Chinese
Classic chinese furniture is made of rich, lacquered woods with intricate carvings and ornate artwork in mother-of-pearl inlay. For centuries, the specialized skills required to craft these functional works of art have been passed down from generation to generation. The style of this striking rosewood sideboard dates to the tang dynasty of the 7th and 9th centuries-- a period considered a golden age of chinese arts. This manufacturer is located in thailand. Its design team consists of a conceptual designer who merges the structure and aesthetic features, a specialist who ensures the historical accuracy of the piece, and artists who draw the patterns for the elaborate wood carving and the intricate mother-of-pearl inlays. The team produces a highly detailed blueprint and makes several copies of the artwork patterns for the craftspeople to use. To make each inlaid cabinet door, a woodworker glues the pattern onto the wood, making sure that it's perfectly centered. Then using a router, he cuts about 3 millimeters deep, making a groove along the pattern's perimeter and cutting out the parts that will be inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Meanwhile, using another copy of the pattern, a worker makes templates by cutting out the same parts the woodworker routed out of the cabinet door. Each template is marked either pink, white, or green. She glues it into a 3-millimeter-thick piece of the corresponding color of mother-of-pearl. The next craftsperson takes one piece at a time, and holding it steady with pliers, carefully saws around the template with a 1-millimeter-wide blade. Once she's cut all the pieces, she reassembles the pattern. The next craftsperson spreads adhesive paste into the cutouts in the cabinet door. Then he fills each cutout with its corresponding piece of mother-of-pearl. Five hours from now, once the adhesive has dried, he runs a sander over the design to remove the paper and excess adhesive, smooth the wood, and polish the mother-of-pearl. Then an artist etches fine detail into the mother-of-pearl. This provides texture, dimension, and expression to objects and characters, which, until now, were merely blank shapes. High-end chinese-style furniture like this is traditionally made of heavy and sturdy rosewood. They first dry the wood to a humidity level of 11%. This prevents components from expanding or contracting significantly with temperature changes, which is critical because the sideboard is made of traditional jointed construction. The parts lock together without any nails, screws, or glue. To prepare pieces that will have a carved design, a worker glues a copy of the pattern onto the wood. Next, a woodworker drills a small hole in each area of the pattern to be cut out. He feeds a thin saw blade through the hole... Then saws out the area. Once he cuts out all the required areas, he hands the piece to one of the company's carvers. These artisans apprentice for years with the master carver to learn this ancient craft. Working with a collection of chisels, they gradually follow the pattern. It takes tremendous talent and skill to know how to read a drawing and, bit by bit, transform the flat wood beneath it into a three-dimensional design. Once all the components are ready, workers assemble the sideboard from the footed base upward. The drawers move on modern drawer slides, and the cabinet doors attach with bronze chinese-style hardware. They bring out the rich color and grain of the wood with four coats of traditional lacquer made entirely from tree sap. It highlights the etched details in the mother-of-pearl and protects the sideboard with a glossy shield. Light switches put a lot of power at your fingertips. One quick flick, and the lights go on or off. When switches are paired with sockets, appliances and gadgetry can also be powered up. Invented as an improvement over pull cords a century ago, switches deliver power to the people. Flip a switch, and the world instantly becomes a brighter place. Switches give us power over electrical power. Making switches starts with big sheets of metal. In this case, the sheets are brass. A worker serves them up to a hydraulic guillotine. It chops the brass into strips that will be used to make faceplates for custom-sized switches and sockets. For switches that are a standard size, they simply order the strips precut. Computerized punches cut holes and rough out both the faceplates and the steel grids that hold the electrical structure together. All the holes in the grid plates will correspond to holes in the faceplates in order to put the two together. These plates are for switches that will be installed in hotel rooms, and they will include sockets for three-pin british plugs. Next, more steel unwinds into a punch press, which transforms it into a framework to support the electrical components. The automated tooling wraps the punched metal around a form to give it the desired shape. This framework will also serve as an electrical grounding plate, discharging electrical energy from the socket to prevent shocks. A worker now attaches a molded plastic part to a grounding plate. He inserts a screw in a brass connector and installs it in a slot in the molded plastic. He installs a series of brass terminals. At the next station, a worker assembles fuse holders, contacts, and springs to the plastic structure. Next up are little spring- operated plastic shutters. They block the sockets when nothing is plugged into them. Moving down the assembly line, a worker inserts springs into twin rocker switches. She lowers a press to squeeze all the switch components together, then transfers the switches to the electrical unit. Another technician snaps a cover onto it. He plugs it into a light box to test it, and the bulbs of the box illuminate. This confirms that the switches and sockets are fully operational. He pulls the plug and sets the assembly aside. It has taken roughly four minutes to assemble the switch and socket unit. A worker now fits the steel grid plate to it with the switches and sockets protruding through it. This particular unit is also equipped with a round european plug and a usb charging port for mobile devices. At the next station, an operator serves up brass faceplates to a press that bends the rims, forming a thin lip that will fit around the grid plate. A computerized welder fuses studs to the back of the faceplates, placing one at each corner. These studs will fix the faceplate to the grid plate and provide a screwless finish on the front. When it comes to switch and socket combinations, there's no shortage of options. At this station, a worker assembles a particularly large one with switches, charging ports, and sockets. It's also designed for installation in a hotel room. He secures the charging port to the grid plate and is ready for the faceplate. He attaches it using the welded studs, and with the folded edging, it encases the grid plate neatly. This switch and socket assembly is now complete. When switched on, the circuit will be closed, and the electrical current will flow. When switched off, the circuit will open, and things will go dark. It should work every time. In many east asian cultures, salt is not traditionally used as a condiment. In its place, cooks use high-sodium sauces such as fish sauce. In thailand, fish sauce is a key ingredient in traditional dishes, giving them a rich and distinctive savory taste. Used in cooking or as a dipping sauce, thai fish sauce brings out the flavors of other ingredients. Fish sauce is made by fermenting two parts fish with one part salt. Over time, the salt will naturally extract water from the fish's flesh, creating the savory sauce. The factory processes 100 tons of fish every day. They use wild-caught anchovies from the gulf of thailand. Anchovies have a strong flavor, so even small amounts can be used to flavor dishes. They mix two parts fish with one part natural sea salt. The ingredients fall down a chute into a rotating drum. As it spins, it evenly mixes the salt and the fish. This is faster than mixing by hand, ensuring quicker processing times. When the mix is ready, it's taken to one of the 3,000 fermentation wells on-site. The bottom of the well is already filled with sea salt. They add the salt-fish mixture and spread it around so that the surface is flat. They finish by covering the mixture with a thick layer of sea salt. Each fermentation well can hold 10 tons of fish and salt. They cover the well with a cement corrugated sheet. The temperature inside can reach 104 degrees fahrenheit. They sometimes remove the cover to expose the sauce to sunlight. From time to time, they sample the sauce for inspection. Salt crystals form naturally on the surface. After 12 to 18 months of fermentation, first-grade sauce is pumped out from the bottom of the fermentation well with layers of salt acting as a natural filter. Fish sauce is stored in large fiberglass tanks. Employees take samples and send them to the lab for quality testing. After filtering and sweetening the sauce slightly with 5% sugar, they are ready for bottling. After a visual inspection, bottles head to the filling area. The machine grabs each bottle and fills it from the bottom up. Fish sauce does not need to be pasteurized as filtration has already eliminated most bacteria. Also, the sauce contains over 25% salt. This high-sodium content prevents any harmful bacteria from proliferating. Because of the sauce's intense flavor, it is generally used in moderation. So bottle caps have a small dropper hole to facilitate use of the sauce during cooking. Next, brushes apply adhesive labels to the body and neck of the bottle. This factory produces three different grades of fish sauce for a total of 15 million liters every year. After a second visual inspection, bottles proceed to the packing department. The machine pushes them forward, aligning them in position. By now, the bottle caps have been safety-sealed. A robotic carrier picks up 36 bottles to fill three boxes at once. A metal frame keeps the carton cases open as the machine inserts the bottles. The tasty sauce will be sold locally or exported to one of 70 different countries. In the food-science laboratory, technicians perform several quality-control tests. They start by measuring the salt content of the product as the salt will affect the taste and the shelf life of the sauce. Next, they measure the protein content. Fish protein breaks down during the fermentation process, releasing a compound called glutamate. Glutamate increases the flavor intensity of the sauce. Higher levels of protein give a tastier, higher-grade sauce. They also check the levels of histamine to make sure they comply with international food standards. High levels of histamine could indicate spoilage. They end with a ph test. Good fish sauce is slightly acidic, and the ph value must remain within an acceptable range. People now use fish sauce not only in thai dishes, but also to flavor their own traditional foods. Cappers are automated machines which apply caps on bottles that have been filled with a factory product-- anything from shampoo to soft drinks. The closures the cappers apply include screw caps, push-down tops, and aluminum caps molded to the shape of the bottle neck. Cappers come in different sizes to meet the product manufacturers' packaging requirements, from three-head machines that cap 40 bottles per minute, to 36-head machines that cap 1,200 bottles per minute. Every capper is custom-designed for the product being packaged, so producers must supply the capper manufacturer with samples of their specific bottles and caps. The first step of the design phase is to paint the samples white so that engineers can scan them with a laser to produce a three-dimensional computer model. Then the engineers use that virtual bottle and cap to design the machine's bottle-handling equipment. This refers to the components which transport the bottles through the machine as opposed to the components that apply the cap. This computer-guided water-jet cutter slices through a stainless-steel plate to make the bases that support the bottle-handling equipment on the capper from underneath. A computer-guided machining center shapes the complex bottle-handling components out of stainless-steel rods. The capper's bottle-capping components are machined the same way. Every part undergoes a precision inspection. An engineer checks the dimensions with a device called a coordinate measuring machine. A computer-guided router cuts the plastic components of the bottle-handling equipment from a 19-millimeter-thick sheet of polyethylene. Meanwhile, an electrician wires the capper's control panel. It houses the components which regulate the machine's speed, as well as the computer that controls all the machine's functions. The machine has sensors that detect the presence of a bottle and cap at the capping head. These sensors are wired to the computer. Other workers assemble the production-line conveyor belt that ferries bottles into and out of the capper. The belt is comprised of plastic links connected with pins. To begin assembling the machine, workers attach the three capping heads to the overhead carousel. Then they install a capping chuck in each head. The chuck picks up a cap. Then the capping head rotates to screw the cap on the bottle. A computer-guided engraver labels the capper's infeed star wheel-- a disc with pockets that guide the bottles into the machine. Workers highlight the engraving with paint and inset a colored disc indicating the specific bottle size the star wheel is designed to run. They repeat these steps with the machine's two other star wheels-- one in the center of the machine that moves the bottles under the capping heads and another that transfers the bottles to the machine's exit. Workers manually assemble each star wheel. They verify the pocket size... Then, on the center star wheel only, bolt a stainless-steel reinforcement layer and line the pockets with a rubber material that grips bottles. After installing the metal support bases on the capper, they mount the corresponding star wheels. The center star wheel and base have to be made in halves to fit around the machine's central shaft. Workers install the center guide. The bottles travel in the path between the wheels and the guide. Next, workers install a restraint belt made of the same rubber material that lines the center star wheel pockets. The belt and pocket prevent the bottle from spinning as the capping head screws on the cap. No capper leaves the factory without a test run. Before running the machine normally, workers run it at low speed to check that the components are properly aligned and the movements correctly timed. The infeed star wheel receiving the bottles transfers them to the center star wheel under the capping heads. The capped bottles then transfer to the discharge star wheel, which guides them to the conveyor belt leading to the labeling machine.