Mountain Bike Tires Leaf and Debris Vacuums Canned Meat Fillet Knives
Mountain bike tires are true trailblazers, specifically designed for off-road riding. Wider than regular road tires, mountain bike tires have raised knobs or lugs that add stability on uneven terrain. Built to withstand the trail, these tires can handle it all. When the rubber hits the dirt, it's all about control. Mountain bike tires are designed to grip the ground and provide traction off-road. First, designers use a computer model of a tire to simulate the effects of different rubber compounds. Construction begins with rubber compounds being mixed together to create parts of the tire. Ingredients include synthetic and natural rubbers, sulfur, and other chemicals. Rotating spiral blades break down the materials. Friction from the mixing heats and softens them. This transforms the ingredients into a dough-like rubber compound. Powerful rollers squeeze the compound into thick long sheets and blades cut the rolled rubber into narrow strips. Then the rubber travels through more rollers that squeeze it down to the desired thickness. The rubber sheets land on a cart, ready for use. Technicians incase steel bead wire with one of these compounds. The bead wire is the part of the tire that connects to the wheel's rim. As steel wire travels through an aperture, the rubber is extruded to form the casing. The machine delivers the bead wire to a spinning disk. The disk winds the bead wire, shaping it into rings which fit to a wheel rim. To maintain the diameter of the wire, the technician tapes the ends together, holding the shape until the next stage of production. Next, rubber sheets with varying characteristics enter an extruder. Using heat and pressure, the extruder forces the rubber through dies. This process merges their characteristics into a single sheet. The sheet will be used to make the bicycle's tread. The tread rubber travels through a channel of cool water. Meanwhile, rollers coat fabric with rubber to make plies for the tire casing. A moving blade cuts it into strips. This rubber is naturally tacky, so the pieces can be easily spliced. The system feeds the strips to tire-building machine. A skilled assembler wraps the strips to the machine drum to form the tire casing and splices the rubber where the ends meet. Next, robots slide two wire beads around the casing. The ends of the drum fold the sides of the casing over the bead wires. The technician applies rubber-coated fabric to the bead wires, strengthening the area. The tread rubber is placed in the center. A roller applies pressure as the drum spins to wind the tread around the casing. Then the ends are pressed together manually. And one more turn of the drum secures the tread rubber to the casing. Once vent holes have been cut in the rubber, it's over to an expanding mold, where the tire takes shape. The technician inserts a rubber curing bladder to maintain the shape of the tire. Then he places the mountain bike tires in curing molds. These individual molds will steam-cook the tires under pressure to further shape them. This process forms knobs and other protrusions on the tire surface that are designed to grip a rugged terrain. Like a big waffle iron, this mold has cooked and formed the mountain bike tire. The tire is then placed on a rack to cool. Next, the bike tire undergoes a durability test while a computer measures rolling resistance. That's the energy lost when the tire rotates and an indication of how easily the tire will roll. This mountain bike tire is now cleared to travel off the beaten path. A leaf and debris vacuum automatically collects all types of fallen debris. Instead of spending hours raking, this device quickly does it all, making yard work easier than ever. A leaf and debris vacuum is powered by a gas or diesel engine. The engine spins an impeller, which creates the suction and also shreds the leaves. The machine is comprised of about 100 different parts, all cut from 0.11-inch-thick sheets of steel using this computer-guided punch press. This part is the rear flange for the impeller housing. To make the side wall of the housing, called the wrap, a technician bends this steel strip with a pinch roller. Another technician positions the wrap on the rear flange and tack welds them together. The craftsman places the housing's front flange on top of the wrap, aligns its notches with the wrap's tabs, and tack welds the parts together. He completes the housing with this rectangular piece. The shredded leaves exit the housing through this opening. Next, the parts are placed on a rotary welding table, and the tacked joints are welded together. The fused seams ensure the housing is airtight. A computer guides this fiber-optic laser cutter, slicing out the impeller blades from a sheet of abrasion-resistance steel. This steel is four times thicker than the steel used for the body parts. Each impeller has four blades with sharp edges that help shred the leaves. The welder mounts the impeller components onto a fixture. Each blade has alignment tabs which fit into notches on a backing plate. After clamping each blade in position, he fuses them to the backing plate. Next, he welds steel reinforcement straps between each of the four blades. The straps add strength and stability, thereby increasing the life-span of the impeller. The technician completes the assembly by bolting a compression hub to the center. The hub holds the engine crankshaft together, which rotates the impeller. Then he inserts a simulated crankshaft and tightens the compression hub. He places the impeller on this machine to balance it. Since the impeller can spin at a speed of more than 3,000 revolutions per minute, this step is critical for the machine to run smoothly. To maintain stability, the welder adds beads of weld to the lighter side until the impeller balances. Then he removes the simulated crankshaft. Meanwhile an assembler mounts the 29-horsepower gas engine to the engine deck of the trailer frame. The crankshaft pokes through a hole in the frame's faceplate. He bolts the impeller housing, which has been painted, to the faceplate. The technician installs the impeller on the crankshaft with a shear key. Then he bolts a protective steel cover plate and attaches everything with a central bolt. Next, he applies a brand decal on the housing's front cover... And bolts the cover to the housing. When ready for use, the debris chute, the hose, and the intake hose are attached to the front end. As this demonstration shows, the impeller can shred leaves into particles small enough to be used as compost. With so much on their plates, busy people rely on shortcuts to help prepare meals. Nowadays, you can stock your pantry with cans of precooked meat so there's always something on hand to use in sandwiches, stews, stir-fries, and other tasty dishes. This canned meat is meticulously hand produced by a craft cannery and made in small batches. It contains no artificial ingredients or preservatives, just meat and sea salt. When a shipment of meat arrives at the cannery, the quality control manager records its lot code for tracking purposes. As a food-safety precaution, he confirms the temperature of the meat, which must come in between 0 to 39 degrees fahrenheit. A skilled butcher then inspects the meat and trims off the excess fat. If it's a large piece, the butcher slices it into smaller pieces so that it can pass through the dicing machine. The dicer cuts the meat into one-inch cubes. At the filling station, aluminum cans circulate around a rotating table. As one worker shovels cubed meat onto the center of the table, others manually fill cans while simultaneously performing a quality inspection. Workers will discard any cubes that are discolored or too fatty. Next, technicians place a single cube of sea salt in each can filled with meat. This is the only added ingredient. At the next station, workers weigh each can individually and either add or remove meat to reach the required weight. The filled cans now travel on a conveyer belt to the cook room. There, they enter the pre-heater, which blasts them with steam for 20 seconds. This expels air that's trapped between the cubes of meat. Next, the cans move into the closing machine. The machine compresses the meat to provide sufficient clearance at the top of the can. This head space creates a vacuum on the can to draw out the remaining air. Then a device attaches the lid by a process known as double seaming. The process rolls the edges of the lid and can together, forming a rim that provides an airtight seal. It's time to get cooking. A worker lowers the cans into a commercial-sized pressure cooker. Cooking under steam pressure produces the tenderizing effects of slow cooking in a fraction of the time. The meat cooks in its own juices. The cooking temperature varies depending on the type of meat and the can size. When the meat is ready, the technician removes the cans and sets them aside for about an hour to cool and dry. The cans are then moved to the packaging area. As a worker loads the labeling machine, he inspects each can for dents or damaged seals. One by one, the cans roll over a glue applicator, then a stack of labels, wrapping themselves and the top seal. At the same time, the machine counts the number of cans. After rolling off the labeling machine, the cans pass through an ink-jet printer which applies the best-used-by date. That date is next to the lot code, which the closing machine printed while attaching the lid. This can of meat has a five-year shelf life due to two crucial factors-- it is cooked properly, and the can's seal is airtight. Have fish to fry? If it's fresh and whole, a fillet knife will come in handy. This is no ordinary kitchen knife, equipped with a thin, flexible blade and a sharp tip. This design allows the user to move easily along the backbone and under the skin of the meat. A fillet knife is a precision cutting tool. It makes the work of removing bones and skin from fish possible. Making a fillet knife starts with a sheet of thin and pliable stainless steel. A computer-guided laser cuts the steel into blade blanks. A craftsman clamps the blank in a fixture. The fixture moves the blank across a grinding wheel, beveling it from the spine to the cutting edge on both sides. Then sanding belts are used to shape the blade blank. A craftsman rounds the spine of the blank using a rough-grit sanding belt, eventually graduating to a finer one. With a rounder spine, the blade will be safer to handle. At the next station, a craftsman drills a hole into a solid block of composite material that contains resin. The material is cut into smaller chunks. Each one will be formed into a handle end cap or pommel. The center hole will house the tang. He slices other pieces of the material almost wafer thin. They'll become spacers for the handle's other end. These compound parts will support the center material for the cork handle. The craftsman stacks the parts of the handle on a stand. He brushes waterproof glue onto the spacer and slides eight pieces of cork onto the prong. He applies glue between each one. He places the pommel piece on the end. Since cork is buoyant, if the knife is dropped in water, it will float and can be easily retrieved. Once the glue dries, the handles are transferred, two at a time, to a fixture. The fixture moves back and forth as a rotor rounds the spacer, carving the cork and the pommel. At the next station, a worker places one of the fillet knife blades in a rubber holder. He clamps the holder in a fixture, stabilizing the blade for the installation of the bolster. The bolster is the steel ring that acts as a transition piece between the blade and handle. Then the craftsman applies glue to the composite spacer on the handle. He slides the handle onto the tang of the knife. He inserts a hexagonal nut into the hole and the pommel as well as some epoxy. He screws the nut onto the tang, securing the blade to the handle. The epoxy provides reinforcement. The craftsman unclamps the knife and works on shaping the handle. He sculpts it with rough-grit sandpaper. He angles the outside of the pommel, making it smoother and more attractive. Switching to a finer abrasive, he sands the cork to blend the layers together so they appear to be one uniform piece. Next, a worker drills into the pommel to widen and slope the opening. He pipes more epoxy into the recess. He inserts a snap that will be used to retain the knife in a sheath and drives it further into the recess using a press. Once the epoxy cures, he submerges the knives into water. This step is a test to confirm the knives can float. After the handle dries, the knife undergoes a final sanding for the user's gripping comfort. You can see the difference the sanding makes in the knife on the right. Next, the craftsman works on the fillet knife's cutting edge, sharpening it against a sanding belt. The blade slices a sheet of paper cleanly without snagging, proving that it's been well-honed. Finally, another worker cleans and lubricates the fillet knife. She slides it into a leather sheath and snaps the tab of the sheath to the end of the pommel. With all the work that's gone into this fillet knife, the customer will be in for one tasty, well-cut meal.