Throttle Bodies Limestone Fireplace Mantels Candied Fruit & Fruit Jellies Linen Ukuleles
today on "how it's made"... Throttle bodies. Limestone fireplace mantels. Candied fruit and fruit jellies. And linen ukuleles. the throttle body is a device that allows the engine of a fuel-injected vehicle to breathe. Pressing on the accelerator pedal opens the throttle body's blades to allow air into the engine. The greater the airflow, the higher the rpm. All the driver has to do is step on the gas. Designed for race cars, the throttle body could make the difference between winning and losing. That's due to the way it delivers the air the engine needs for speed. Making a throttle body starts with this solid aluminum disk. A technician mounts it to a machining fixture and closes the door. Computer controlled cutters move in. The cutters reduce the thickness of the disk and contour it. They also rough out the shape of four air passageways. Then they flip the part over, and more cutting tools work on it from the other side. The cutters open up the air passageways completely and create a hole in the center for a bolt. The technician clamps a square chunk of aluminum in the fixture, and cutters transform it into the main body part. This is a computer simulation of the process. The tools carve four holes to match up to the ones on the top piece. These holes will hold the throttle mechanisms. The transformation takes just minutes. With the parts now electrically charged, workers plunge them into a pool of chemicals called an etching bath. The chemicals gravitate to the electrically charged parts and lightly etch the surface. A dip in soapy water cleans the parts. They are now ready for anodizing, a process that will form an anti-corrosion finish on the surface. In the anodizing bath, an electrical charge causes a protective oxide layer to form on the metal, and black dye seeps into the pores. Here are the parts before and after anodizing. A laser then engraves the brand name onto the side of the throttle body part. The etched aluminum wording stands out against the black anodized coating. A technician then inserts two stainless steel shafts into sealed bearings in holes on the side. When turned, the shafts will open and close the round throttle blades. He installs retaining clips on the shafts. This keeps them in place and centers them perfectly. But at the same time, they allow the blades to turn freely. He then screws round blades to the flat part of each shaft. As the shafts turn, these blades will move into an open or closed position. They'll act as valves, allowing air into the engine or shutting it off. He attaches a mechanical linkage to the end of each shaft. These linkages will ultimately be connected to a cable that runs to the gas pedal. When the driver steps on the gas, the linkages will turn the shafts, and the blades will open and close. He connects the two linkages with a part called a tie bar. Now that they're connected, the linkages will move together in one action. The technician tests the linkages to confirm that they operate smoothly. He now places the top part onto the throttle body. He applies a thread-lock solution to a bolt, which he then inserts in the center of the assembly. This is a crucial connection. It's what holds the two parts of the throttle body together. He secures the center bolt with a threaded insert. This insert will also be used to attach an intake air cleaner. This throttle body is now complete. Workers measure air flow through the throttle body using smoke so our camera can photograph it. With this measurement, they give the throttle body a performance rating. A crew installs the throttle body between the race car's intake manifold and air filter. Then, they check its function. This performance throttle body is now ready to compete. For hundreds of years, stone carvers have skillfully sculpted blocks of solid stone into ornate fireplace mantels. A work of art with an imposing presence, a stone mantel is the decorative centerpiece of a room. Whether or not there's a fire burning, it creates a warm ambience. Modern-day stone carvers carry on a trade passed down through the centuries, crafting limestone fireplace mantels that exude old-world elegance. Artisans sketch out a creative design, then produce a technical drawing and 3-d model on a computer. This particular mantel, carved from beige limestone, will feature a medallion of red sandstone. The red medallion will be set into the keystone, which is the central block of what's called the lintel, the horizontal part of the mantel. After finalizing the measurements, the artisans lay down a sheet of thick white plastic and draw the mantel's overall shape, as seen from the front, in its actual dimensions. The mantel will be composed of several parts so they will also mark the joints where those parts meet. Using this pattern, they cut a clear plastic template for each part. The artisans use a combination of traditional and modern stone-carving tools. First, for each part, they use an automated diamond-blade saw to cut a block to size. They then measure and mark where they need to remove stone to shape the block to the basic profile. The artisan gradually removes that portion of stone with a hammer and different types of chisels. Limestone can be hard like marble, or soft like chalk. There's less margin for error when carving softer limestone, like this, because every strike of the hammer removes more stone than the same strike on a hard limestone would. This tool, designed for soft limestone, wears away the surface like a plane does to a piece of wood. Once the artisan has removed all the excess stone, he checks that the surface is level. Then, in the side of the block, he traces a template for the profile. This block will become the keystone for the horizontal part of the mantel. He measures out and marks the center of the keystone... Then centers the medallion and traces it. He'll draw the remainder of the keystone's design freehand. The design is symmetrical, so the artisan draws on one side of the center line, traces his drawing onto the clear plastic to make a template, then flips the template onto the other side of the center line to trace the same design in mirror image. He begins removing stone with a hammer and roughing tools. First, he breaks off big chunks with a chipper. He works his way down to just above the pencil line. Then, with a finer tooth chisel, he removes the last bit. Then he switches to finishing tools. He mounts chisels of varying widths on an air hammer to remove a precise, even layer of stone. Working on the more complex details, he uses a combination square to mark a consistent height across the keystone. Every detail of the keystone profile must align with the same profile detail of the lentil pieces on either side of it. Once he has finished the entire profile of the piece, he sands the surface smooth and brushes away the dust. Now the artisan turns his attention to the keystone's ornate sculpt design. With fine, flat, and pointed chisels, he removes the stone around his pencil lines until the design he drew emerges. By switching to a sculptor's rasp, he smoothes all the rough edges. He checks the fit of the red sandstone medallion and glues it in. Once the artisan finishes sculpting all the parts, he lays them on the pattern to make sure all the dimensions are perfect. On installation day, he mounts the mantel, piece by piece, around the fireplace. Candied fruit and fruit jellies are middle eastern in origin and spread to europe around the 12th century. This region of france has been producing them since the 15th century. When wars blocked access to cane sugar, fruit farmers began planting sugar beets to preserve this confectionery tradition. This company in france has been catering to people's sweet tooth since 1880 with its gift boxes containing traditional candied fruit and fruit jellies. To make candied fruit, a master confectioner boils fresh fruit for many hours to soften the fibers. This process will later help sugar to penetrate the fruit. He pokes the fruit to see if it's ready. Boiling time varies from 1 hour for apricots to 8 hours for chestnuts. Citrus fruits are sliced before boiling. After boiling, the more fragile types of fruit, such as apricots, pears and clementines, go into large hot-air dehydrators for up to 3 weeks. Every day, the master confectioner replaces the evaporated water with sugar syrup, which concentrates over time. For less fragile fruits, the technique is different. Workers heat them in vats of sugar syrup for about 10 days. The moisture evaporates, and the syrup concentrates. The factory sells whole candied fruits like this collection of clementines, apricots, pears, figs, and plums, to gourmet food shops, which sell them by the piece or in elegant, private-label gift boxes. Whole candied fruit are also popular for designing edible arrangements. Making fruit jellies is a different process. The recipe combines fruit pulp, making up more than 50 percent of the mixture, with powdered sugar, liquid glucose, a form of plant sugar, pectin to make the mixture gelatinous, and natural fruit flavoring. A worker boils down the mix for a half hour to concentrate the sugar, then adds more fruit flavoring. As the mix continues to cook, she draws samples to measure the sugar content. She does this until the mix hits its target concentration of 78 percent. Another worker pours the batch from the pot into a large pitcher, then into a square stainless steel mold. It takes the jelly a day to set. Once set, a worker removes it from the mold-- this one's a different flavor-- and coats it with crystallized sugar to preserve it. The worker then lays the jelly square on cutter the company calls a guitar because its steel wires look like guitar strings. The wires cut once in each direction to make cubes. Then, another worker applies a second coating of sugar. In addition to this small-batch production, the factory has one automated machine, which makes fruit jellies in a variety of geometric or fruit shapes created by templates made of plaster. This process is much faster than the handmade approach. First, the machine makes a bed of starch. Then it presses the plaster form into the bed to create mold cavities. The next station fills the cavities with hot liquid fruit jelly. Then, the molds are set aside for a day. The starch absorbs the residual moisture as the jelly sets. The next day, workers load the molds on top of the same machine, which flips them to dump out the jellies. The jellies tumble down a vibrating conveyor belt. The starch shakes off with each bounce. Then they pass under a spinning brush, which removes any remaining starch. The conveyor moves them into a rotating drum, which showers them with sugar. On the packaging line, a slow conveyor belt moves retail boxes in front of a row of workers. Each worker is responsible for a single flavor. While placing the required number of fruit jellies in the box, she also performs a quality control check, removing and replacing any that are misshapen. This ensures that these traditional fruit jellies look as good as they taste. Linen is believed to be the oldest of woven textiles. But for the making of ukuleles, it's definitely a new material. Infused with resin, linen can actually be molded into a solid ukulele that has a look and sound that's similar to wood. Linen may seem to be an unlikely material for making ukuleles, but these instruments are proof that the fabric can be used for more than just drapes and tablecloths. Following a computer-aided design, workers cut pattern pieces from linen fabric, infused with plant resin and with protective liners. After peeling off the liners, a technician layers the linen pieces in a ukulele mold. The resin has given the fabric a clay-like consistency, so it can be easily shaped to the mold's curves. He layers 65 linen pieces in total. He drapes a nylon fabric over the linen and tucks it into the crevices. The fabric will ultimately contain the resin when it's heated and liquefied. Polyester batting in the center will soak up excess resin during baking. He cooks the linen layers for several hours. The resin in the fabric subsequently liquifies and finally hardens, fusing the layers together, to create a solid ukulele body, next and head. After reinforcing the neck, a computerized router trims the entire ukulele body. Another router trims the sound board, which is the resonant part that serves as the front of the instrument. It, too, has been molded from linen material. A technician pipes epoxy glue along the rim of the body to attach the soundboard, which is being reinforced with carbon fiber and a plastic liner applied for the front to protect it during this stage of fabrication. He glues a front plate to the headstock of the ukulele. He then places the ukulele in a fixture. He clamps the fixture together to keep the parts in position as the glue hardens for 24 hours. He props up the headstock with a block of wood and uses a separate clamp to keep the assembly tight. A router carves an opening in the soundboard. This sound hole with allow the instrument to project music more efficiently. The router also drills tuning holes in the head plate. Another member of the team now applies a wood stain to the linen composite surface. This gives it a more uniform finish. The next part is the finger board, made of a wood fiber and plastic composite. Another technician hammers nickel silver frets into the fingerboard's slots. He then clips the ends to make them flush to the fingerboard. He files the ends to make them smooth to the touch. He then glues the fingerboard to the ukulele neck. The technician installs the bridge on the soundboard. Using a special fixture, he clamps the fingerboard and bridge to the instrument to apply pressure while the glue dries. It takes another 24 hours for the glue to set. The next day, a technician applies an adhesive-backed label with the serial number printed on it to the inside of the ukulele. He inserts tuning pegs into holes drilled into the headstock. He secures the pegs with bolts at the back of the headstock and tightens the bolts with a nut driver. Then he runs strings from the bridge to the tuning pegs and knots them to hold them in place. He turns the tuners to pull the strings to a specific tension, and this linen-composite ukulele is ready for a show.