Industrial Wire Ropes Living Walls Large Format Cameras Gemstones
Industrial machines often have heavy loads to lift or pull. Whether it's a dragline excavator working in an open-pit mine, an oil-drilling rig, a construction crane, or farm machinery, the weight is borne by ultrastrong wire ropes. Industrial-wire ropes typically range from 8/10" to 5" in diameter. Besides machinery applications, they also serve as support cables for large static structures, such as bridges and stadium roofs. Manufacturing a wire rope begins with steel wire that's anywhere from 3/1,000" to 3/10" in diameter. The first step is to wind several of these wires together into a strand. How many wires per strand depends on the job the rope will perform, because different applications require different degrees of flexibility and strength. Each wire is spooled onto a steel bobbin and loaded onto a stranding machine, which is essentially a giant winder. There can be as many as 64 wires in a strand, although the typical range is between 19 and 36. The twisting wires converge in a die that forms them to the required diameter. Lubrication is critical, and not merely to help the wires move smoothly through the die. It also penetrates within to allow slight movement between the wires. This increases their life span and prevents the strand from seizing. The strand exits the machine saturated in lubricant. A large rubber band skims the excess off the surface. The strand now travels through a row of straighteners. These heavy rollers apply vertical pressure, effectively erasing the wire's memory of being spooled on a bobbin prior to stranding. This prevents the wires from unraveling. This cross-section shows all the wires inside the finished strand. The clothespin gives you a sense of its size. Wire strands are by themselves typically used as structural support cables. To make wire ropes used in machinery and for heavy lifting, they take several of these wire strands and wind them together on a far bigger and stronger machine called a closer. They make this particular rope from six wire strands. Before the strands converge in the die, rollers pre-shape them into a corkscrew-like form. The strands then enter the die, twisting together over a core, which is itself a small steel-wire rope. A core at the center of the cable provides additional strength. This cable's finished diameter is 3 1/2". However, there are always small variations here and there, so now four calibration rollers, two compressing vertically, two horizontally, correct the cable to the right diameter all along its length. The finished cable winds onto a big steel reel, ready for shipping. The factory tests random samples in its quality-control lab. There, a machine measures the tensile strength-- how much pulling force the cable can withstand. The machine pulls the cable at both ends until it snaps. for this mega cable, the breaking point was 104 tons. To pass the test, a cable must exceed the tensile strength it's designed to withstand. For certain demanding applications, such as mining, wire ropes are double-coated in plastic to protect against wear and tear. To prepare the plastic, the factory mixes a recipe of clear and colored plastic pellets. An extrusion machine heats the pellets until they liquefy, then forces the molten plastic through a die, coating the rope as it passes through. As the rope exits the extrusion machine, it passes through water, which cools and hardens the hot plastic. The plastic not only jackets the rope's surface, it also provides cushioning when on the jobsite, the strands inside rub against each other as the rope moves. By reducing wear and tear on the steel both internally and externally, plastic coating can extend the life of a rope by up to 50%. A cable's internal construction determines its strength and flexibility. A structural one needs to be strong, immobile, and taut, so it's a single strand made of large wires, whereas a moving rope and large machinery contains many strands made of smaller wires. A living wall is a vertical structure covered with fully grown plants. This green screen serves many purposes, such as hiding an eyesore or shielding an area for privacy. Some are installed in the ground, while others are mounted on building facades and have integrated irrigation systems. Living walls are modular systems. Each module contains fully grown plants, so upon installation, the green-screen effect is immediate. The plants are hedera helix woerner, a variety of ivy that's highly resistant to cold and drought. In the manufacturer's greenhouses, horticulturalists take cuttings from the mother plants... Then cut off the foliage and separate the leaves, leaving each with a small stem. Then they plant the cuttings five leaves to a pot. The soil is a secret recipe of organic and nonorganic materials and feed. Over the next month to six weeks, each stem develops a good root system. Meanwhile, workers construct a welded frame out of high-strength carbon steel. The metal is galvanized so it's rust-proof. Once the frame is ready, they take a mat made from biodegradable, recycled coconut husks and fold it into a planter box, which fits inside the bottom of the frame. Two side wires hold the box securely in place. An automated machine fills the box with the same soil mix used for the cuttings. Then the horticulturalists plant 13 pots of plants. That's 65 ivies per box. They wrap the longer stems around the uprights of the frame. The frames now move to the greenhouse, where they're hooked up to an irrigation system. For the next 18 months or so, the plants grow, and as they do, the horticulturalists keep wrapping the ends around the uprights. This is called training the plants. As the plants thicken, the nursery workers prune them to promote upward growth. The factory produces these green-screen modules in 3 heights, ranging from about 3 to 7 feet. After installation, the plants can grow on-site to a total height of 13 feet. Each frame-- one module of the living-wall system-- is 4 feet wide, making it easily transportable. At shipping time, workers load the screens 10 to a pallet and truck them to the installation site. Each module of the system installs just like a fence. Workers embed a wooden post on either side of where each screen will go and dig a trench that's the width and depth of the planter box running in between. They sit the screen in the trench, then, with galvanized-steel brackets, clip it to the side posts at the top and bottom. Then they fill in the gaps with dirt. The screens have a 45-year life expectancy, and the leaves remain on them year-round. This variety is used on living walls in europe and warmer regions. In colder climates, the manufacturer uses a hardier species of ivy that stays green even throughout harsh, snowy winters. A large-format camera is essentially great-granddad's camera, the one with accordion-style bellows, the big film, and the curtain draped around the viewfinder-- 19th century technology with some modern refinements. For many serious photographers, the basic concept still clicks. In an age when cameras are miniaturized and digitized, the large-format camera might seem to be a relic. But for pros, it's a creative tool. The flexible bellows allow for a wide range of movements for incredible control of the image. Image quality is another attraction. This camera uses big sheet film, 4" x 5" and up, generating big negatives that don't need to be enlarged as much during printing, so the image has better resolution. At this factory, they mold many of the camera's parts out of plastic. They inject liquid plastic into molds, and the parts quickly solidify. Other parts are made of laser-cut aluminum and stainless steel. The camera maker assembles the base first, attaching rails that slide back and forth for focusing. The next parts allow for swing and shift action-- movements that come in handy when composing a shot. He attaches the camera's molded, plastic body to the swing and shift assembly. Next, he assembles the front part of the camera, which holds the lens and shutter. It has a swing and tilt mechanism for changing a shot's depth of field. He slides the lens holder into place and secures it. It can be raised and lowered when composing the shot. He inserts spirit levels into the slots in the front and rear sections of the camera. These levels will be used to check the angle of the shot. Moving now to the focusing screen, it's made of ground acrylic to diffuse light. He protects the acrylic from scratches with a glass plate and secures the assembly with stainless-steel clips. He snaps the completed focusing screen to the body of the camera, where it can be easily switched from portrait to landscape position. He tests the focus mechanism and confirms it's operational. He now folds and glues fabric in an accordion configuration to create expanding bellows that will link the front and rear parts of the camera. He applies double-sided tape around the inner lip of the folded bellows. He sticks more double-sided tape onto a plastic frame... And peels away the tape backing in strategic locations. He inserts the frame into the bellows and aligns it with the taped inner border. He then completely peels off the taped backing and presses the frame to the bellows' taped rim. This frame adds crucial rigidity to the bellows. Using more double-sided tape and adhesive, he secures the bellows' accordion to a larger fabric bag. Next, he glues plastic flanges to each end of the bellows. The flanges are connector pieces for attaching the bellows to the front and rear sections of the camera. There are two kinds of bellows. The one with the bag attached is usually used with a lens of short focal length. An accordion without the bag has a much longer range of extension to accommodate a bigger lens. He now connects the back of the camera to the front with the bellows. They are a flexible link between the two. By expanding or retracting the bellows, the photographer can adjust the distance between the lens and film to focus the shot. Finally, he attaches the lens to the front of the camera. It's now ready for a film test. He loads the film into the holder. Normally, this is done in complete darkness to prevent exposure of the film. But he's left the lights on for our camera. The film slides into the holder into the camera back. And while film still rules in large-format photography, there are now digital camera backs for photographers who want instant results with traditional focus movements of the bellows camera. It's all a matter of focus. Man has used gemstones since ancient times. Genuine gemstones come from nature-- minerals, rocks, or even certain organic materials. Shaped, cut, and polished to bring out their colors and brilliance, the rarest ones are classified as precious gems, the others as semiprecious. This semiprecious stone is called blue john. It's a variety of the mineral fluorite, also known as fluorspar. While common fluorspar is cream or white, blue john also has magnificent bands of purple, blue, and yellow. There's only one place in the world where blue john is found, and that's in the village of castleton, derbyshire, in central england. The stone comes from a cavern located some 55 yards deep in a hillside. The miners don't use explosives, because the stone is quite soft and brittle in its natural state, and blasting would simply shatter it. Instead, they use drills to carefully dislodge pieces of blue john from the rock wall. They carry the blue john to the surface to the mine's workshop, where stone processors manually wash off the clay. The stone is wet due to having been underground for some 240 million years, so they put it into an oven at low heat-- 176 degrees fahrenheit. When the stone comes out of the oven a couple of weeks later, all its moisture has evaporated. The dried stone, however, is still brittle, so they submerge it in a bowl of liquid resin, then place the bowl into a vacuum oven at 176 degrees fahrenheit. This process draws out all the air and forces the resin deep into the stone's pores. The stone then goes into another oven at 122 degrees fahrenheit for about 12 hours. This hardens the resin, stabilizing the stone so that it can be worked without crumbling. To create large items, such as goblets and bowls, the workshop's artisans turn the stone on a lathe. To avoid fracturing it, they must work the blue john slowly and with diamond-tipped tools. Diamond, being harder than all other rocks, cuts with less force and stress. To supply jewelry makers, the mine workshop saws stones into slices using a diamond-edged saw. At the jewelry workshop, a gemologist examines the slices on a light box to highlight the coloring and any flaws. This helps determine which parts of the slice will yield the most striking gemstones. Meanwhile, in another part of the workshop, a silversmith crafts the piece of jewelry-- in this case, a sterling-silver ring which will receive the blue john gemstone. She bends, then solders together the ends of the ring's shank, the part that encircles the finger. After grinding the solder seam flat, she fuses the top of the ring, called the setting, onto the shank. Then she polishes the ring and passes it onto the gemologist, who takes a slice of blue john and, with a diamond-edged lapidary saw, cuts out the gemstone's shape, making it slightly larger than the setting. Next, she glues on a backing cut from mother-of-pearl. Just like the white light on which the gemologist examined the blue john slices, this mother-of-pearl backing highlights the colors in the stone. Now, using a diamond-grit grinding wheel, she shapes the stone to perfectly fit in the setting. She applies glue to the setting and fits the gemstone snugly inside. Once the glue dries, she uses a diamond-grit sanding belt to smooth down the edges, gradually transforming the rough oval into a sleek dome. This gem shape is known as a cabochon. Finally, she polishes the entire ring's surface until the silver and richly hued blue john glisten. Whether it's one of several, the shape funky or traditional, a gemstone sure makes a piece of jewelry rock.