Toothpicks Acrylic Bathtubs Helicopters Beer
Today on "how it's made"... Toothpicks... Acrylic bathtubs... Helicopters... And beer. Some people use them to hold hors d'oeuvres together. Kids make scale models of famous buildings and bridges out of them. And some people actually use them for their primary purpose-- to remove food caught between their teeth. What are we talking about? Why, the humble toothpick, of course. Logs-- lots of birch logs are delivered to this factory. They're the raw material from which toothpicks will be made. The heavy logs are lifted by grippers and placed into a debarker. Bark isn't part of the toothpick-fabrication process and is recovered by this machine. But the bark isn't thrown away. It's sold to a neighboring factory where it will be used as fuel. The debarker works in two steps. With two passes, it produces a log roll that's perfectly cylindrical and easier to mill. This log is being transported to the next processing stage. This unraveling machine unravels the log as if it were a roll of paper, cutting it with 12 fine blades each . 04 of an inch thick and 2 1/2 inches wide. These same blades will be used later to cut toothpicks. Then these 12 blades, positioned side by side on the unraveling machine, will form rolls of strips called "billets". These tiny cutters are used to trim the ends of the toothpicks. Knives placed here and there on the machine thin the ends of the toothpicks. The roller rolls up the cut strips, forming a billet. Completed strips, or billets, are taken out manually. Each billet weighs 4 pounds. The billets are carried to the puncher, the flat-toothpick puncher cuts the billet strips into small, equal-sized pieces. The cut pieces come out at this end of the machine. The punch works very rapidly. Knives come down 2,000 times per minute to cut a total of 8,000 toothpicks in just 60 seconds. Cut toothpicks fall into this chute, then into a container. At this stage, they're soft. They have to be hardened in a dryer for four hours at 250 degrees fahrenheit. Then the toothpicks are transferred to the polisher. Talcum powder and friction help make the toothpicks perfectly smooth. This operation takes four hours. Toothpicks exit the polisher and pass through this sifter, which filters out broken ones. Those in good condition continue on to an air-blower system. Damaged ones are rejected. Perfect toothpicks are placed onto two conveyers by an air-blowing system. Drums at the end of the conveyors assure quantity distribution, then they're carried to the automatic packagers. This machine counts the toothpicks. Boxes are made up, ready for filling. The number of toothpicks included in each box matters. The packager is calibrated to place 650 toothpicks in each container, and it produces about 1,150 boxes an hour. It handles 747,500 toothpicks an hour. Some toothpicks are individually wrapped for distribution to restaurants and airlines. This machine wraps 1,200 toothpicks per minute. It automatically wraps, glues, and cuts the paper. This facility can manufacture more than 20 million toothpicks every day. And it all started from several birch logs. Bathing daily is a relatively new phenomenon, historically speaking. People used to take baths only when necessary. Today whiling away the afternoon in the tub is more than a way to wash our bodies. With bubbles and bath oils, it can be an experience in luxury. Modern bathtubs look nothing like tubs of the middle ages or those wooden tubs we see in western films. To achieve supreme comfort, the designer explores new shapes via computer and design software, tools which make for a speedy review of various shapes. Then a model is produced. This one, produced on a 1/6 scale, is made of cardboard. But other models can be made of clay, polystyrene, or by stereolithography. Manufacturing begins with an acrylic sheet. It is heated to about 390 degrees fahrenheit with ceramic elements. The sheet becomes soft and malleable. So that it takes the form of the mold, thousands of tiny holes in the shell suction the sheet by vacuum. The mold must cool before it can be opened. Powerful ventilators blow air directly onto the mold, lowering the temperature to 170 degrees in 4 to 6 minutes. The ventilators are then withdrawn. Then the shell is easily removed from the mold. It weighs a mere 35 pounds. To make a tub in another shape, they change the mold. They put in another acrylic sheet. The sheet is heated on the ceramic and fiberglass mold, the little holes vacuum out air, and the job is done. The molded acrylic sheet is not sturdy enough to be filled with water, so it must be reinforced with fiberglass. This is the fiberglass. Mixed with resin, it is blown onto the mold by a robotic unit. Stored in reservoirs, the resin is carried to the robot by pumps. Here it produces a chemical reaction between the fiberglass and the resin, which produces a reinforced shell. Laminating is one of the most important steps. With brush and roller, they eliminate all air bubbles that could weaken the tub. This makes the fiberglass resin adhere perfectly to the acrylic shell. The process takes 75 minutes. The shell is then transported to the milling department. The shell is dry and hard. They can extract it manually, but here they use digitally controlled machines. The operation begins with the trimming of the edges of the bathtub. During this process, the robot will pierce openings for the drains, the whirlpool jets, and the air jets for the overflow and for ambient light. The bathtub, almost completed, is now sent to another workshop. They can now install the pump, the piping, and the blower. These last operations are done manually. The pump is installed for the whirlpool system, as well as the pvc pipes, whose joints have been hermetically sealed to prevent any leaks. Finally, to make sure that everything is functioning well, each bathtub undergoes a water test. The tub is finally ready. After 13 steps and anywhere from three to five hours of work, depending on the type of tub. It almost invites you to climb in. In the world of aeronautics, the helicopter is the ideal go-anywhere machine. Unlike airplanes, choppers can move in almost any direction and take off and land straight up and down. Now that we've "coptered" your attention, let's see what goes into building these whirlybirds. Man has always wanted to fly. And the versatility of the helicopter has allowed him to reach unexpected heights. Plans for a helicopter are created with catia 3-d design-assisting computer software. It takes 700 hours of work between the drawing stage and the assembly of the pattern. The helicopter is made of carbon fiber, a composite material lighter and stronger than steel, protected by two layers of green plastic. The fiber is cut with a blade controlled by ultrasound. They lay on several thicknesses of fiber to make the rear fuselage. The green light of a laser helps position the parts. Then with a heat gun, they apply a beehive web which increases the solidity of the structure. But the carbon fiber is still soft. To harden, it must be baked under pressure for 10 hours in this autoclave oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit. The pieces exit the oven and head for machining. The door of the motor housing is kept in a cutting jig and is shaped with a manual shaper. Before installing the parts, they strike the carbon fiber with a resonance hammer to detect any faults. The electrical harness is mounted on a pattern before being installed in the aircraft. This particular helicopter has 2,570 yards of wiring, but others can have almost 6 miles. The wiring will be connected to the flight-instruments panel, the brain of the helicopter. This aircraft has 9,964 rivets fastened with a gun and a ram. They also apply a sealant to prevent corrosion-creating humidity. They now assemble the helicopter's rear fuselage. Piece by piece, the aircraft takes shape. They will install mechanical components later. The motor arrives. This one weighs 260 pounds and has to be carefully handled. Among the other parts to be installed is the circular plate on which the blades will be attached. Safety is primary. The screw-nut holes are perforated, allowing for the insertion of the brake cable. This tightly braided metal wire prevents the nut from loosening, due to strong vibrations. Now they bolt on the four blades, which makes the helicopter fly. Weighing 90 pounds each, they're made of composite materials and an aluminum alloy. They're attached to the main rotor. The dashboard is installed in the cockpit, and all the wires are hooked up. Contact is established, and all is functioning properly. The last step-- finishing the interior of the craft. They install seats, safety belts, the consoles, bulkheads, windows and doors, as well as the trimmings. The helicopter is almost completed, but it still has to be painted. When done, the helicopter is towed outside the assembly hangar. Flight tests are performed to make sure that mechanical and electrical components are functioning properly. It requires an average of 110 days to assemble the more than 3,000 parts of a helicopter like this one, and they turn out almost 185 units each year. These 3-ton engines are capable of reaching speeds of 140 knots and flying at a maximum altitude of 20,000 feet. Beer has been around for as long as civilization itself. Historical records show that ancient peoples made beer with barley, hops, water, and yeast. We still use the same ingredients, but as you'll see, today's production technology is far more complex. Beer has been drunk since 4,000 b.c. in mesopotamia. The sikaru made it as a sacred beverage from grains but without hops. The gauls and the celts drank a beverage made with barley, wheat, and rye. During the crusades, europeans discovered spices and flavored the beverage with cinnamon and laurel. In the 15th century, nordic peoples used hops as a spice, giving rise to the beer we know today. Beer is a fermented beverage made with cereals and water. The company has its own water-filtration plant. It will be refiltered before being used to eliminate chlorine. This materials tanks can hold 21,000 gallons of water. Between 11 and 16 tons of malt and another grain are added. They use dark malt, which has been heat-treated to a high temperature. The mixture will spend two hours here. An agitator prevents malt husks from settling to the bottom of the tank. Turbulence from the pumps during the transfer causes the formation of this protein foam. The wort is in the process of being extracted and will be boiled. About five hours have passed since the brewing process began. Here they draw off a sample. They will make other control tests at various stages of brewing. This is the draff, a solid residue extracted from the wort. It will be used as cattle feed. Here is a close-up view of the draff. Then the liquid is filtered. Here's the filtration tank where the wort is separated from the malt husks. A sample is withdrawn from the wort heater to verify the density of sugars and the quality of the wort. Now another ingredient--  the hops-- is added into the wort heater. The hops impart the bitterness and aroma particular to beer. The hops looks like this. They can now start the brewing. In the control room, an operator handles the data-control system of the brewing process. They add in the yeast, which starts off the fermentation. This process lasts between 7 and 10 days. This foam indicates that fermentation has begun, and sugars will now transform into alcohol. Each fermentation tank is computer-controlled to maintain a specific temperature. During fermentation, chemical reactions create the scum that we see. Now aged for three weeks, the beer is almost finished. We see here the bottling tanks. The beer has to be filtered once more. Exiting these filters, the wort is clarified, then rid of the components responsible for the cloudiness of the beer. Here's the beer filtered a second time... And finally finished, as a clear product. Used bottles are now washed. After their wash cycle, the bottles have become sterilized. Empty bottles arrive on this plate, ready to be filled. About 1,000 bottles a minute are filled while on the move. Then they pass to the capper before being sent to the pasteurizer. Only two steps remain. Labels are glued onto the bottles, then they're sent by conveyor to be put in cases. Made from water and cereal grains, the beer is now ready to be consumed and enjoyed.