Socket Sets Leather Shoes Aluminum Water Bottles Bike Chains
The invention of the socket wrench in 1864 put a whole new twist on fastening things. With the socket wrench's ratchet mechanism, the user could tighten bolts in a continuous motion without breaking to refit the wrench to the fastener. It was a real time-saver. Modern socket wrenches come with a range of sockets and extensions to handle the nuts and bolts of many different jobs. They start with this coil of thick steel. It travels through a die which straightens it to a knife that slices it into short billets. A machine then drives a series of forming tools into the billets. The tools force them into a socket shape and create the all-important hexagonal opening that matches the profile of the nuts and bolts. To get rid of lingering lubricating oil, the parts go for a tumble through a spiral washer/dryer system. A conveyor delivers them to a computerized cutting tool. It removes sharp edges and sculpts a bevel on the socket's inner rim so it will slide onto bolts more easily. It takes just seconds to improve this socket's profile. Different tools then sculpt the square opening in the drive end of the socket. That's the part that locks onto the end of the ratchet wrench. A powerful rolling stamp now engraves the part's size and the company name onto it. Once those details are out of the way, it's into a flaming oven to undergo a heat-treating process. A rapid cooldown follows the heat treatment, hardening the metal. The sockets now toss about in this rotating chamber as they're blasted with very fine steel particles. This cleans the parts and buffs the parts, but there's much more polishing to come. They clamp the sockets onto a rotating table. It delivers the part to a grinding belt for a very vigorous polishing. You can see the difference this makes in the part on the right, but these sockets need to be absolutely flawless. So they next go into a tub of ceramic stones. They rub mild acid onto the parts to get rid of any small blemishes that remain. The parts then receive a thorough wash and rinse, which prepares them for chrome plating. Now freshly chromed, the sockets look way too nice to be immersed in this brownish stuff, but it's actually a rustproofing solution to protect them from corrosion. They lock the tub of sockets in a centrifuge machine. It spins the parts to get rid of the excess rustproofing liquid. And now these sockets are ready to shine on the job. Attachable extensions improve the reach of the socket wrench. Forming equipment swings into action, pressing steel billets into dies to mold them into the rough shape of an extension. After a wash and dry, it's over to a lathe. And as the extension spins, cutting tools create the squared opening that allows it to be attached to the wrench. Cutters then go to work on the other end. They shape it so it will fit into various sockets and shave the shank to reduce its diameter. Next, a rolling stamp cuts a knurled texture into the socket-wrench extension, creating a much less slippery surface to hang on to. They insert a stainless-steel spring into a hole formed at the end of the extension... Then scoop up a steel ball so it sits in the cavity above the spring. A machine then press-fits it to the extension. This creates a mechanism onto which the sockets attach. It takes about three days to complete this socket set, but it will equip you to handle jobs of many sizes and just about any tight situation. If you're a lover of fine footwear, when it comes to dressing your feet, nothing beats leather because, unlike synthetic materials, leather lets your feet breathe. And high-end leather shoes feature superior construction that makes them lightweight and comfortable to wear. The vision originates with a design sketched on a flexible plastic sheet. To help the stylist perfect the design, they put it on a rigid foot form called a last. Exotic skins have natural variations throughout, so a specialist must hand-cut the pattern pieces to ensure the right and left shoes match well. They use a splitting machine to shave off a layer from the underside, equalizing the thickness of all the pieces. Then a skiving machine thins the edges so the pieces will be easier to sew together. They punch decorative holes into certain pieces with a manual press, so it's up to the operator to make sure the distance between holes is consistent. The top of the shoe is called the upper. They sew together the upper pieces, then hammer the stitches to make the seam smooth and flat. Next they glue a narrow leather strip along the border of the upper to hide the leather's unfinished edge. This also produces a decorative trim. Now they attach a lining made of goat leather and flax. This style of lining fits snugly over the last, a particular type of construction that allows for a more comfortable type of insole. They put the lining inside the upper and slip them onto the last. Then they glue on the insole. This type consists of a rigid section-- the black part-- and a more flexible section--  the white part. Now they glue the lining to the upper and put the front of the shoe, called the point, into a machine that grips the edge of the leather and pulls it straight. The next machine's mechanical fingers wrap the edge underneath and glue it, pulling evenly all around so that everything's symmetrical. The next machine does the same thing at the back of the shoe. They grind down the leather edge, creating a flat, even surface that's ready for the sole. Next they heat the leather to make it malleable and hammer until the upper assumes the shape of the last inside. The hammering also rids the leather of any wrinkles. They coat the underside with glue and carefully position the shoe's leather sole. The glue takes about 10 minutes to dry. Then they run the edge of the sole through a splitting machine. This separates a thin layer which they now sew to the upper. Durable twine and a heavy-duty loop stitch ensure the upper and sole remain inseparable. To hide the stitching, they glue and grind down the edge. A thorough polishing gives the sole a slick-looking finish. Every pair of shoes this factory produces is polished by a specialist, who creates just the right shading to bring out the leather's best features. This is the last step of roughly 200 manual operations that go into producing just a single pair of these luxurious leather shoes. It was swiss hikers who carried the first aluminum drink bottles in the early part of the 20th century. Today's lightweight bottles can be reused endlessly, meaning less waste in landfills. They can also be recycled, so making one is not a wasted effort. Some of those first trailblazing bottles still survive today, reminding us that this kind of container is made to last. Today's bottle starts with an aluminum puck 2 3/4 inches in diameter. The puck travels down a chute into a punch press. It uses 660 tons of force to stretch that little puck into a long cylinder with a bottom. A blade chops the open end down to the correct size, and then a tool pushes it onto a conveyor that sends it down the line. The aluminum cylinder lands on a wheel which relays it to the next station. There, machinery moves the cylinder's open end into position for tools to squeeze it into a bottleneck. The tools pinch the metal a total of 26 times to draw the open end down to half its original diameter. This gentle forming process results in less stress on the metal. The last tool presses a threaded ring into the inside of the bottle for screwing on the cap. The process leaves the threaded neck a lot thicker than the rest of the bottle so it will hold up to heavy usage. Now the bottles head into a wash station. They get a really good scrubbing to remove the lubricating oil from the forming process. They then travel through a dryer, and after a few minutes, they emerge clean and ready for the next operation. The interior wall of the aluminum drink bottle is about to be lined with a microthin, high-tech polymer. This revolving device picks up each bottle using suction and delivers it to an individual sprayer. The spray nozzle coats the inside of this container with a polymer. The liner has been specially formulated to be chemically inert, which means it won't absorb or transfer flavors. At this point, the coating is powdery, and you could wipe it off with your finger, but that's just temporary. As they bake it, the powder will solidify and bond completely to the inside of the bottle. The bottles move through an oven that's heated to 356 degrees fahrenheit for 10 minutes. The liner doesn't add much weight to the bottle. Here they weigh one before lining and after, and the difference is just a few grams. Now the bottles spin by a gauntlet of spray guns for an even coat of paint. Like the inner liner, this outer veneer will need to be baked on. When it dries, the paint takes on a glossy look. An automated squeegee silk-screens designs onto the bottles. A jet of air dries the ink between printings as they build up the artwork using different colors. And now it's time to screw on the cap. As she caps the bottle, this worker performs a final inspection of the product. From a small aluminum puck to a handy drink bottle-- incredibly, this transformation has taken just three hours. And in its various styles, this reusable bottle is sure to make a lasting impression. Pedaling a bicycle causes a chain reaction that sets wheels in motion. A bicycle chain is essentially a roller chain. It's designed specifically to transfer pedal power to the bicycle's rear drive wheel. With a good bicycle chain, you can go far or, at the very least, take a short spin around the hood. The chain is the driving force in a bicycle's transmission system. It travels over gears in a perpetual loop to keep the cyclist moving forward. Actions like shifting gears or braking will regularly put this critical mechanism to the test. It all starts with this punch press. It cuts and presses steel into the shape of the chain's inner links, which looks a lot like a figure eight. Incredibly, it generates 10,000 links per hour. Each of these figure-eight links has been made to interconnect, and their contours allow them to travel easily across the bike's gear sprockets. They send samples of the links to a measuring station to confirm the space between the holes is precisely 12.7 millimeters. The tester also gauges the diameter of the holes, which must be accurate to within a fraction of a millimeter. Then the links bake in an oven at more than 1,500 degrees fahrenheit. The blazing heat, followed by a quick cooldown, hardens the steel. They now shovel these inner links into a doughnut-shaped machine. They add ceramic and silica powders... And pour in a small amount of water. They then screw the lid on this machine. It shakes vigorously, causing the powders and water to form an abrasive paste that polishes the links. They load the polished inner links into a metal basket and shut the door. Machinery plunges the basket into a series of chemical baths to give these inner links a nickel-teflon veneer. The nickel-teflon surface will resist corrosion, and its smooth texture will allow the chain to travel easily over gear sprockets. The bike chain's outer links get a different kind of finish. Unlike the inner links, they don't travel over sprockets, so a simple nickel plating will do. They're now ready to assemble the chain one section at a time. Tubes feed the parts one by one into this assembly machine. Gripper arms adjust their position to assemble the links to other chain components, such as retainer rings and spacers. The machinery presses pins into the links' holes to secure the assembly. Then grippers move the completed section of chain down the line. It takes a whole lot of little pieces to build one short section of bicycle chain. The sections are linked together in one long chain, which now winds by an inspection station to be examined for flaws. After that, the chain takes a dip in hot oil, which lubricates the links to prevent squeakiness and wear down the road. The chain exits the lubricating station and travels by wads of absorbent material, which soaks up the excess grease. A laser tool then signals the location where the chain is to be cut, and a blade chops it at the exact spot. A standard bike chain is just over 56 inches in length. It consists of 114 inner links and 114 external ones, so it's got what it takes to go the distance.