How It's Made (2001) s01e12 Episode Script

1
--Captions by vitac--
captions paid for by
discovery communications, inc.
Narrator: Today
on "how it's made"
Aluminum screw caps --
we'll pop the top off this
manufacturing secret.
Chocolate --
there's nothing like the
taste of sweet success.
Pills --
watch as directed.
And pasta --
we'll visit a factory that
churns out oodles of noodles.
Twisting off an
aluminum screw cap
may lack the style
and sophistication
of uncorking a
fine bottle of wine.
But as devices go,
these caps are one
of the easiest ways
to put an airtight
seal on a bottle or jar,
and the added bonus is
that they're entirely recyclable.
There are hundreds of
everyday objects that are capped.
This plant makes 250
million metal screw caps yearly
in 12 different sizes.
The caps are made
from these 11-square-foot
sheets of aluminum
weighing one pound.
Some 3,500 thin aluminum
sheets pass through this feeder.
They begin by coloring
the aluminum sheet
with a colored varnish
-- a lacquer and an ink.
Then 12 minutes
of drying is needed.
The colored sheets set
off on a conveyor for drying.
Then designs are produced.
The coloring is applied
by this varnisher.
The aluminum sheets pass
through the varnisher one at a time.
Here we see the sheet printed.
Above are the colors used.
They are highly colored
inks that adhere well to metal.
Suction cups grab the sheets
and send them toward
the transport system
of the punch press.
This press will give the
caps the required shape.
But the caps have to be machined
in successive steps by molds,
such as this one.
The punches first cut the caps.
Over 500 caps a
minute can be produced.
The blades of the punches
are made of carbide,
a very hard metal that can
cut tens of millions of caps.
At the exit point
of the punch press,
the caps are formed, but don't
yet have the right dimension.
This stretching press performs
the last two cold-forming steps
so that the tube will
have the required length.
Now for the second stretching.
This achieves the
desired diameter.
When the cap exits the press,
it will finally have the
desired dimensions.
At this point, the cap now
has the required shape.
The caps now
have to be decorated
to the client's requirements.
The lateral imprint is made with
this silk-screen-type decorator
which colors some
100 caps in 60 seconds.
The decorator uses an ink
specially formulated
to adhere to metal.
The caps will then
dry in a warm-air oven.
The dried caps are ejected
and fall into a container.
This other flexographic
type of decorator
prints 155 caps a minute.
We can clearly
see the ink roller,
which imprints
the side of the caps
as they rotate against
it in a steady stream.
All that's required now is to
form the cap and make the cut.
The profiling and
jointing machine
makes the cuts and reliefs
on 200 caps per minute.
Machining the cap takes
but a fraction of a second.
They sometimes have to
assure the watertightness
of a container such
as a wine bottle.
For this, a polypropylene
liner is inserted,
which hermetically
seals the container.
A check is carried
out under a light
to verify whether the cut
has been properly made
and the ridges well-formed.
At last, the final steps --
this screw-tightening machine
hermetically seals the caps
onto the bottles.
The 250 million screw
caps made here each year
call for the machining of
1,000 tons of aluminum.
Narrator: Working in
a chocolate factory --
talk about a childhood fantasy.
Well, "how it's made"
is about to take a bite
out of one of the
all-time great dream jobs.
Just beware of the
occupational hazards --
stomachache, weight
gain, and cavities.
These delicious
chocolate confections
are made from melted
chocolate flowing into molds.
The master molds
are first made of wood
or plaster of Paris.
They are then reproduced
as copies in an epoxy material.
To allow them to become flexible
and give them the desired shape,
the sheets of epoxy
are first heated
to 350 degrees.
The epoxy sheet is then
placed onto the original molds.
The sheet is
heated, then lifted off.
Suction from a vacuum system
makes it adhere perfectly
to the shapes of the molds.
Here we see the epoxy
adhering to the master molds.
Still hot and malleable,
the plastic has to be cooled.
A jet of compressed air
effectively lowers
its temperature.
The mold undergoes
a visual inspection
to make certain of its quality.
And now we move
on to the chocolate.
This melting unit, whose
shell is fed by boiling water,
is like a double boiler
and melts 1 1/2 tons
of chocolate in 12 hours
at about 100 degrees.
The ready-to-be-filled
plastic molds
are placed onto a conveyor.
Filling is done automatically.
Liquid chocolate runs
directly into the molds.
This particular machine
produces 400 hearts a minute.
The hearts are filled with
a concoction of chocolate,
cream, and coffee that has
been brewed for several minutes.
It takes 20 minutes
for the chocolate to set
as the molds move along
on this 9-level conveyor.
Well-hardened, the hearts
arrive at the unmolding point.
The molds are turned over,
and a rod lightly taps
them on the bottom
to allow the chocolates to
fall out without being broken.
The chocolates
fall out onto a sheet.
As soon as they've been emptied,
the molds return to the
starting point on the line
to be newly filled.
During their
transport on the line,
the chocolates complete
their cooling and hardening.
Now they're going to be
prepared for packaging.
Packaging depends on
customers' preferences.
The chocolates can be sold
in bulk or placed in boxes.
Here, 185 hearts
are put into each box.
Like the pure chocolate,
white chocolate comes
in as slabs before melting.
Milk chocolate
is often delivered
in the form of
one-inch pastilles.
Some chocolates are hollow.
They have to be
molded in two halves.
These chocolate bears
need special decorations
applied by hand before the
pouring of liquid chocolate.
This decoration is
made of white chocolate
with an added colorant.
In just one hour, they
will make 1,200 bears.
They're made by joining
two hollow chocolate halves.
The assembly is done using a
refrigerated rotating machine.
This machine turns the molds
a full 360 degrees on two axes
and vibrates the chocolates
to prevent the
formation of air bubbles.
The chocolates
rotate for five minutes
before being sent to
the cooling conveyor,
where they will remain for
another 20-minute period.
And now they're ready.
At this point, the
bears are unmolded,
and they head off for packaging.
Each year,
this company processes
550 tons of pure chocolate.
Many thousands of
products are made here
using 400 different
molds in a variety of sizes.
Narrator: Now, here's a
topic that's easy to swallow --
how drug companies
make the pills we take.
It's a carefully-monitored
process
in which quality
control is paramount.
So stand by --
we're going to give you a
taste of your own medicine,
or at least what
goes into making it.
Medications are essential
in the treatment of illnesses.
It begins by a grinding process
where the active
ingredient in a tablet or pill
is ground and mixed
with a binding agent.
The quantity of the
ingredient needed to be ground
is transported to the
dryer in this container.
Like all the other equipment,
this container is
made of stainless steel
so as not to
contaminate the product.
The temperature of the dryer
and the airflow are
programmed with this interface.
The granulation has to be dried
at around 100 or 120 degrees
before being shaped into
the desired tablet form.
Molding of the pills
is done by this press,
which crushes the powder.
The press exerts a pressure
varying between
two and five tons.
Here's how the
molding is done --
the press magazine
distributes the powder
in molds made of steel disks.
Two stampers, one
above and the other below,
crush the powder
and form the pill.
Here the press
operates at full capacity.
It can produce
5,000 pills per minute.
Quality testing is carried out
on 5 pills every 15 minutes.
Their hardness is
verified with this apparatus
in which jaws
crush it with a force
varying between .3 and 3
psi, or pounds per square inch.
The pills must now be coated
so that they won't crumble.
A coating solution made of water
and coloring pigments is used.
This is the coating unit.
It can hold 350 pounds of pills.
Three plastic tubes,
strategically positioned,
will spray the solution
onto the pills in motion.
The quantity of dry pills to
be coated is put into the unit.
Then the door of the
coating unit is carefully closed.
A drum turns inside the
unit, tumbling the pills.
Then nozzles spray the
solution in the form of a mist
that quickly dries,
preventing the pills from
sticking to one another.
This spraying operation
lasts 40 minutes.
Here we can compare pills.
On the left are those
made only of powder,
while on the right are
the spray-coated ones.
The finished pills move
down a chute to enter a counter
prior to filling bottles.
They are lined up in
grooves to make filling easier.
The quantity of pills
to be placed into bottles
is controlled by this automated
unit connected to the counter.
In this instance, 500 pills
are poured into each bottle.
This plant also makes capsules
where the ingredient
is not crushed,
but encapsulated
in a gelatin casing.
The distributor places the
two halves of the capsules
in the proper
position for filling,
with the wider
half situated above.
The top and the bottom portions
of the capsule are separated.
The lower half is
then filled with powder.
When well-filled,
the two halves of the
capsule are joined together.
The completed capsules are
then ejected from the filling unit.
Then, via centrifugal force,
they are positioned for
the packaging process.
The weight of each capsule
is verified by this counter.
Each capsule must
have the precise weight.
The final step is packaging.
A sheet of transparent
pvc is heat-embossed,
forming an impression
to receive capsules.
Then a preglued
aluminum foil sheet
is adhered to the back
side, sealing everything in.
This plant turns out millions of
pills and capsules every year.
Narrator: Ever since Marco Polo
brought the noodle back from China
some 700 years ago,
pasta has earned its place
on tables around the world.
Pasta comes in an
array of shapes and sizes,
like the diehard pasta lovers
who just can't
seem to get enough.
Pasta is actually
Chinese in origin.
When Marco Polo
returned to venice in 1295
after spending 24
years in the far east,
he brought back with him
Chinese pasta noodles.
Pasta became popular so
quickly that by the 15th century,
it occupied a prime
position in Italian cooking.
In this same era, commercial
production began in Naples.
Italians today favor
macaronis and raviolis
with garlic and cheese.
Pastas are generally made
from semolina and water.
These silos contain more
than 33 tons of semolina,
derived from durum wheat.
The semolina heads toward
the high-speed premixer,
where it will be
vigorously mixed with water
for 5 to 10 seconds.
This machine can treat
between one and two
tons of semolina per hour.
The dough is extracted
from the premixer
and falls into a first-blade
mixer open to the air.
Then the dough goes into
this vacuum-blade mixer.
The mix is now ready to
go through the brass molds.
Here's a spaghetti mold
and a mold for mafalda --
very narrow lasagna.
Here are molds used
to make lined shells
And stars for soups
As well as cresto di gallo.
The dough is injected into
the mold under pressure.
This rotating blade machine cuts
some 12,000 rotinis per minute.
That's 720,000 per hour.
With the dough being still
quite fresh, the rotinis are soft.
They will dry
somewhat on this plate.
Now we move to the lasagnas.
The dough goes
through this brass mold,
and the strips of fresh
dough, 42 inches long,
are placed on these
sticks to dry at 150 degrees.
They dry vertically so as to
retain their nice, flat shape.
After drying for 15 hours,
the strips are
then cut in four --
thus making four strips
measuring about 10 inches each.
To minimize losses and make
cutting the dry lasagna easier,
scissors trim the dough pieces
into equal lengths
on the sticks.
The long lasagna-drying
process begins.
Once dry, the lengths of
lasagnas are finally cut.
They're now ready for packaging.
To make some of
the other pastas,
the mix has to be
worked a bit more
in order for it to have
the required shape.
The dough goes
through this roller,
which gives it the
desired thickness.
And now butterflies are formed.
This mold cuts 7,500
of them a minute
for a total of 450,000 an hour.
The sheet of dough
is two feet wide.
It is produced in
a steady stream
and goes right to
the cutting mold.
The butterflies fall onto this
conveyor to dry somewhat.
Then they head toward
the next production step.
Certain short pastas,
such as these
butterflies and fusillis,
have to be dried, so they're
then put into this full dryer.
Coming out of the dryer,
the pastas are hard
and ready for packaging.
Here we see the ever-popular
spaghettis being made.
As with lasagnas, spaghettis
are also dried vertically.
Now this automated
machine places the spaghettis
onto a cutting table and
breaks them to the proper length.
The spaghettis are
now ready for packaging.
Exact quantities to be bagged
are determined by computer.
Then the spaghettis go
gently down the chute.
The amount of spaghetti
going into each bag
is transported and emptied
out by this moving container.
To make filling easier,
the spaghettis are properly
positioned by this chute.
In just one minute, this machine
can package 10 8.8-pound bags.
Whenever needed, it can
handle up to 60 bags a minute.
Pastas are a favorite
meal the world over.
This plant makes over
100 different products
and every day uses
between 60 and 360 tons,
or between 2 and 12
truckloads of semolina
made from hard wheat.
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