Ultra
Today, on "how it's made"... Thinner than a human hair, ultrathin glass flexes like plastic. It can also have greater electrical sensitivity, making it useful for things like fingerprint scanning on smartphones. Manufacturers have only just begun to explore the potential of this new class of glass. When it comes to sheer flexibility, thin is in. Ultrathin glass bends like a sheet of paper and a chemical process ensures that it's extremely robust. To make ultrathin glass, manufacturers use standard materials, such as lime, sand, soda, and potash. They store the ingredients in separate silos, until it's time for production. Then, inside the factory, a long cable delivers electricity to power a weigh cart. As the dry ingredients flow out of the silos and down chutes, the cart moves forward to collect them. It weighs the ingredients until it has the correct amounts for the glass recipe and then closes the lid automatically. A worker measures the secondary, smaller, ingredients manually and adds them to the batch. These ingredients enhance qualities like optical clarity or electrical sensitivity. The cart transfers the batch to a mixer. As it blends everything together, they add bits of broken, or waste, glass to it for recycling purposes. Once it's been thoroughly mixed, a lift raises a funnel-shaped container up to the base of the mixer and the mixer releases the batch into it. A worker hauls the batch-laden funnel tank to the next station. There, a crane takes over and lowers the tank onto a feeder system just above a gas-and-electric furnace. A trapdoor opens at the funnel's base and the mixture flows into the feeder mechanism. It's a kind of shovel that slowly pushes the mixture into the furnace, which has been fired to a blazing 2,732° fahrenheit. The shovel continuously adds more ingredients to keep production flowing. Glass production runs 24/7. The melting glass reaches the consistency of honey. The molten glass flows out through a narrow slit and this slit establishes the ultrathin dimensions of the glass. Cooling the glass slowly relieves internal stresses as the glass solidifies. Ultrathin glass can be just 25 microns thick. That's finer than a hair. And it's this thinness that makes it so flexible. The glass bends to loop down and up across rollers as it journeys forward in a continuous, nearly 2-foot-wide sheet and, unlike ordinary glass, it doesn't crack. It then travels past tiny cameras and laser sensors that look for defects, like bubbles. A computer maps any flaws, so they can be avoided when the glass is cut into smaller pieces. A revolving spool rolls up the glass, along with a plastic liner, which keeps the glass layers from sticking to one another. Once 546 yards of thin glass has been wound onto the spool, an automated system cuts the glass and slides the spool partway off the core and onto a rack. The operator gives it a push to complete the transfer and then rolls the rack to the next station. A lab technician slices off a fragment of the glass and inserts it in a micrometer. It gauges the thickness of the specimen and confirms that it's superthin. Another lab worker places a bigger segment of the glass under a cutter. He aligns it correctly and then activates the cutter. It scribes the glass, so it can be broken on this line, creating small screens for smartphones and smartwatches. A lab technician examines the glass for scratches under a bright light and confirms that it's undamaged. With that out of the way, it's time to have a little fun with a strip of this ultrathin glass. A worker bends it into a circle and ties it. It's hard to believe this is glass. Later, a chemical treatment will further strengthen the ultrathin glass, so that the chance of cracks or breaks will be very thin. When wooden shipping pallets break and need repair, or outlive their usefulness, they can be taken apart by pallet-dismantling machines, which saw through the nails to separate the wood blocks and planks. Salvageable pieces become new pallets, while broken pieces go into a wood chipper. With its powerful band saw, this pallet-dismantling machine slices through the nails that fasten the pallet's wood blocks to its transversal planks. The machine's shell, the equivalent of the body panels on a car, is made of steel sheets. A computer-guided laser cutter cuts them to the required shape. Then, workers bend the ends on a brake press to make edges with perfectly formed corners. Once shaped, the shell parts go to a paint shop. Workers build the structure of the machine out of heavy-duty steel tubes. After sawing them to the length required, they smooth the rough-cut edge with a hand-grinder. Workers mark where they have to make openings for various parts and drill the holes. They weld the tubes together to assemble the structure. They clean the surface with acid to remove traces of lubricant. Then, they spray paint the structure. The workers assemble the mechanical parts to the structure. They bolt on a plate to support the machine's electric engine. Then, on each side, they install a wheel. Next, workers install the motor reducer. To that, they bolt the machine's 2,800-rpm engine. The motor reducer decreases the speed of the engine to the sawing speed required to dismantle the pallet. Just above the tires on both sides, they bolt a blade guide to the structure. They install the front of the machine's shell and lower the machine's heavy, steel worktable. Now, the band-saw blade, which has a safety cover over its sharp teeth until the machine is operational. On each side of the worktable, workers align the blade with a tire and insert it between the wheels of the blade guide. The blade is steel, with carbide tips for added strength and resistance to wear. They turn this bolt to adjust the tension. They enclose the tire and blade guides in the side sections of the machine's shell. Then, workers install two pneumatic cylinders for raising and lowering a safety cage that goes over the worktable to protect the machine operator. Next, another pneumatic cylinder, this one, at the rear for the machine's guide arm. The guide arm, installed next, helps move the pallet around while the machine's band-saw blade cuts it apart. They install the safety cage over the worktable, then hook up the cables that feed compressed air to the pneumatic cylinders. They install another safety cage over the back of the machine, then, a pressure regulator for pneumatic cylinders. They mount the machine's control panel on the shell. It's wired to the engine and pneumatic system, as well as a set of foot pedals that moves the table up and down and another pedal that moves the guide arm. The operator places the pallet on the worktable and lowers the safety cage. With the foot pedal, he moves the arm to the right to angle the pallet against the blade. This lets it slice through multiple nails holding the wood planks and blocks together. Often frosted and adorned with sprinkles, a cupcake is a sugary indulgence that you don't have to share. We don't really know who invented them, but cupcakes have been around for a century or more, much to the satisfaction of those who want a little cake all to themselves. These minicupcakes are the sweetest little things and there's plenty for everyone because they're mass-produced in a factory. The dairy and nut-free recipe starts with canola oil. A worker pours a measured amount into a huger mixer bowl. A blend of baking power, sea salt, and other microingredients is next. He then adds a big bag of sugar. They'll be making 15,000 minicupcakes in this batch. Pastry flour flows into the mixer from a silo nearby. He adds cocoa, for chocolate flavoring, then, activates the mixer, to blend it all together. Next are the eggs. They'll act as a binding agent for the chocolate batter and will have a leavening effect during baking. A quick mix folds the eggs into the chocolatey blend. A pump now transfers the batter to the next station. The bakery's temperature is critical during pumping. Too warm, and the mixture will be too thin to pump. Too cool, and it will be too thick. The pump delivers the batter to a hopper. Down the line a bit, a conveyor moves baking trays forward. A machine uses suctioning devices to pick up paper liners, flip them right-side-up, and insert them in the baking trays. Valves open and dispense the batter in the hopper into the cupcake liners in the pans. The system controls the flow of batter, so it only fills the liners one-third of the way. This leaves room for the cake to rise during baking. The pans move through different levels, with a range of temperature zones over a period of 25 minutes, finally emerging from the other side. During baking, the cupcakes have risen above the liners. They now head into a cooling chamber. They stay in here for 20 minutes, while fans blow air onto them to cool them down. The cooling firms up the cakes. A robot plunges pinlike tentacles into the cupcakes to lift them out of the pans with the paper liners attached. It transfers them to the packaging conveyor line. Workers pack them in clamshell plastic containers, a dozen to each one. They leave the containers open because they still need to decorate these cupcakes. Ahead, fluffy chocolate icing flows out of a hopper into applicators. They deposit the icing in a swirl onto the cupcakes, adding nearly an inch of height and a lot more sweetness. Down the line, workers load sugary sprinkles into another hopper. A feeder dispenses a few more of the sprinkles onto each of the frosted cupcakes. The containers then ride by a rail that folds the lids over. A pusher device presses down on the lids to close them tightly. The containers of minicupcakes then meet up with a roller that applies the adhesive-backed labeling. Before the cupcakes can leave the factory, a technician tests a sample from the production line. He crumbles some of the cake into pods and places them in a machine. The machine probes the water content at a microscopic level to determine if the cupcake is moist enough. Another test evaluates the cupcake's texture. When the samples pass this technological scrutiny, the cupcakes are ready for human taste buds. As a component of mechanical equipment, seamless tube is stronger, and therefore more resistant to pressure and tension, than tube with a welded seam. That's because seamless tube is manufactured from a solid bar of stainless steel, rather than from a strip of stainless that's rolled and welded into a tube. Seamless stainless-steel tube is used when reliability is critical; for example, in aerospace engines, nuclear equipment, and medical devices. The manufacturer purchases stainless-steel tubes in a range of lengths, diameters, and thicknesses. Workers select the right starting size for the specific tube the customer has ordered. They check the length with a measuring tape, then use a large micrometer to measure the outside diameter. They switch to a smaller micrometer to measure the wall thickness. Then, they weigh the tubes. If the raw material meets all the specs, production can begin. They insert one end of each tube into this rotary swager. It shapes the end to a point, to enable it to fit through a die with a smaller diameter. Workers spread lubricant into a steel bar, insert it into the other end of the tube, then insert the pointed end through a draw die. This carriage then grabs the protruding point and draws the full length of the tube through the die and over the steel bar. The die reduces the tube to a smaller outside diameter, while the bar sets the desired inside diameter. The tube walls thin out and the tube elongates in the process. The next machine's two rollers apply pressure to the outside of the tube as it passes. This expands the tube slightly, creating a slight gap between the tube walls and the bar inside. This enables the next machine to extract the bar. Finally, workers saw the point off the tube. They place several tubes at a time in a degreasing unit, which uses a cleaning solution to remove all traces of lubricant the tubes picked up during the draw process. Workers then transfer the tubes to drying tanks, positioning them at a slight downward angle. As air blows through the tubes for about a half hour, all of the cleaning solution either drains or evaporates. To further clean the inside of the tubes, workers insert a felt wad into each one, then squirt in some cleaning solvent. They shoot in compressed air to force the wad down the tube. As the wad travels the length of the tube, it wipes the inside wall with the cleaning solvent. Next, workers strap the tubes to a belt that takes them on a 30-minute trip through a furnace. The temperature inside is more than 1,800° fahrenheit. This intense heat softens the steel, which had hardened as a result of having been pulled through the draw die earlier. This process is called annealing and it slightly warps the tubes, so, next, they pass through a straightening machine. Then, the entire cycle repeats, until it's reduced to precisely the diameter and wall thickness the customer ordered. The finished tube can be up to 40 times its original starting length. To ensure the structural integrity of each tube, workers run an electrical current around the circumference. A break in the current indicates a defect, which workers then cut out with a saw before cutting the tube into the specific lengths the customer ordered. The saw cuts leave burns, rough edges, so workers insert the cut ends in a deburring machine which grinds the edges smooth. The last step is to submerge the tubes in an acid solution, to remove any iron particles picked up from the processing. This prevents the tubes from rusting. In addition to inspecting every tube that leaves the factory, quality-control testing of random samples ensures the product meets all technical specifications.