Wall Beds Sundae Cups Digital Paintings Badminton Rackets
In the late 19th century, it was considered immoral for unmarried women to enter a man's bedroom. William murphy couldn't bring his date back to his one-room apartment, so he invented a bed that folded up into the wall, converting his bedroom into a parlor to host his love interest. A wall of cupboards and closets suddenly opens up to reveal sleek comfortable sleeping quarters. The wall bed is a great way to economize on space without sacrificing comfort or style. To build the mechanism casing, a worker begins by placing the steel plate in a powerful bending machine, which is capable of exerting 55 tons of force. Using the square and calipers, the worker verifies that the bend is a perfectly uniform right angle and the flange depth does not exceed the specified parameters. Once the bending machine has folded all four sides of the plate, the worker then mounts it onto a locator pin in a second press, which descends and creates a small depression around the central opening. This depression will facilitate the welding process. Using another locator pin, a welder clamps the plate into a purpose-built jig. He then begins welding all of the necessary components in place. He uses a bolt to correctly locate an internal reinforcement plate and also welds in the crucial pivot pin on which the mechanism will hinge. The casing plates are mounted on spacers to help speed the drying process. Then a worker spray-paints them black. Once dry, he removes a protective cap from the pivot. It's now time to manufacture the wall-mounted spring mechanism. A worker uses a drill press outfitted with a countersink to create a beveled recess around the openings. A worker then uses a specially-designed press to install a brass bearing in one of the openings. The mechanism is nearly complete. However, there are still several steps to go in the process. Next, a worker brushes grease onto the interior of two mechanism casings. He then flips them over in order to apply a specially-formulated grease to the pivot pin. He slides the bushing over it and applies a c-shaped locking washer. An s-shaped stop will lock the mechanism in place until the bed is installed. The spring-unit assemblage will provide the resistance required to help smoothly raise and lower the bed. A locking pin secures one end of the spring unit in place. The worker adds the bottom plate of the unit, which includes a threaded bolt. A nut threaded onto it can be tightened or loosened to adjust the mechanism's tension. The wall-mounted spring mechanism is ready to be installed. It's designed to connect to this bed-mounted component. Once mounted to the bed, the two components work together, allowing the user to easily raise and lower the bed. A worker quickly installs the bed-mounted component using pre-drilled holes, bolts, and locking nuts. He installs the wall bed's legs in the same way, following a pre-drilled hole pattern to locate the component and attach it with bolts, locking nuts, and screws. The legs fold down when the bed is being used and tuck out of the way when the bed folds up. The manufacturers can now package the fully-assembled wall beds for transport to their destinations. Installing the wall bed requires some muscle, but once the two components of the spring mechanism are connected, lowering the bed onto its fold-away legs is a piece of cake. This s-shaped stop ensures the mechanism won't accidentally flip up. Once it's removed, the bed easily rises. The legs tuck into position, and the bed neatly folds away into its hiding spot, as though it were never there. Several american towns claim to be the birthplace of the sundae. Sundaes first appeared in the 1880s, when the sale of ice cream sodas was banned on sundays. Instead, soda-fountain operators poured soda syrup on ice cream, added toppings, and called this new treat the sundae. Today, ice cream sundaes come pre-made and frozen in individual servings. There's no need to wait. This decadent dessert can be served up in an instant. At the sundae factory, productions starts with something called the white base mix. It's a pasteurized blend of fresh cream, milk, and a variety of sweeteners. A worker adds a blend of yellow coloring to the white base mix, and this takes it from bright white to an off-white. A generous helping of pure vanilla extract lends a distinctive flavor and adds extra color to the cream base. After a final stir, the mix is ready for a freezing process, during which, air will be added to turn the mix into soft ice cream. It's time to cue the containers. Two at a time, individual-sized sundae cups move forward on the production line. They meet up with the ice cream dispenser. It automatically pumps precise amounts of the soft vanilla ice cream into the cups. It fills the cups to the 3/4 mark, leaving plenty of room for toppings. It's now time to prepare the next layer of deliciousness-- the chocolate fudge sauce. A worker mixes skim milk and sweeteners to a frothy consistency, and then adds several large bags of dark rich cocoa. The mixer paddle agitates the ingredients to distribute the cocoa evenly throughout. The chocolate fudge is pumped into a plastic tote to cool overnight. During cooling, the sauce thickens up substantially. It's now a rich chocolate fudge syrup. Velvety smooth, the chocolate syrup flows out of the tote and into a big tank. From there, nozzles dispense the chocolate fudge syrup onto the vanilla ice cream in the cups. Next, a worker pours a liquid-topping blend into a high-speed mixer system that beats it to a whipped consistency. Nozzles deposit the whipped topping onto the syrup-covered ice cream. Now it's time to add some chocolate crunch to the smooth, sweet sundae. The system sprinkles semi-sweet chocolate chunks onto the whipped topping. It's the final touch. These single-serve chocolate sundaes have been prepared almost entirely by machines. A conveyor now sends them through an icy blast of air for a quick freeze. Exiting the freezer, the frozen sundaes travel forward, shielded by overhead guards for food-safety reasons. The sundaes funnel into a single-file lane. This positions them to receive lids. The lids slide down a chute and land on top of the ice cream sundae cups. Rollers press the lids down on the rims. A revolving apparatus deposits plastic collars around the lids. Moving forward, the machinery sorts the sundae cups in row of two. This allows a robot with suctioning arms to pick up six at a time and pack them into a cardboard box. The boxes travel under and over packing tape to seal the tops and bottoms. Incredibly, this factory produces 1,440 ice cream sundae cups every 15 minutes. And it's all thanks to the magic of mechanization. This company also produces tubs of flavored ice cream, so there are many mouth-watering choices to be made at dessert time. Digital painting is a relatively new medium. It's an artistic hybrid that marries modern computer technology with traditional painting by hand on canvas. Today, some photography studios offer digital painting as a way to transform photographic portraits into painted portraits. This specialized photographer offers digital painting to enhance original portraits and cherished snapshots. His studio also specializes in creating life-story collages. The in-house artist assembles photos and illustrations, depicting elements of the subject's lifetime. She scans and digitizes photos which are not already digital. She manually retouches every image with a digital pen and tablet to maximize the quality. Then she begins working on the layout of the collage. Once she has finalized the layout, she blends the edges of each image so that the elements flow seamlessly into each other. Now the artist begins digitally painting. She chooses from a selection of brush shapes and sizes, and from a myriad of colors. She applies digital paint to blur the hard lines of the photographs to make them look more like painted images. This painting process takes several hours of painstaking work. She sends the digital painting to the lab technician who prepares to print the work onto a canvas. First, he tweaks the entire painting, balancing the brightness and the colors. He prints a small test sample on canvas. Both the technician and the artist meticulously examine the sample under magnification, looking for any painting or printing errors. If everything is perfect, the technician installs a large canvas roll on the printer. The machine prints, not with regular inks, but with archival pigments, which last for centuries. After each pass, the head waits six seconds to let the pigments dry. This prevents them from smearing on the next pass. A digital painting this size takes five hours to print. The pigments must dry for 72 hours to ensure they're embedded into the canvas. Then the technician applies a coat of stabilizing lacquer to protect the surface from damage caused by ultraviolet rays or handling. The lacquer takes about an hour to dry. Then they can safely mount the canvas on a stretcher frame. The workers pull it tight with special pliers and then staple it down. They cut the corners to facilitate framing. The artist applies a white gel with thicker brush strokes in some areas and thinner ones in others. This gives the print the texture of a painting. The gel turns clear as it dries for 24 hours. Then the artist paints the entire printed canvas with acrylic paints. As she applies shading and creates depth, the painting gradually comes alive. When she finishes, she signs her work. In about an hour, the paint is dry and the digital painting is ready for framing. She inserts a personalized certificate of authenticity, stating that this is a one-of-a-kind work, and applies the photography studio's label on the back of the canvas. Whether it's a creatively-crafted collage or produced from a simple photograph, a digital painting immortalizes precious moments captured by the camera lens. At some point in 19th-century england, a new game evolved that took its name from the duke of beaufort's badminton house. Badminton soon became all the rage among british officers in india. Today, fans believe the game is faster and harder than tennis, its long-time rival. To create the carbon-fiber shafts of the badminton racquets, the manufacturer follows a series of meticulously-defined production steps. The process begins by tightly wrapping a carbon-fiber fabric, called prepreg, multiple times around a metal cylinder. A worker encases the fabric in plastic to hold the prepreg in place. Then he suspends the cylinders from a rack and rolls them into an oven. The heating process transforms the wrapped prepreg into solid lightweight and super-strong carbon-fiber material. This specialized device removes the cylinder from the carbon fiber, leaving a hollow shaft. Here, we can see the stages of production required to create the hollow carbon-fiber shaft. In the next stage of production, a worker begins the process of manufacturing the racquet frame. She starts with a different formulation of prepreg material, which she folds into thin strips. The key is to make sure each strip is identical. In the next phase, a worker wraps the strip around a purpose-built mold to create the shape of a racquet frame. She introduces the carbon-fiber shaft into the mold. The racquet is taking shape. Another piece of carbon fiber forms the joint between them. The frame-shaped prepreg carbon fiber then goes into a shaping machine, and the lid closes. The shaping machine heats and then cools the prepreg over the course of about 30 minutes. A worker lifts the lid and removes the fully-formed racquet frame, which has excess resin. Resin holds the carbon fibers together before the curing process. Heating expels the resin, which must then be removed. A narrow bit drills the first sequence of holes in an offset pattern to make the racquet easier to string. A larger-gauge bit drills holes large enough to permit two strings to pass through. Quality-control inspectors choose a racquet frame at random to test how much pressure it can bear before it reaches the breaking point. It's finally time to add the wooden handle and cap to the shaft and put everything together. The racquets head for the painting department, where they receive a base coat. Then workers meticulously apply a series of decals. The decals soak in water to make it easier to remove the backing. A worker slides each hole over a pin at the base of a nailing machine. The machine nails specially-designed grommets into the holes. The grommets are slightly too long to ensure they can be cut perfectly flush to the frame by this machine. In a two-part process, this pressing machine heats and then presses the cut side of the grommets to smooth them out. A worker carefully clamps the racquet into a winding machine and brushes glue onto the handle. She then secures one end of the handle wrap at the base, and uses a foot pedal to begin turning the racquet. Maintaining the steady tension at the correct angle, she winds the wrapping all the way up to the beginning of the shaft. She secures the top end of the wrapping with tape. A laser quickly and accurately burns the product i.d. number into the shaft. A quality-control inspector clamps the completed racquet into a precision- engineered device, designed to measure its weight, swing weight, and balance point with incredible accuracy. The racquets made by this manufacturer come in different sizes, suited to every level of badminton player.