How It's Made (2001) s01e01 Episode Script

1
Captions by vitac--
captions paid for by
discovery communications.
Narrator: Today
on "how it's made"
Aluminum foil
snowboards
contact lenses,
and bread.
Aluminum foil has
a multitude of uses,
from heating
something up in the oven
to keeping something
cold in the fridge.
But have you ever wondered
how a huge block of solid aluminum
gets transformed into a
paper-thin sheet of foil?
The manufacture of aluminum foil
requires the
repeated thinning out
of a large block of aluminum.
We begin by melting ingots
of 100%-pure aluminum
in a natural-gas furnace.
These ingots, called "pigs,"
are essential in alloys with
zinc, titanium, and silica.
It takes 3 to 8 hours to
melt 30 tons of aluminum
in this remelting furnace,
which operates at 1,380
degrees Fahrenheit.
The fusion
temperature of aluminum
is 1,220 degrees Fahrenheit.
A portion of aluminum is
poured into this small mold
to make a sample.
Solidifying in just seconds,
the sample allows for
testing to verify the contents
of the prepared alloy.
Molten aluminum runs
in a movable trough
located above the tapping well.
At this stage,
impurities are filtered out
in special receptacles.
The molds are cooled with water
to accelerate the solidification
of the molten aluminum.
Ingots are unmolded
and are ready for milling.
Each ingot is massive,
measuring 14 feet in length,
5 feet in width,
and 18 inches thick.
It weighs a whopping 8 tons,
so it has to be handled
by overhead cranes
and placed on special plates.
This crust-removing machine
removes 1/10 of an inch
of the ingot's thickness.
Impurities are eliminated
to achieve a
perfectly smooth finish.
All traces of the liquid used
to cool the decrusting knives
have to be eliminated.
The many steps in the
thinning of the ingot begin.
First, the aluminum
block is crushed
by the hot mill rollers.
Temperatures in the rollers
are between 850 and
1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Pressure on the ingot
is continually verified
by a technician.
If the pressure is too great,
the technician will lower it.
The heat is so high
that the ingot risks
sticking to the mill's roller.
To prevent this, everything
is cooled with a liquid
that's 95% water and 5% oil.
Starting from a
thickness of 18 inches,
the ingot becomes increasingly
thinner with each pass-through.
Depending on requirements,
the ingot will go through the
machine between 12 and 16 times.
The ingot now measures
about 3 inches in thickness.
It has to get down
to just 2/10 of an inch.
At this stage, the ingot
is about 2 inches thick
and measures almost
30 feet in length.
This conveyor transports the
plate during its milling stages.
The ingot has become a
sheet 2/10 of an inch thick.
It is sufficiently thin
to proceed to spooling,
where it spools onto itself
before being sent
to the cold rolling mill.
There, its thickness will
be reduced still further.
The aluminum sheet
has become very thin now
and risks being broken
by the tension
needed for cold rolling.
So the sheet is doubled
to avoid this breakage.
One final reduction in the mill,
and the sheet will
have the thickness
required by the customer.
A liquid coolant is
used to prevent the foil
from sticking to the rollers.
Since the edges
of the foil sheet
are lightly damaged
and crinkled,
a knife removes a strip
4/10 of an inch wide.
Finally, the roll is cut
to the desired width,
and one huge ingot has
produced nearly 8 miles of foil.
Narrator: If you've
ever tried snowboarding,
you've probably discovered
that those cool moves
aren't quite as easy
as the pros make it look.
Learning to maneuver a snowboard
is a long and involved process,
and it's much the same
when it comes to manufacturing
these surfboards for snow.
The snowboard is the delight
of winter-sports enthusiasts.
Its core is made of
a thin sheet of wood.
Various kinds of woods are used,
depending on the type
of board being made.
Bindings have to be
firmly attached to the board.
Holes are drilled for inserts,
to which bindings
will be secured.
A template allows the
holes to be precisely drilled.
Planing reduces the board
to the required thickness.
A thick board is obviously
more rigid than a thin one.
A shaping procedure
refines the board's contours.
At this point, the board
is still perfectly flat
with no curvature.
The boards are then stored
upright to await the next step.
Now they must secure
the aluminum inserts,
which will be
embedded in the wood.
This thin sheet of fiberglass
will create better
support for the inserts.
Therefore, they
will be more solid.
To make working on it easier,
the board is securely
held in place by clamps.
Epoxy, an extremely
strong adhesive
often used with
composite materials,
is applied to the fiberglass
at room temperature.
It is essential to remove
any excess epoxy,
as well as eliminate
all air bubbles
so there will be a
good adherence.
As for the top
part of the board,
it's made of a resistant plastic
applied by silk-screening.
In silk-screening, ink is
spread by this little squeegee.
This application
is called a pass.
Colors have to be
applied one at a time.
The inks must dry for several
hours between each coat.
Now the board must be curved.
A cover is placed on the mold.
When the mold is closed,
the board is given
the desired curve.
Heat trapped in the mold
makes the epoxy set and harden.
The board comes out of the mold,
and any excess epoxy and
wood are removed by a band saw.
To achieve a perfect cut,
the saw blade is
changed every 50 boards.
It's highly precise
work and totally manual.
They apply, again by
silk-screening, another coat,
then another color.
This time, red.
The snowboard must
now be protected.
A protecting varnish
flows as a thin curtain.
The board passes
beneath this curtain
and then moves into a
dryer for a six-hour stay.
Sanding removes surplus
varnish from the edges of the board.
New holes are
pierced into the board
to locate the inserts installed
at the beginning of production.
This sander
removes imperfections
in the hardened varnish
and prepares the board for
its second varnish coating.
Then the plastic base is sanded
to obtain the desired finish.
The board is checked to
see that it's perfectly flat.
A razor blade verifies
that the different coats
are well-adhered to one another.
Certain boards get an
engraved aluminum insert --
a luxury touch.
The board is now
ready for action.
This facility turns out over
500 snowboards per day
in 30 different models.
Narrator: People who
have defective vision
can always wear glasses,
but in many cases, there's
a less-noticeable alternative.
Contact lenses
correct faulty vision
without anyone knowing
the wearer even has them on.
What goes into making
these tiny optical aids
is really eye-catching.
Contact lenses have been in
existence for over a century.
At first completely rigid,
they have become gas-permeable
and as flexible as gelatin.
These small polyhema
disks are used
to make soft polymer contact
lenses in a variety of colors.
We see here a
patient's prescription,
essential to the
fabrication of lenses.
The process begins
with data processing
control of the shaping.
Data is supplied by computer,
which controls a digital lathe.
They begin by shaping the
inner curvature of the lens.
This digital lathe, rotating at
6,000 revolutions per minute,
is equipped with an
industrial diamond.
It shapes the inner surface --
the part that
touches the cornea.
It must be free from any
abrasions and imperfections
and is polished with a
super-fine abrasive paste.
Polishing is a crucial step
because it assures excellent
comfort and perfect vision.
A technician
measures lens thickness
with an extremely precise gauge.
They now shape
the outer surface,
the part that
touches the eyelid.
The lens is glued with
a special warm wax,
when the lens is completed,
an ultrasound device
will remove the wax.
The wax takes on the
desired shape in just seconds.
The comfort of a lens is also
determined by its thickness.
It must be as thin as possible
while retaining
sufficient solidity.
They begin by shaping the
outer diameter of the lens,
which takes only a few seconds.
They now Polish the
outer surface of the lens.
This polishing,
done at high speed,
calls for an abrasive
paste, some oil,
and a small
polyester cotton ball.
This apparatus polishes
several lenses at the same time --
a step that takes
only 60 seconds.
With everything computerized,
quality is incomparable.
A technician then
polishes the rims of the lens.
The polymer is hydrated
to make it flexible.
Lenses remain immersed
in a balanced ph saline
solution for 24 hours.
The lens becomes engorged
with liquid and expands,
reaching the
desired proportions.
This optical topographer
is used to verify,
through color distribution,
whether the spread of
optical power in the lens
is precise enough to
assure perfect vision.
And now we proceed with
another important testing procedure.
The soft, fragile lenses
are always handled
with the greatest of care.
This unit, called
a frontofocometer,
is a metering device
which verifies the optical
precision of the lens.
The lenses are now
completed and are cleaned.
They're stored in containers
filled with a salt solution.
This little vial that we
might find at optometrists'
is sealed with a silicone
cap and another of aluminum.
These vials are
placed in a sterilizer
at temperatures of
250 degrees Fahrenheit
for an hour and a half.
The contents will remain sterile
for up to seven
years if not opened.
The production of a
lens involves 14 steps.
If we exclude the rather
lengthy hydration process,
actual lens production
requires only 15 minutes.
They can produce almost
1,000 contact lenses per day --
all made from these
tiny colored disks.
Narrator: It's a staple for
people all over the world.
Smothered in butter and
jelly or dipped in gravy,
it's a delicious treat
that's hard to resist.
And we're willing to bet you
can't resist the opportunity
to find out what goes into
the making of your daily bread.
Over 3,000 years ago,
in the time of king tut,
Egyptians were already baking
40 varieties of leaven bread.
The Greeks' contribution
to this history was the oven
and 70 varieties
of flavored breads --
breads so good that the romans
took the Greek bakers to Rome
and their ovens to gaul.
By the middle ages,
bread had become the
primary food of Western Europe.
Multigrain bread is made
from several ingredients
such as flaxseed,
buckwheat, soy, and millet.
This protective grill
prevents foreign matter
from accidentally falling
into the recipe mix --
a recipe that calls
for a half a ton of flour.
The ingredients,
ground in a mill,
are kept in these 36
enormous containers.
We begin by mixing
the ingredients together.
These kneading troughs
are used to ferment the yeast,
a step which takes three hours.
The fermenting yeast makes
the dough rise considerably.
This huge mixer kneads the
dough for about eight minutes.
When thoroughly homogenous,
the contents are
emptied into a large tub.
The dough weighs
a little over a ton.
The dough is loaded onto a slide
situated above
the dough divider.
At the bottom of the machine,
a small hole allows
the dough to escape.
Two mechanically operated arms
cut the dough pieces
into equal lengths.
It forms 192 of these a minute.
The dough then
falls onto a conveyor.
Here dough pieces
are rolled into balls,
which can be more easily worked.
The dough balls are floured
to prevent them from
sticking during their transport
and when they're molded.
Here the balls of
dough leave the divider
and go to the molder.
During transport,
the dough can rest,
allowing the yeast to act.
The dough is then
folded and rolled.
The machine can
handle three per second
for a total of 11,500 an hour.
The dough is rolled
out to the exact size
and falls into baking molds.
Here we see the
making of hot dog rolls.
These little dough balls
have to be shaped lengthwise
and fermented before molding.
Here the hog dog rolls
are being machine-molded.
Dough pieces must
not touch one another,
so they're spaced apart
by a small mechanical arm.
Now we go back to
multigrain bread production.
Squatted down at the
bottom of the molds,
the dough pieces
go into the proofer,
where they rise for an hour
at 110 degrees Fahrenheit
and at 70% humidity.
Then they bake for 20
minutes at 490 degrees.
When finally baked, the loaves
end up with a nice golden color.
A vacuum system draws
the loaves from their molds.
They're then placed
on a conveyor to cool.
A guidance system takes
care of carrying the breads
to various sections
of the bakery.
When well-cooled,
breads go to the slicer,
which cuts 65 loaves a minute.
They are sliced by 7-foot-wide
and 16-inch-long
steel saw blades.
These blades are
changed every two weeks.
Sliced loaves are automatically
packed at 65 per minute.
They're now ready for shipping.
Some 5 1/2 hours have passed
between preparation
of the dry flour
and packaging of
the baked bread.
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