Digital Dentistry Nail Clippers Poster Restoration Canola Oil
Digital technology is revolutionizing dental treatment. 3-d cameras and computers can now be used to produce crowns and other prosthetic restorations on site, eliminating the need to send the work to an outside lab. For the patient, it means one appointment instead of two and less time in the dentist's chair. With computer-driven tools, custom restorations take shape in a matter of minutes while the patient waits. After donning dark safety glasses, the patient is ready for her close-up. The dental assistant inserts a small video camera in her mouth to examine the problem area. She then inserts a strip of carbon paper between the patient's teeth and instructs her to clench her teeth. This leaves markings that indicate her bite profile. The dentist meets the patient and reviews her case. They agree to replace the silver filling with a ceramic inlay that will strengthen the tooth for much longer than a regular filling would. He anesthetizes the tooth and the gums that surround it. He then stretches a rubber dam across her mouth and exposes the area to be treated through a slit. This keeps filling fragments out of the patient's mouth as he drills. He switches to a smaller drill bit to excavate the remaining filling particles and to remove decay. Each cavity must be completely clear before the restorative work can begin. The dental assistant then scrubs an antimicrobial solution into the tooth. Then she brushes an acidic conditioner into the cavity. The dentist activates the conditioner with a halogen light. He points a high-resolution l.e.d. camera at the tooth and downloads the image onto a computer, which converts it to 3-d. Next, the dentist fills the cavity with the silicone putty. When her teeth come together, they leave an impression in the putty that indicates her bite profile. Once the putty hardens, the dentist and his assistant chip off the excess. He downloads the image of the bite impression and then superimposes the images as he designs a custom dental inlay digitally. The dental assistant selects a glass ceramic block of the appropriate size and color. She anchors the block in a milling chamber and shuts the lid. Two computerized drills now sculpt the block into the dental inlay, guided by the digitally produced design. This process takes less than 10 minutes. The dentist then pulls the ceramic inlay from the base. This leaves a small nub that he then grinds away. Next, using rubber wheels and diamond-impregnated brushes, he polishes the entire restoration to a high gloss. He conditions the inlay with hydrofluoric acid to prepare it for adhesion to the tooth. He dips the filling in water, and the hardened solution flakes off. He then thoroughly dries the inlay. Next, he adds a drop of silane that will promote the bonding of the inlay to the tooth. The dentist injects tooth-colored resin cement into the cavity. He presses the digitally designed and milled inlay into the cement, then scrapes away the overflow. Halogen light on the dental work hardens the cement. He takes another impression of the patient's bite to confirm the new inlay is perfect. Finally, the dentist polishes the contours of the ceramic inlay. And it's time for the reveal. He uses the camera to magnify the new dental work for the patient's scrutiny. It's taken just an hour and a quarter for her custom restoration to be designed, milled, and installed, all thanks to digital dentistry. The nail clipper was invented in 1896 in the united states, and soon it was at everyone's fingertips. By 1902 it, ads marketed it as the "gem," and it was sold by the dozen for $2. As an alternative to scissors, it was the idea that just clicked. More than a century after its invention, the nail clipper is still behind many a well-groomed hand. Its popularity numbers in the millions, and no manicure set would be complete without one. Production begins with this elaborate dye. It's about a yard in length and has 12 different-shaped openings. Hydraulic machinery repeatedly forces a steel sheet through the various openings as the sheet moves forward. With each stroke, the parts look more like nail-clipper jaws. The clipping edge starts out straight and blunt and gradually becomes concave. The machinery also cuts and shapes the holes for assembling the nail clippers. In just one minute, a total of 80 strokes generate a dozen nail-clipper jaws. Here, the clipper jaws vibrate with abrasive stones and organic acid for up to 20 hours. This gentle polishing makes the parts gleam, but doesn't ruin the edges and contours. At the next station, a worker aligns pairs of clipper jaws for assembly. Using a mechanical press, he drives a rivet into the hole at the gripping end of the jaws. He flips the assembled clipper jaws over, inserts the other half of the rivet, and then presses the two tightly together. The rivet locks the gripping end of the nail clippers together so that the two jaws can't be twisted apart. Next, a worker smoothes the edges of the clipper's gripping end against an abrasive wheel. This grinding evens out any irregularities and makes the two clipper jaws appear as one at the gripping end. Attention now turns to the cutting end of the clippers. After locking them in a device, a worker grinds the concave edges until they match up. These nail-clipper jaws are now ready for the lever, but the lever itself still needs some work. Using a little press, they make a whole and an indentation between its two prongs, allowing the lever to sit more comfortably on the clipper. Levers are then fed one at a time to a set of drills that carve little holes into the prongs of the fork. The holes are just big enough for a pin that's 0.05 of an inch in diameter. Here's the view from the side before and after drilling. A worker now inserts a bolt in the cutting end of the clipper jaws. This bolt has a little hole in the end of it. He presses the jaws together, and it's now time to attach the lever. He inserts the pin in the holes in the lever and the bolt. He pinches the pin with pliers to secure it, and the lever now pivots freely on the cutting jaws. All the pieces of the nail clipper have come together, but the assembly processes have left oil and other residues on this tool. It's time for a cleaning in a special tub. Sound waves keep the water moving to distribute the soap and scrub them clean. Once they dry, a worker uses a combination of acid and positive electrodes to etch the company name and item number onto the nail clipper. The next employee sands the cutting edges to sharpen them. It takes skill and practice to get them just right. He holds the nail clipper to a light and scrutinizes the alignment of the jaws as he opens and closes them. This cardboard test confirms that these nail clippers are up to the job. From a blunt clipper on the left to a really sharp tool on the right, what a difference the sanding has made. The lever swivels for various clipping angles and then folds down neatly when not in use. It takes 11 people to manufacture 100 of these clippers an hour, and that means they've been working at a very fast clip. Long before the internet and electronic media, the poster was an important means of communication. These lithographed notices were used to sell everything from soap to political propaganda. Today they're being painstakingly restored to preserve both the artistry and history behind them. These are the signs of a different time. And decades later, the bold artistry of these poster lithographs is still an attention grabber. Some vintage posters can be worth tens of thousands of dollars, which makes them worth restoring and preserving. Posters often become brittle and break along the fold lines. So first, this restoration specialist reassembles the torn sections and examines them to determine if this poster can be saved. He decides to proceed. He loosens old tape with solvent and carefully peels it away. Next, he separates the poster sections with plastic mesh-- to keep them from sticking together-- in a bleach bath. The bleach gently removes dirt and mildew to reveal the vintage poster's original colors. He presses out air pockets between the layers to maximize its effect. While the pieces of this poster dry, he prepares a paste of water, wheat, and calcium. The calcium will counteract the acid in the vintage paper, preventing further deterioration. He rolls the wheat paste onto a big sheet of acid-free paper. And he spreads more paste on a piece of linen-textured cotton. He then presses the paper to the fabric, and they adhere. He now has a big piece of fabric-backed paper. He rolls out the air bubbles and excess paste for a more even surface. He now reconstructs the poster on the fabric-backed paper, which is now saturated with glue. He works carefully and quickly to put the pieces together before the glue dries. One false move and he could make a real mess of things. But experience pays off. He aligns the four sections perfectly. The glue dries, giving the vintage poster a solid backing. He flips through a collection of paper scraps in search of one that's similar in texture and thickness to the posters. He'll now use it to repair the poster's ripped corner. He traces the outline of the tear onto transparent paper. He cuts the scrap paper along the traced line, producing a new corner for the poster-- one with exactly the right profile. He sands the edge a bit to give it a more gradual slope. He brushes vegetable-based glue onto the cutout. He aligns it with the torn edge and glues it in place, then flattens the new corner to make it level with the rest of the poster. It's now time to complete the picture by repairing the torn images. The tricky part is mixing the paint to match the poster's vintage colors. It sometimes takes a few tries to get it right and make the repair blend in. Even the white on the border has to match. No detail is overlooked as he restores the corner of this poster to its original condition. He touches up the rest of the artwork with watercolor pencils, applying color heavily or lightly where needed. And with a practiced hand, he makes all the flaws and fold lines disappear. By the time he's done, the vintage poster will look good enough to frame. With all the details now covered, he trims the poster on all sides and examines his work for imperfections. The repairs have to both look and feel real. From a tattered relic of the past to one that looks fresh off the press, a restored vintage poster is an important piece of history, now preserved for future generations. Canola oil is a commonly used type of cooking oil. It's derived from the seed of the canola plant, which north american farmers have been growing for about 30 years now. The plant blooms in the summer, producing bright yellow flowers. Farmers harvest the seeds from pods which form after those flowers die off. Canola oil is one of the healthiest cooking oils. Compared to olive, sunflower, and soybean oils, it has the lowest level of saturated fat-- 7%. It also contains more healthy omega-3 fatty acids and is high in monounsaturated fat, which lowers cholesterol. When the canola seed arrives at the processing factory, it contains foreign material-- mostly plant pieces. So the first step is to clean the seeds in a vibrating sieve. The seeds-- smaller than the openings in the sieve's mesh-- fall through to a conveyor below. The foreign material remains on top. A conveyor moves it to a storage bin, where it's collected for sale as cattle feed. The seeds pass by a magnet. It removes any metal that may have fallen in during the journey from field to factory. Next, the seeds enter a roller mill. They pass between two steel rollers, which crush them into thin flakes. A conveyor then feeds the flakes into a screw press. It has a large revolving screw-shaped shaft enclosed within a slotted cage. As the shaft turns, its threads squeeze the flakes with high pressure, forcing out the oil, which then drains out through the slots. 42% of canola seed is oil. This group press extracts nearly 3/4 of that. The remainder is still trapped in the pressed flakes, now referred to as canola cake. The cake exits the other end of the press and moves on to a second extraction, this one a 70-minute wash with a solvent. This chemical-extraction process removes all but a trace of oil. The factory then grinds the cake into protein-rich meal that it sells as animal feed. The extracted oil, stored in large tanks, now enters the refining phase. First, they wash the oil for 20 minutes with sodium hydroxide. During this wash cycle, they spin the oil at high speed so that the centrifugal force separates the natural impurities, which the factory later sells to soap manufacturers. After this cleaning process, the canola oil is visibly clearer. However, it still contains natural waxes, which makes it look cloudy. So the next step is to cool the oil to 41 degrees fahrenheit. This thickens those waxes so that they can be filtered out. The waxes don't go to waste, either. The factory uses them to produce vegetable shortening. In the factory's lab, technicians recreate production on a small scale to ensure performance and quality. Meanwhile, back in the factory, after washing and filtering the oil, they bleach it to lighten the color, then use a steam-injection heating process to remove the canola odor. The oil is now fully refined and ready for bottling. The equipment first turns the plastic bottles upside down and injects filtered pressurized air to blow out any dust or dirt inside. Then it turns the bottles right side up again to position for filling. Just before a nozzle starts filling, it applies a vacuum. If there's no suction, indicating a leak in the bottle, the machine automatically ejects that bottle from the line. Each bottling machine in the factory fills 22,000 bottles per hour. The labeling machines work at the same speed. They spread glue on the back of each label, then apply the label's edge to the bottle. The bottle spins, wrapping the rest of the label around itself. As the bottles come off the labeler, a robot separates them into groups of 12. Then it picks up and deposits each dozen in a shipping box-- from field to factory to your pantry, where, once opened, canola oil has a shelf life of about a year.