a 9090 usually takes a month and about 85 pairs of hands.

  • Photo

    Weld

    Tungsten inert gas (TIG) welds and spot-welds join the molded parts. In TIG welding, the inert gas argon is blown out of a nozzle to surround a white-hot tungsten electrode at the tip of the welding torch. A skilled worker torches the edges to fuse them, while the argon stops atmospheric particles from weakening the bond.

    In spot-welding, the heat is generated by electric resistance: Copper electrodes pass a current between sheets of steel and the steel becomes so hot that a spot melts between the sheets to fasten them together. The challenge of the 9090 is precision. “Sapper invented a new closure,” Alessi remembers, “which can be done with one hand—–the handle on the top half swings down to clip over the lower boiler, holding it all together.”
    Two bent-steel fittings spot-welded onto the boiler body form the seal. A jig helps to line them up, and the worker presses a pedal, which clamps the electrodes. “This closure has tight tolerances,” explains Alliata. “Otherwise the seal will be inadequate and the consequences are drastic.”

  • Package

    After more than 100 steps, the completed parts are ready for packaging. Workers assemble the upper container, filter funnel, gasket, and boiler in much the same way that the eventual user will put them together at home. The product is placed in a printed cardboard box with a pamphlet about its provenance and its maintenance: The 9090 gets its name as the first product in “Program 9,” Alessi’s historic foray into the field of cookware. Leaving the pot on heat with no water will cause irreparable damage, and it need not be washed with dish soap.

    The pamphlet does not explain the 9090’s unusual shape. “It seemed like a scandal at the beginning,” says Alessi, “but eventually everyone came around to feeling sure. Actually, Sapper made the shape as an allusion to strength—–to a rocket—–in the sense that it propels a massive upward force. In the machine, when the water boils, steam launches up. It’s an act of power.”

Categories:

dwell.com is your online home in the modern world. Join us as we follow our team around the globe on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. Want more? Never miss another word of Dwell with our free iTunes app.

written by:
Virginia Gardiner
photos by:
Alex Subrizi
December/January 2009

Table of Contents

More

  • Cold Press

    Cold Press

    The factory floor is a city of tall hydraulic presses. Humming and chinking sounds bellow down aisle after aisle.

  • Package

    After more than 100 steps, the completed parts are ready for packaging.
  • Weld

    Weld

    Tungsten inert gas (TIG) welds and spot-welds join the molded parts.
  • Tonga Electric Mills

    Tonga Electric Mills

    These jaunty, tapered mills are designed for a comfortable grip on the exterior and a smooth grind on the interior, thanks to ceramic grindstones.

Add comment

Advertising
Advertising

Related products

Photo

Monaco Cheese Set

This cheese set from the Monaco collection includes four mini knives: a Parmesan cheese knife, spreading knife, cheese knife and a cheesy knife.
Photo

DAUVILLE GOLD GLAZED BOWLS

The Dauville hand-made nesting bowls are luxe and sophisticated in any setting. Just the splash of gold that everyone needs.
See more
Back to Top