Tapioca Pudding Snow Ploughs Paddle Boats Fibre Cement Siding
Tapioca pudding is a textural fusion of creaminess and chewy tapioca pearls. The recipe is at least a century old, and there are conflicting theories about when and where it was invented-- britain or the united states. With its distinctive chewiness, it brings something entirely different to the table. Today factories whip up tapioca pudding in big batches. Times have changed, but the appetite for this pearly pudding hasn't waned. The proof is truly in the pudding. The tapioca pearls, of course, define this dish. The opaque, little balls are processed from a vegetable grown in south america called cassava root. The recipe also calls for more traditional baking ingredients like whole milk, eggs... Sugar... And vanilla. They pipe the whole milk into a giant mixing kettle. This kettle has steam-heated steel walls to gently cook the ingredients while blending them. As the milk froths, the cook measures the tapioca pearls. The pearls arrive at the factory already processed, formed by grinding the root vegetable into powder and tumbling it to shape it into properly sized pearls. As the pearls cook in the milk, they will soften and swell to double the size, just like rice. But unlike rice, they'll take on an almost jellylike, chewy consistency. He adds sugar to sweeten the mix. The cook then leaves the swirling and foaming mix to cook for over an hour. Meanwhile, at another station, they add tapioca starch to a different blender full of milk. This blender is unheated and has higher speed for mixing that's fast and furious. He adds eggs... And he flavors the mix with salt. The tapioca starch acts as a thickening agent for this separate mix, as the blender whips it to a frothy state. They transfer the starch blend to the main mixing kettle. The cook adds a natural food coloring to make the pudding beige along with some vanilla flavoring. The tapioca pearls are just the right consistency. This pudding is now fully cooked and ready to move on to the filling line. They pump it while it's still steaming hot into single-serve plastic cups. Packaging the pudding while it's still hot is an act of food preservation, which, not surprisingly, is called hot fill. The hot-fill technique locks in nutrients and ensures freshness, giving the product a shelf life of about 70 days. Suctioning arms swiftly transfer foil lids to cover the cups, giving the pudding no time to cool down. With the lids in place, the filler moves the cups forward to meet up with heat-sealer heads. They fuse the foil lids to the plastic cup rims. It's taken just seconds to fill these cups with hot tapioca pudding and seal them, effectively preserving them. The pudding-filled cups now funnel into a lane to position them single file. Then they travel between rubber belts that squeeze them. If they can take the pressure, it confirms that the cups are tightly sealed. A printer sprays the expiration date and other pertinent information onto the cup. After weighing to confirm there's enough pudding inside, an x-ray machine scans the contents to confirm that there are no contaminants. Then they're on the way to the chilling line. Inside the tubs, the tapioca pudding is still hot and fluid. The cups ride a system of spiraling, refrigerated conveyors bringing the pudding's temperature down to about 100-degrees fahrenheit and thickening it substantially. The pudding-filled containers now pass through gates that separate them into two lanes and then arrange them in groups of three. Machinery places one group of three onto another, and then all that's left is the packaging. Mechanical arms place the paperboard sleeve on the top three cups. Traveling through a narrow lane, guides fold the paperboard down around the bottom three cups as a sprayer applies hot glue to the flaps. A worker pulls off one pack of six and sends it over to a panel of testers for an inspection and taste. They examine the pudding for color and consistency. They also taste a little from each production batch to confirm that it's sweet enough, that the tapioca beads are the desired texture, and that it meets all other quality requirements. If they like what they taste, the entire batch is declared ready for retail. Three hours in the making, this tapioca pudding is now ready to add a little sweetness to someone's day. A snowplow is actually the big blade on a snow-clearing vehicle-- not the vehicle itself. The first snowplows were wedge-shaped wooden blades drawn by horses. As cars replaced horses, these gave way to metal plows mounted to the front of trucks and other large machines. A snowplow is a blade made of either stainless steel, which is rust-proof, or carbon steel, which they coat in plastic-based powder paint to prevent rust. To begin making the blade, they take a sheet of metal about 1/10 of an inch thick and insert it in a press. The press punches out holes for the bolts, which attach the blade to the mounting structure. Next, they feed the sheet through a rolling press. The rollers apply 35 to 40 tons of pressure, curving the sheet to the required shape. Workers check that the front radius and top radius of the curve meet the technical specifications. Next, using a machine called a press break, they bend over the top of the sheet. This bend will sit on the top bar of the mounting structure. The mounting structure is made of several parts cut from giant plates of carbon steel. A computer guides the cutting machine, which uses electrogenerated flames. Their intense, focused heat slices through the steel literally by melting it. The steel is too hot to handle when the plasma cutting is done, so workers lift off the parts with magnets. Then they bend key, load-bearing parts in a press break to increase the structural strength. They position the parts for one section of the structure in an assembly fixture and weld them together. In a different assembly fixture, they position the parts for another section of the structure. A robot welds those together. Back at the first assembly, they use pins to attach a spring-loaded component called a trip edge. It protects the vehicle from damage by absorbing the shock through the springs, rather than through the vehicle frame, should the plow hit an obstacle on the road. After welding the two sections together, workers send the structure to the powder-coating area. There, workers spray it first with powder primer then with powder paint. Each coat is baked to activate the plastic base, which produces an ultra-durable shell over the metal. Once the structure cools, workers install the springs for the trip edge, then they attach the base of the structure called the cutting edge. It's made of a harder type of steel because it scrapes the ground. The structure is now finished and ready to receive the blade. This one's getting a stainless-steel blade. The bent top fits over the structure's top bar, the bottom into a slot below. Workers secure the blade with bolts then finish off the plow with a decal. For this model, they make two plows like this-- mirror images of each other. They go side-by-side, connected in the middle by a hinge to form a v-shaped snowplow. Straight plows have a single blade attached to a different type of structure. All the parts, except stainless-steel blades, are powder-painted and baked. The v-plow articulates. The driver can adjust the width of the "v" to direct the snow. Another model combines a straight blade with hinged blades for clearing snow in large areas, such as parking lots. When it comes to these types of machines, there's clearly no business like snow business. A paddle boat is a small recreational vessel, perfect for a leisurely ride on a lake. It gets its name from the rotating paddle wheel that propels it. You simply sit in the seat and turn the paddle wheel by pedaling, which is why this type of boat is also called a pedal boat or pedalo. Steered by rudder and gliding on two floaters, a paddle boat delivers a smooth, relaxing ride. Boat mechanics don't get much simpler than this. In a typical two-seater, two sets of pedals, each powering a paddle wheel at the rear. The factory molds the top and bottom halves of each floater separately. First, workers spray the mold with gelcoat, a type of polyester. This is the floater's surface finish. Next, they cover the entire mold with fiberglass cloth then add a second layer in the front and bottom where the floater will be a bit thicker. Then they lower a cover onto the mold, latching it down securely to make the mold airtight. They draw a vacuum to extract the air trapped inside, then inject liquid resin. The resin saturates the fiberglass cloth and, within an hour, hardens, producing solid fiberglass, a lightweight material that's both impact-resistant and waterproof. After extracting this half, workers mold the other half of this floater and the two halves that make up the other one, then they apply fiberglass glue to the edges... And carefully align and mate top and bottom. They position spacers to put pressure on the base of the groove, then clamp the perimeter for about 45 minutes until the glue sets. When the glue is completely dry, they trim the perimeter to make the edge neat and smooth. To make each propulsion wheel, workers rivet eight blades to a fiberglass hub. These strong plastic blades do have some flex in them. This ensures they won't break, should the wheel hit a rock or other obstacle. The part of the boat where you sit and pedal is called the bicycle. The two bike bodies, like the floaters, are made of molded fiberglass, then jazzed up with decals. Since the bicycle mechanics are routinely exposed to water, they must be rust-resistant. Therefore, the pedal mechanism is made of chrome-plated steel and the chains of steel that's been treated with an anti-corrosion coating. Each bike has two chains-- the first linking the pedals to one side of a central gear, the second linking the other side of the central gear to the propulsion wheel. So, once they're both hooked up, pedaling moves the first chain, which rotates the gear, which moves the second chain, which turns the wheel. Final assembly is relatively simple. First, workers connect the floaters with three painted aluminum crossbars. The paint is baked on to make it extra durable. Then, on one of the crossbars, they install a pair of aluminum rudders, the boat's steering mechanism. They link the rudders with an aluminum bar so that they move in unison. A hitch pin locks the bar securely in place, while this rubber cap prevents paint chipping when the rudders hit the crossbar. After mounting the first bicycle, workers install a console in the center of the boat. It contains a waterproof storage compartment and the handle, which directs the rudders. It connects to the rudders with a long bar called a tiller. Next they mount the second bike. Like the first one, it's designed to snap securely onto the crossbars. The adjustable fiberglass seats slide onto aluminum rails. The seats have fixed cushions and rugged, waterproof fabric. The boat's retractable canopy is made of the same fabric on an aluminum structure. A paddle boat is virtually maintenance-free. You just have to oil the mechanisms a couple of times per season, and from then on, it's smooth sailing. Every home needs a tough exterior. Fiber cement siding is a concrete option. Made of cement, sand, and wood pulp, it's engineered to be fireproof, insectproof, and weatherproof. Embossed with various wood-grain patterns, it has a natural look that's big on the street. Fiber cement cladding is a century-old product that was actually reinvented in the 1980s. Asbestos was removed due to health concerns and replaced with wood pulp. The pulp provides the fiber that prevents cracking. Production begins with silica sand. A loader shovels it into an underground conveyor. The sand particles, which are about the size of beach sand, are about to be ground down to a fine powder. The conveyor takes the sand up to a revolving cylinder grinder called a ball mill-- so named because, inside, steel balls tumble around to smash the sand particles into much smaller bits. They pipe in water to keep the dust down and eliminate the need for an exhaust system. This also liquefies the sand, making it easier to pipe it through the plant during the various stages of processing. But the sandy liquid needs to be thickened substantially, so it's into a tank to drain off much of the water. What's left is about 80% sand. The next ingredient is wood pulp, which gives the cement siding bending strength. Without it, the fiber cement siding would be brittle and crack easily. They add water and stir to soften and liquefy the pulp so it can be easily pumped around the factory for processing. At the end of the mixing, the pulp looks like thick oatmeal. Next, they lower cylindrical sieves into position. But first they blend together the liquefied sand, cement, and pulp, along with some additives, creating a fiber cement slurry. They pipe the cement slurry into a trough beneath the sieves. As the sieves rotate through the slurry, residual water drains through the mesh walls, leaving a fiber cement film on the surface. The film transfers to a felt belt moving overhead. Through the felt, a vacuum mechanism sucks more moisture from the film until it forms a solid fiber cement sheet. Rollers squeeze numerous sheets together. They're still moist enough to stick together, and they fuse into one thick board. Another roller then presses a woodlike pattern onto the surface of the cement board. A spray of high-pressure water then slices the cement sheet into planks. A robotic suctioning head gently picks up the fiber cement planks and transfers them to a pallet. The planks are fragile at this point and need to be handled with care. Loaded into a pallet, the cement planks are now ready for some toughening up. They bake the fiber cement siding inside steel tubes. They're autoclaves, high-pressure ovens. Inside, pressurized steam enhances the chemical reaction between the ingredients to cure the cement clapboard. They then load the pallets of cement siding onto a railcar, and it's on to the next station. Here, machinery does something they call stack breaking. During curing, the siding planks get stuck together, so these hydraulic cylinders lift and jostle them to separate them into individual boards. They put a siding sample to the test. With both sides of the board stabilized, a rod bends it at the center to determine the stress point. If it can take a lot of pressure, the whole production line moves forward. Spaced apart now, the fiber cement planks ride by sprayers that paint the sides and the ends a nice shade of red. The siding then enters a curtain of paint of the exact same color. The paint adheres to the front of the boards. These mirrors expose any missed spots. If there are any, they'll do touch-ups. The transformation from a pile of sand and other ingredients to something that looks a lot like wood siding has taken just three days, and once installed, these wood-look cement planks could fool the neighbors. After all, it's all about putting up a good facade.