Indy Steering Wheels Mixed Salad Wind Turbines
The indy steering wheel isn't just for steering. It's the control center for the racecar, replacing the dashboard. This incredible steering wheel is also detachable to allow the driver to enter and exit the cockpit quickly and easily. It's, quite simply, designed for speed. The indy steering wheel is a complex piece of equipment that puts everything at the driver's fingertips. It starts with a full-scale design, customized to the driver's racing style and preferences. The technician aligns the traditional racing steering wheel with the drawing, and marks it for a complete remodel. He cuts out the leather and foam wrap within the marked lines and saws off a chunk of the aluminum frame. He then activates a computerized cutter that carves away a big section of the steering wheel hub. It also cuts holes for switches. With these changes, the steering wheel is ready to accommodate a panel with over two dozen controls and gauges. Next, more computerized tooling transforms a sheet of carbon fiber into the steering wheel's switch plate. It cuts out holes for screws and switches, and it creates slots for the shift and clutch panels. The tool then zigzags around the perimeter to trim the switch plate to fit the modified steering wheel. With the trimmings removed, the switch plate is ready for the working parts. The next technician plugs the color-coded switches into the holes and locks them in place with nuts and anti-vibration washers. The yellow one is a pit-lane speed limiter. As the name suggests, it will limit the car's speed in the pit lane. Once all the switches have been installed, he runs wires to them and solders the connections. This completes the circuitry. He coats each connection with silicone sealant. This weather-proofs them and further dampens vibrations. And for additional protection, he applies glue to the plastic sheathing around the wires. He adds a rubber boot to each connection. The boot fits loosely around it at first, but, using a heat gun, he shrinks the specially formulated rubber to the connection. This makes the boot fit like it was made for it. The indy-steering-wheel switch plate is now ready for the shift paddles. So next, the technician screws a spacer plate into the slot. This metal spacer slightly elevates the paddle mechanism to give it the right amount of clearance. He screws the paddle assembly to the spacer. He installs the second shift paddle and two clutch paddles. Then he inserts the rotary switch for fuel mapping and secures it with a washer and nut. This fuel-mapping system will adjust the fuel-air mix to boost or decrease power output. He adds little decals with icons to the color-coded switches. A radio-transmission icon marks the communication switch. He returns to the steering wheel now. He attaches a unit that displays rpm and other information that a normal dash would have. He screws it to the exposed aluminum frame. He's now ready to mount the completed switch plate to the steering wheel. Three bolts to the hub secure the assembly. He installs a spring-loaded mechanism at the back of the steering wheel that will allow the steering wheel to be installed or removed in half a second. He tests the two shift paddles and the two clutch paddles and confirms they operate smoothly. Finally, he attached dense padding to the steering-wheel hub for a soft landing for the driver's head in the even of a crash. This indy steering wheel costs as much as a small compact car. But for the driver and crew, it's worth the investment if it helps win the prize. People have been dining on edible greens for thousands of years. Traditionally collected in the wild, today, there's no need to forage for them because field greens are cultivated commercially. They're mixed, washed, and packaged for the consumer's convenience. It's an easy dish to toss together. Packaged mixed greens combine mild-tasting leaves with stronger-tasting ones and crunchy greens with more tender ones. So when it comes to texture and flavor, it's truly a mixed bag. They cultivate up to 20 different kinds of greens on this california farm, and they aren't all green. Some are red. They plant the various lettuces according to the recipes for different packaged salads so they'll have just the right combination. With regular irrigation and fertilization, the leaves flourish. It makes for a stunning red-and-green display in the field. After 30 to 45 days, these baby greens are ready for harvest. A machine with a long blade moves across the field and literally mows the field greens. The greens flow onto one conveyor and transfer to another. The belt is a metal-mesh one to sift out contaminants like small rocks and twigs. At the end of the sifting conveyor, the salad greens fly off and onto another belt. This belt serves them up to bins on a flatbed trailer, creating an enormous salad in each one. Workers cover the bins with plastic and haul them to a nearby processing plant. On arrival, the salad greens transfer to a vacuum-cooling chamber to chill. The vacuum causes moisture on the greens to evaporate. As the water evaporates, it absorbs heat to lower the temperature and cool the greens. The salad greens then head into an optical sorter. Here, computerized cameras and lasers scan the greens for flaws, like discoloration and foreign material. The operator has programmed the system to detect flaws or contaminants. When the computer finds one, it sends a signal to an air jet that expels it. Some good leaves get lost along the way-- about 3%. It's considered an acceptable loss. The rejects will be composted. Out of the optical sorter, an employee tosses in the bitter greens, like radicchio and frisée. This moving salad now heads into a three-part wash system. The first wash tank has rolling perforated cylinders that keep the greens submerged for washing. They also pick up unwanted tiny leaves and remove them from the mix. The salad greens transfer to a vibrating conveyor that shakes out the water. Then they travel through a second wash tank and finally receive a third wash from overhead sprayers. The washed salad greens fall into plastic containers with perforations. They're essentially very large colanders. They transfer each colander to a centrifuge and power up. It spins the colander, and this causes the moisture on the greens to drain through there perforations. This leaves them dry and crisp. It is a large-scale version of the salad spinner many people have in their kitchens. These field greens are now ready for the packaging line. It's an entirely mechanized system with an endless appetite. The greens funnel through a hopper and land in buckets. This is a weighing operation. There's a scale under each bucket. When the target weight is reached, the bucket releases the greens. They slide down chutes into the bagging machine. These salad greens are still living, breathing plants. The packaging will slow their respiration and put the aging process on hold. Machinery hermetically seals them in plastic to give them a shelf life of 14 days to 19 days. And with that availability, there's no excuse not to eat your greens. Wind turbines use an unlimited natural resource, the wind, to produce electricity without polluting the environment. A turbine consists of a rotor and a massive propeller that spins in the wind on top of a high tower. It drives a built-in generator that produces electricity. The higher up you go, the windier it is. So the taller the turbine, the more wind power it harnesses. They may not look it from a distance, but wind turbines can be as high as a 20-story building with rotor blades half a football field long. To begin constructing those massive blades, workers prepare fiberglass sheets, each one numbered according to a detailed engineering plan. Then, following the plan, workers lay down specific sheets in designated locations in the bottom half of a blade-shaped mold. For a blade to be free of defects, each sheet must lie perfectly flat. So, using a smoothing tool, workers remove air bubbles and creases. The surface of the mold cavity is treated with a non-stick coating. This will prevent the blade from adhering to the mold when they extract it. After placing all the sheets in the bottom half of the mold, workers construct the upper part of the blade by laying fiberglass sheets on the top half of the blade mold. Again, every single sheet is numbered and positioned according to the blade-design plan. An area of the mold can have from for to 120 layered sheets of varying thickness, weights, and weaves, depending on how structurally strong that part of the blade has to be. To make specific areas more rigid, between layers of fiberglass they install balsa, an extremely lightweight wood. Cut channels enable the balsa panels to flex to the shape of the blade. The channels are also the pathways through which the bonding agent epoxy will flow to saturate the wood and surrounding fiberglass. Precision in the setup of fiberglass and wood is critical. The process takes a team of six workers 16 hours. They close up the mold by lowering the top half onto the bottom half. Then they inject the epoxy. Simultaneously, workers heat the mold to 158 degrees fahrenheit. This aids the chemical reaction between the epoxy's two components-- a resin and a hardener. After 9½ hours, the epoxy is fully cured. With overhead cranes, they lift away the top half of the mold, revealing a turbine blade measuring up to 60 yards long, weighing in at about 10 tons. Using lifting devices positioned at specific locations, they slowly extract the blade from the bottom half of the mold and lay it onto a stand to cool for 4½ hours. Workers then transfer the blade to a mill-and-drill machine, which shapes the open end to align with the rotor hub. The machine also drills holes for the 54 pin bolts that will fasten the blade to the hub. Next, workers grind away the seam of hardened epoxy that formed where the two halves of the mold met and sand the surface perfectly smooth. Then they spray the blade with a coat of primer, which they let cure for six hours. Then a coat of epoxy-based paint, letting that cure for about eight hours. Then workers insert those 54 pin bolts made of a particularly strong grade of steel and tighten them with a torque wrench. After this, they weigh each blade on a floor scale and group three blades of similar weight per turbine to ensure the rotation will be balanced. The install a cover over the opened end of the blade to prevent debris from falling inside during transport to the wind farm. Upon arrival, crews bolt three blades to a rotor hub, then hoist the rotor to the top of the turbine tower and connect it to the nacelle. The nacelle is the part of a wind turbine which transforms wind power into electricity. With the rotor mounted to it, the nacelle houses a giant drivetrain. It multiplies the rotational speed of the spinning blades then transfers it to a massive generator, which produces electricity. A wind turbine's rotor is made of three blades attached to a hub. The hub alone weighs more than 30 tons. It's cast from ductile iron, a strong grade of cast iron. At the factory, they use a crane to hoist and affix the hub casting to an assembly fixture. This fixture holds the hub securely in a suspended position while workers mount components to it, starting with three blade bearings. A blade bearing is a giant ball bearing to which the blade is attached. When it rotates, the blade pitches, meaning it changes angle. Blades need to be pitched to better catch the wind and to spin at optimal speed. Each bearing attaches to the hub with 54 huge bolts. The next hub components--  three accumulators-- one for each blade bearing. An accumulator stores hydraulic oil under pressure. This oil moves hydraulic cylinders, which rotate the blade bearing to pitch the blade. Workers assemble each accumulator, mount its cover, then install it on a blade bearing. Once all three accumulators and other components are installed, the hub is finished. They remove it from the assembly fixture and put a fiberglass cover over each bearing to protect the workings inside. Meanwhile, in the same factory, workers assemble the wind turbine's nacelle. First, they lay out the bottom section of its steel housing, then they assemble the yaw system, the key component that enables the nacelle and rotor to rotate 360 degrees. They mount a large stationary gear in the center of the system's mainframe. Then, on the reverse side of the mainframe, they install eight yaw gears. These smaller gears engage the large gear on the other side. Fully assembled, the mainframe weighs more than 22 tons. Workers hoist it with a crane, then install it into the bottom section of the nacelle's steel housing. They connect the gearbox to the rest of the nacelle's drivetrain. It works like a car transmission in reverse. While the car transmission takes combustion-produced energy and turns it into rotation--  the car wheel's turning-- the nacelle drivetrain takes rotation-- the blades spinning in the wind-- and turns it into electrical energy. Those spinning blades rotate the drivetrain's massive steel shaft. The opposite end of that shaft connects to the gearbox. The gear's multiply the speed of rotation, rotating the second shaft, which they now connect to a generator, installed inside the nacelle housing. The second shaft powers the generator, which produces electricity. After connecting the drivetrain to the generator, workers install the top section of the housing, as well as access doors for maintenance work. Technicians conduct various tests to make sure everything runs properly. Here, they are verifying the fan that cools the generator. The finished nacelle looks like a mammoth aa battery. It weighs 85 tons. Nearly half of that is the drivetrain. The plant ships both the nacelle and the hub separately to the wind farm by either truck or rail. The blades are shipped to the farm from another factory and the tower from yet another. Once all the parts arrive on site, assembly can begin. Crews first direct the tower. Then they hoist the nacelle all the way to the top and mount it. On the ground, they assemble the rotor by installing the blades in the hub. Then they hoist the rotor to the top of the tower and mount it to the nacelle. And from that point on, the wind does all the work.