Architectural Moldings
Pulleys
Industrial Rubber Hose
Sheet Vinyl Flooring

Today on "how it's made"...

Decorative moldings.

Commercial pulleys.

Industrial rubber hose.

And sheet vinyl flooring.

When you consider the high cost of renovations, architectural moldings are an easy way to get a lot of decorative bang for your buck.

By adding a crown molding along the ceiling, baseboard molding, casings, and maybe even a chair-rail molding, you can take a room from drab to dazzling without breaking the bank.

Decorative moldings can be made of solid wood, medium-density fiberboard, or finger-jointed pine.

These planks of eastern white pine are on their way to becoming finger-jointed molding.

They've just come out of the kiln.

A hygrometer measures the humidity in each plank to ensure the wood is dry enough to cut cleanly.

A worker directs a laser to read the dimensions of each and every plank.

The laser transmits that information to a computer, which guides a plane further up the line to shave the plank to the required width and square it.

This process transforms the plank into a block.

The blocks now enter a high-tech piece of equipment that identifies defects.

As each block enters the machine, a scanner records all its features.

It sends that information to a computer which calculates a cutting plan.

Guided by the computer, a saw chops out any knots or poor-quality wood.

The machine's kickers, as they're called, boot the cutoffs from the conveyer.

The blocks continue on, running against razor-sharp rotating heads that carve finger joints on the ends.

The next station coats the joints with industrial-strength carpenter's glue.

The conveyer picks up speed now and butts the blocks together with high pressure.

The joints lock in a tight fit.

When the glue dries, the joints strengthen even more.

The jointed blocks are connected in a continuous unit.

A saw now cuts it into standard molding lengths.

These lengths are known as finger-jointed blanks because they haven't been shaped.

A saw now cuts the blanks lengthwise to the thickness of the specific molding they're producing.

The final step is to profile the blanks.

A machine called a molder uses rotating steel knives to carve the wood to the required shape.

There's a different knife for each style of molding.

The molder transforms the blanks to moldings at a rate of 100 feet per minute.

Moldings made of finger-jointed pine or medium-density fiberboard are the least expensive on the market, but you can't stain them like moldings made of solid wood.

They have to be painted.

A pulley is a wheel with a grooved or barreled rim in which you can run a rope or belt.

It's a simple device used to lift a load that's hard to access or too heavy to move by hand.

Pulleys and multiple-pulley systems are vital components of many types of machines.

These pulleys are designed for use in small- to large-scale electric motors-- for example, fan belts in the air-circulation systems of office buildings, factories, and mines.

The factory makes its pulleys from a 50/50 mix of scrap iron and steel.

The furnace heats the metal to 2,500 degrees fahrenheit, slightly above the metal's melting point.

Workers adjust the chemical composition by adding carbon and silicon.

The right recipe is essential for producing quality metal.

In the furnace, the metal's impurities, called slag, rise to the surface.

Workers use giant paddles to skim it off.

Once the lab analyzes and approves the sample, they transfer the molten metal by ladle to a 30-ton holding furnace.

This furnace maintains the metal at a constant 2,500 degrees fahrenheit, the required temperature for a proper casting.

You can't pour metal this hot into a metal mold.

The mold would just melt.

So instead, the factory uses damp sand.

Sand withstands intense heat by absorbing it.

The machine forms the molds much the way you'd use a pail to form a sand castle.

It first constructs the bottom half of the mold.

This filter will screen out any slag particles the molten metal may still contain.

And these cores create empty spaces within a part.

Now the machine forms the top half of the mold.

They slip a weighted metal jacket around the finished sand mold.

This keeps it from collapsing under the weight of the metal.

Workers fill the molds right to the top.

It takes from 30 to 45 minutes for the molten metal to solidify.

They remove the weighted metal jacket...

Then dump the mold into what's call the shakeout.

The vibration breaks the sand mold apart, releasing the metal pulleys.

While the pulleys go off to be cleaned, the sand is recycled into new molds.

The pulleys are in rough form.

They still have to be machined to specifications.

A robot places each one under a computerized camera.

A visual-recognition program guides the robot to position the pulley properly into various automated-tooling machines.

This first machine makes the pulley's grooves.

The next machine will drill holes in the hub for installing the screws.

At the end of the machining process, a gauging system takes precise measurements and guides the equipment to correct any errors.

This is a two-part pulley, known as a variable pulley, because it can run a belt at variable speeds.

This tooling machine performs several operations on the male component.

It machines the face and outside diameter on one side, then flips the pulley over to make the bore and threads on the other side.

The last operation drills holes for two screws that will affix the pulley to the shaft of the electric motor.

A touch of lubricant, and the next machine assembles the male and female parts.

After setting the proper speed, the user locks the parts in position with a screw.

Many industries use rubber hose in their day-to-day operations.

They use it to remove water, clear out waste, or supply certain machines with air, water, or raw materials.

For instance, food producers might feed ingredients through a rubber hose into a mixer.

This company makes low-pressure and medium-pressure rubber hoses.

The intended use is what determines the rubber composition.

Function also determines the color, because industrial hoses are often color-coded.

The rubber arrives at the factory from the supplier in rough strips.

The first step is to run it through a mill.

The rollers heat the rubber, softening and smoothing it to an even texture.

The next machine cuts the rubber in strips to the precise width and thickness required for the size of hose they're going to construct.

Workers lubricate a steel mandrel that's the exact size of the hose's bore.

As the mandrel spins, they wrap a rubber strip around it, measuring and layering to build the necessary thickness.

Next, they add one or more reinforcement layers.

This strip is made of a high-strength synthetic fabric that's been coated in rubber.

It's designed to withstand the pressure to which the hose will be subjected.

The last layer of rubber forms the hose's outside covering.

After verifying the final diameter is correct, they wrap the entire hose construction tightly in wet nylon tape.

The tape will later shrink and compress all the materials together.

This factory also makes hoses with a built-in attachment on the end.

They position it on the mandrel, then glue the first layer of rubber to it.

This bond is reinforced with special textile strips and tightly wound, high-strength, carbon-steel wire.

They continue the wire more loosely down the body of the hose at a specific angle designed to withstand vacuum pressure.

Then they wrap the hose in a soft, stretchy rubber strip that fills the gaps between the wires.

Next comes a layer of high-strength, rubber-coated fabric, then, finally, the exterior covering-- light blue rubber for this model.

Again, the hose is pressure-wrapped with wet nylon tape.

Then, to make the hose more flexible, they create corrugations by wrapping it tightly in rope.

What's under the rope compacts, creating a dip.

They add another layer of nylon tape to hold the rope in place.

When construction is finished, the hoses, on their respective mandrels, go into an autoclave, a cylindrical chamber into which they feed hot steam at high pressure.

This vulcanization process, as it's called, triggers a chemical reaction that cures the rubber, making it elastic.

Once the hoses come out and cool, workers remove the tape.

The layers are solidly compressed.

They wash the nylon tape, then rewind and reuse it.

Now workers begin the process of removing the hose from the mandrel.

They tie one end with the rope to create pressure, then gently pump water between the mandrel and rubber.

The lubricant they applied earlier has prevented the rubber from sticking to the steel, so the hose separates easily.

They simply slide it off the mandrel.

Workers will now trim the ends, cut the hose to the length the customer ordered, then coil and package the hose.

This factory makes a wide range of industrial rubber hose in different diameters, different bore sizes, and varying degrees of flexibility.

Some hoses have specialty features, such as heat-resistant fabrics incorporated right into the rubber layers.

In 1860, an englishman invented linoleum, a revolutionary floor covering made of linseed oil, pigments, pine rosin, and pine flower.

A century later in the 1960s, vinyl flooring was introduced and eventually rendered linoleum flooring obsolete.

Vinyl flooring owes its existence to a german chemist who, in 1872, invented polyvinyl chloride, or pvc.

Pvc was considered a thoroughly useless substance until the 1920s, when an american researcher tried to make it useful by turning it into an adhesive.

He didn't succeed, but, in the process, he accidently discovered that heating pvc in a solvent transformed it into a flexible plastic, what we know today as vinyl.

Sheet-vinyl flooring comes in a wide range of designs, some of which simulate ceramic tiles or hardwood flooring.

As we see here under a microscope, vinyl flooring is comprised of three components-- a felt-paper backing on the bottom, a layer of vinyl foam in the middle, on which they print the design, and a protective layer of transparent vinyl on top.

To create texture, the factory applies an inhibitor to prevent the foam from expanding in select areas.

To make that vinyl foam, they first mix the powdered ingredients-- polyvinyl chloride resins, or pvc, white pigment, and calcium carbonate, which acts as a filler, but also helps color the mixture white.

In a separate mixer, the liquid ingredients-- plasticizer to make the vinyl flexible, fungicide to prevent mold growth, u.v. stabilizers to prevent fading, and a blowing agent, which they later activate to inflate the foam.

They combine the liquid and powders and mix for another 15 minutes.

After filtering the mixture to remove any lumps or paper-bag fragments, the liquid foam goes to the production line.

There, a large coater applies an even layer to a continuous sheet of felt-paper backing.

The coated backing then passes through an oven for about 15 seconds.

The heat--  430 degrees fahrenheit-- solidifies the liquid foam, fusing the pvc to the backing.

At this point, it's critical not to activate the blowing agent.

The floor's design will be printed directly on this foam surface.

A graphic designer creates the artwork by computer.

Then a colorist experiments with dozens of color combinations before deciding on which ones to use.

The computer breaks down the final design by color in order to produce an engraved plate for each one.

They test out the design on a piece of foam, printing one color after another until the design is complete.

On the production line, printing works the same way.

But because it's a continuous process, they use rotating cylinders rather than engraved plates.

The flooring just rolls right through them, receiving up to six ink colors one at a time.

A drier dries the ink in between applications.

Now it's time to apply the floor's top layer.

This coat of vinyl is known as the wear layer because it will be subjected to the wear and tear of walking.

The wear layer protects the design printed on the vinyl foam underneath.

Made of pvc resins and plasticizer, it goes on white but turns transparent when fused in the oven at 430 degrees fahrenheit.

At the same time, the heat of the oven activates the blowing agent in the vinyl foam underneath, expanding it.

To create a texture, they use a process called chemical embossing, in which select ink colors contain a chemical inhibitor to suppress foam expansion.

Wherever they print those colors, the foam remains flat.

These height variations create relief and simulate grout lines in imitation-tile designs.

To give the surface a sharper, more natural look, the flooring proceeds to a second process called mechanical embossing, in which an engraved roller imprints its pattern onto the surface.

The gloss level of the flooring varies with the chemical composition of the wear layer.

Workers inspect the finished flooring as it rolls off the production line.

It's 12 feet wide, wide enough for seamless installation in most rooms.

The packaging is entirely automated.

This equipment winds 100 feet of sheet-vinyl flooring per roll.


Hand Forged Hammers
Gummy Vitamins
Boat Trailers
Tea Lights & Jar Candles

A hammer is an all-purpose tool most commonly used to strike nails.

Some hammers are designed for a specific purpose such as woodworking, metalworking, and masonry.

Professional craftspeople often forego mass-produced tools and invest in high-quality hand-forged hammers.

The steel head of this hammer was forged by a blacksmith.

This is just one out of 40 different styles of hammers made by a blacksmith.

Using a metal-cutting band saw, a blacksmith cuts a piece of cylindrical steel he makes the cut slightly larger than the final hammerhead size.

Next, he burns small amount of paper on coals in a cast steel pot.

A fan, located underneath the coals blows air upward to stoke the fire.

Once the coals are hot, the craftsman immerses the steel piece in the fire.

Once the steel is glowing bright red, he removes the piece with from the fire with tongs.

He begins striking it with a mechanical forging hammer operated by a foot pedal.

Throughout the forging process the steel is reheated to keep it formable.

The craftsman lowers the pedal, which activates the machine's hammer.

As the hammer strikes, the craftsman turns the cylindrical piece of steel to flatten the sides and shape it into a block.

Using a specialized tool, he makes a punch on the block to form a channel.

He flips the block and punches out the compressed steel to create a hole.

This hole is the eye of the hammer.

Next, the craftsman uses a tool called a spring swage to flatten one end of the block into the wedge-shaped end of the hammer known as the peen.

Each side of the peen is shaped against the grinding wheel to even out the surface.

Working on an anvil, the craftsman flattens the block with a handheld hammer.

Then, with a tool called a flatter.

He uses an oval eye-contouring tool to hammer a hole to form the eye.

Now complete, the craftsman polishes the hammerhead on a series of grinding belts.

Then the hammerhead is placed back into the fire for more reheating.

Back on the anvil, he uses a wire brush to remove scale caused by oxidation.

Then brands the steel with his name.

After heat treating both ends of the hammerhead, to harden the steel at the striking surfaces, he finishes off the metalwork with a die grinder, smoothing the sharp edges around the eye and forming a bevel.

Once complete, the craftsman moves on to the wooden handle.

He shapes a block of wood, often using hickory, with an angle grinder.

Using the grinding wheel, he shaves off the top to fit in the eye of the hammerhead.

With a band saw, he makes a 2-inch cut into the wood.

He cuts a wedge out of a softer type of wood, usually pine.

He marks the diameter of the eye on the wedge then sands off the excess wood so that the wedge will fit in the eye.

He inserts the split end of the wood handle in the eye, forcing it through.

Then he hammers the wedge into the split.

This pushes the two sides of the split in opposite directions, lodging the handle in the eye.

Next, the craftsman hammers in a hollow round steel wedge until it's flush with the hammerhead.

This wedge spreads the wood in different directions, locking in the handle.

He removes excess wood with an angle grinder until the top of the hammer is level and smooth.

Finally, this handmade tool is ready to make it's contribution to hand craftsmanship.

Gummy vitamins were invented in the late the 20th century by an couple looking for a way to entice their daughter to take her vitamins.

Infused into a gummy candy, vitamins are now a sweet and chewy experience for both kids and adults.

Just like gummy candies, gummy vitamins come in a variety of sweet, fruity flavors, making a vitamin a less bitter pill to swallow.

Each gummy vitamin starts with a specific formula.

First raw ingredients are selected and weighed.

Some are in liquid form and others are solids.

The nutritional ingredients are blended with water.

This particular batch is a multivitamin preparation.

It includes magnesium, calcium, and other minerals.

In a separate tank, technicians prepare the gelatin base which gives the vitamins a jelly-like consistency.

Next, sugar and gelatin pre-mix is poured into the tank.

The technician adds a sugar substitute to the other ingredients.

Meanwhile, specific amounts of water and glucose are dispensed into the tank.

It takes about five minutes to blend the ingredients for the gelatin base.

Then, the gummy vitamin base is transferred to a large holding tank.

In the lab, the nutritional mixture is tested for contaminants such as heavy metals and bacteria.

An automated syringe injects the solutions into test tubes rinsing inbetween injections.

Now the samples in the test tubes are ready to be analyzed.

For heavy metal testing, the sample is injected into an extremely hot vacuum chamber.

The plasma flame turns the metal contaminants into atoms, which the machine reads as different colors.

The machine also identifies and quantifies contaminants.

With the samples cleared for processing, they're ready for flavoring and colorant.

More vitamins are added in powder form to boost the formula's potency.

The liquid vitamin preparation and the gelatin base is piped into the mixing tank then, everything is blended together.

The batter is now ready to be made into thousands of gummy vitamins.

A conveyor queues up the vitamin molds.

Multiple nozzles deposit precise amounts of batter into small molds.

The conveyor moves the tray forward as the gummy vitamins begin to solidify.

A robotic arm stacks the mold trays in a holding area.

The arm gently lowers the trays into place.

For several hours, the pills continue to harden in the molds.

Once completely solidified, the gummy vitamins are removed from the molds and transferred into a revolving drum.

The tumble in the drum separates them.

They exit onto a perforated conveyor and any small bits fall through the holes.

The conveyor zigzags back and forth, allowing the gummy vitamins to cool and further solidify.

The gummy vitamins have now reached their final consistency.

The gummy vitamins head into a steam chamber.

The humidity from the steam preps the vitamins for sugarcoating.

The sugar clings to the gummy vitamins.

And the revolving action of the drum shakes off any excess, leaving just a dusting on the surface.

At the packaging station, the vitamins funnel into chutes where sensors count and release the pills into bottles.

As the bottles move forward, caps land on the rims.

And spinning rubber mechanisms screw the caps on tightly.

Down the line, labels with product information are placed onto each bottle.

Depending on the formulation, it can take up to three weeks to produce gummy vitamin pills and the result?

Nutritious gumdrops that are a real treat.

Before you can take a boat out on the water, you have to transport it to the water.

A boat trailer attaches to the rear of your vehicle with a trailer hitch.

You back the trailer into the water then release the boat and let it float away freely.

A boat trailer has either a quick-release latch system or a winch, a wheel you crank to wind or unwind a strap that hooks onto the boat.

Boat trailers back up into water so using corrosion-resistant materials is vital.

This trailer is aluminum with torsion axles made of galvanized steel.

Torsion axles contain shock-absorbing rubber cores.

On each axle, a machinist greases the spindle, and installs a mounting bracket for the brake caliper.

All the nuts and bolts holding the trailer's parts together are stainless steel.

The machinist mounts the wheel hub on the spindle.

The brake rotor is built right into the hub.

He secures the hub with a castle nut and adjusts the tension.

He inserts a cotter pin to lock the castle nut, bending the pin with a few taps of a hammer.

He pumps grease into the hub for lubrication then taps in a dust cap to seal in the grease.

He installs the brake caliper on the mounting bracket.

He hooks up the brake line to the caliper and mounts the tire to the hub.

On the back of the tire, there's a small brass elbow for connecting the brake line.

The frame that sits on the axles is made of aluminum.

Aluminum is strong and corrosion-resistant but also lightweight.

The frame has two main front-to-back beams.

Using a template for accurate positioning, another machinist punches boltholes into the beams with a hydraulic tool.

He uses a bending press to curve the beams to the specified angle.

This type of aluminum can be bent without compromising its strength.

Next, an anti-corrosion coating is brushed onto the axle's mounting plates.

Technicians position the beams on the axle plates, aligning the matching boltholes.

They bolt the beams to the plates, then bolt a rear crossmember underneath the two main beams.

This gives the frame side-to-side strength and stability in addition to helping support the load of the boat.

A pair of mounts are bolted onto the rear crossmember and on each of the two axles.

The bunk, the part that supports the boat, slots into the gap between each pair of mounts.

The bunk has a wood cap that's carpeted to protect the boat's hull.

To reinforce the bunk, punch holes are made in aluminum plates and bent with a press.

Sway braces are bolted to the mounts for additional support.

This company makes a patented pivoting bunk that adjusts to boat hulls of varying shapes.

At the front of the frame, machinists install the tongue.

The tongue unites the two main beams with the coupler that hooks up to the toe hitch at the rear of the vehicle.

For trailers with a winch, aluminum parts are cut for the winch stand.

A technician places the parts in an assembly jig which aligns them correctly.

Then, the parts are tack welded together.

Once welding is complete, the technician removes them from the jig, tack welds one additional part, then welds all the parts together.

He removes any debris from the welded seams with a cleaning solution.

Next, the winch stand is bolted to the tongue and the winch is installed.

Then, the brake line and the electrical cable for the trailer's l.e.d. lights are connected.

Guides are also installed, which center the boat on the trailer.

An aluminum fender is mounted over each pair of tires and reinforce it with a support bracket which they bolt to the frame.

Latch system trailers have an aluminum bar which stops the bow, securing the boat at just the right position.

Finally, this tow trailer is ready for smooth sailing.

There's a lot more to candles than lights the eye.

Before they were invented, people relied on candles made with wicks floating in flammable, spillable oil.

In the past, candles weren't just used for illumination.

Since they burn at such a steady rate, people have even used them as clocks.

Thanks to electricity, candles no longer have to illuminate our homes.

They can simply brighten our evenings with atmospheric lighting.

This wax has been made into a powder with a rotating bar that sprays drops of hot wax into the air.

As the drops fall, they cool and become solid wax particles.

A specialized machine called a core press vacuums the powder and begins a multi-step process.

A series of small tube-shaped holes with powder then hydraulic pistons compress the powder into short cylinders.

Transport units move them to the next station.

The compressed wax cylinder will form the core of the candle and prevent the burning wick from touching the edges of the glass.

First, it needs a wick and a sustainer.

The metal sustainer is the wick's base.

This machine shoots wicks into the sustainers, crimps them, and inserts the components into the candle core.

A machine places drops of glue in the bottom of a series of small glass containers before placing the candle cores inside.

The glue holds the sustainers in place to prevent them from sliding around when hot.

Onto the next phase of production, liquefied wax is poured into a mixing tank.

A technician pours in a series of additives.

They include plasticizers to help solidify the wax and prevent crystallization, as well as uv light inhibitors that can protect the wax from color fading.

He pours a premeasured quantity of dye into the container.

An agitator begins the mixing process which takes 20 to 30 minutes to ensure that everything is thoroughly combined.

The wax is maintained at 185 degrees fahrenheit so the liquid is kept in its liquid state.

Then, the liquid wax travels through tubing to a computerized filling station.

A set of nozzles fill the jars, surrounding and covering the cores.

Once filled, the jars move slowly through two separate cooling chambers.

The candles undergo extensive quality control testing for flame height and the temperature on the exterior of the container.

This facility also manufactures tea light candles.

The containers are made of aluminum alloy pressed into a cup shape with small panels at the bottom designed to direct melted wax to the center.

Moved by air, the containers fall into a sorter which spins them into an upright position and onto a conveyor that offloads them to the next stations.

Like candles, tea lights require sustainers and glue to hold the wick in place.

The steel discs drop into a vibrating sorting device.

A giant spool of waxed thread is fed into the wicking machine the machine cuts, and inserts it into the sustainer clip, and glues the assembly into a tea light container, the containers, with sustainers and wicks in place, move to a circular buffering table which disperses into three channels.

A multi-prong device advances the containers onto the filling machine's conveyor system.

The machine fills the containers in a two-step process, filling them halfway, letting them cool, then topping them up and cooling the completed product.

The two-step filling process ensures a consistent product at a faster manufacturing rate.

The cooling chamber circulates air through the space at a specific temperature to cool the candles at a calibrated rate.

From start to finish, it takes just 45 minutes to produce and package a tea light.

There's a lot more to that cozy candle glow than just wax and wicks.


Indycars are open-cockpit race cars that compete in the annual indianapolis 500 race in the u.s. the cars are entirely custom-built.

Even the driver's seat is specially contoured to the driver's body shape and position in which he or she sits most comfortably in the car.

The custom-made driver's seat in an indycar is made of fire-resistant fabric over impact-absorbing foam.

It has openings at the shoulder, lap, and legs for the safety harness.

To make the seat, they first have to produce a template, which is, in itself, a two-day process.

Technicians prepare, then pour an adhesive into a bag full of foam beads.

The adhesive contains resin and a hardener.

Once the adhesive seeps in, they squeeze out the air and tie the bag closed.

They knead the bag to spread the adhesive over all the foam beads inside.

Next, laying the bag flat, they spread the adhesive-saturated beads in an even layer.

Then they install a valve...

Attach it to a vacuum pump, and suction out most of the remaining air.

They shape a cavity in the middle to fit the driver's body.

Once they vacuumed out enough air to make the bag tight enough to hold the shape of this cavity...

They place it in the race car's cockpit, pressing the foam beads as snugly as possible into all the nooks and crannies.

This ensures the car seat will fit properly and not shift under the driver.

The driver now has to sit in the car so they can custom-contour the template to his body in the driving position.

Once he's settled comfortably with hips and shoulders square and wearing his helmet, they begin taking measurements, starting with the height of his head, critical for aerodynamics, and of his sight line over the hood, critical for safety.

Both measurements must conform with the racing association's strict regulations.

They also measure the distance between his chest and the steering wheel and ensure there's adequate leg clearance to enter and exit the cockpit.

The driver sits down, gets out, gets back in several times as the technicians measure and make adjustments.

The entire process takes about 40 minutes.

When it's all done, they run the vacuum for another four hours and let the foam cure overnight.

The next morning, they use a hot knife to melt a line through the foam and dislodge the template from the cockpit.

The driver returns for a final two- to three-hour sitting, during which the techs trim the foam as closely as possible to his body contour.

The shape now finalized, they cover the entire surface with cloth adhesive tape and a matte finish.

This creates a non-reflective background suitable for laser scanning.

Onto this dull surface, they adhere positioning targets-- reflective dots spaced four inches apart that create a grid pattern over the entire template.

The 3-d laser scanner reads these reflective dots...

That a computer translates into a 3-d image.

Specialized software then converts this image into a technical drawing, which guides an automated router to cut the seat parts out of polypropylene foam.

This precision-cutting process takes four to six hours.

The router cuts out six to eight sections, which technicians then carefully glue together into the full seat.

They cover the finished seat in fire-retardant material, first applying the fabric with spray adhesive, then trimming it to the shape of the seat.

This foam is quite elastic, so it absorbs impact and protects the driver.

At the same time, it has memory, so after a blow, it regains its driver-customized shape.

People have always been enchanted by the beauty of flowers.

It's not surprising that these jewels of nature, often in artificial form, are used in decorative objects and arts and crafts projects.

Paper flowers last forever, and you don't have to remember to water them.

These flowers are made of saa paper.

The saa tree is a variety of mulberry that grows abundantly across southeast asia.

For more than 700 years, villagers in northern thailand have been using saa bark to make paper.

The paper is used for crafting items such as umbrellas, fans, and flowers.

They soak the dried bark in water overnight to begin softening it up, boil it over a wood fire for four hours, then soak it again overnight.

All of this softens the bark into fibrous pulp.

Next, they soak the pulp overnight in hydrogen peroxide to whiten it, then they rinse off the bleach, which would interfere with the dying process later on.

Workers discard any discolored pieces.

The goal is to make each sheet of paper evenly white so that it absorbs colored dye uniformly.

Now they load the pulp into a mill, which grinds it up and mixes it with water.

This process, which takes about half an hour, transforms the pieces into soft, fluffy, and very soggy fibers.

What was once tree bark is now ready to be processed into paper.

Every single sheet is handcrafted on fine mesh screens.

They submerge a screen in water, then drop in roughly 15 ounces of fibers.

They manually stir the water to spread the fibers in a thin layer across the screen.

They slowly lift the screen out of the water and press the surface by hand to smooth it out.

The screen then stands in the sun for three to four hours, flipped a few times until the fiber's dry into a solid sheet of paper.

To color the paper, they fill a basin with hot water and add a chemical dye.

They test the color, and if it's just right, they submerge the sheet.

The sheet absorbs the dye instantly in a consistent shade thanks to the uniformly white base color.

They hang the sheet outside to dry in the sun.

In three to four hours, the paper is ready to bloom.

They cut out flower shapes with a hand-operated press that stamps a sharp metal dye through the sheet of paper.

Each shape will be a layer of petals in a flower.

There are dyes in various shapes and sizes.

However, the petals they produce are flat-- not very lifelike-- so workers place one petal at a time on a flower-shaped mold and stamp it with a hot press.

This permanently shapes the petals to the contour of the mold almost the same way a hot iron presses clothes.

Then it's assembly time.

To make a rose, they mount a white ball made of foam, or flower and glue, onto the end of a three-inch-long wire.

They fold the inner petals over the ball and pinch them together to create the center of the rose.

Then they thread four to five petal layers of the same size on the wire, bending and pinching those, as well, to form the rose shape.

Once the petals are complete, they finish off with a green paper leaf at the base.

To make a daisy, they take a flat flower and glue a brown paper dot in the middle.

Then they glue another flat flower beneath it and a leaf base beneath that.

To make another type of rose, they gently twist the tips of the petals.

Even though they're made from trees, these artificial flowers are environmentally friendly.

The saa's severed branches and stripped bark grow back quickly, providing a renewable supply of raw material for crafting blooming paper bouquets.

Weather-wise, these are turbulent times.

There are more storms and heat waves, and that means an increased likelihood of power outages.

A standby generator supplies emergency electricity within seconds of an outage so a homeowner can ride out the storm in comfort.

In today's high-tech world, staying plugged in has never been more important.

Wired to a home's electrical system, a standby generator automatically powers up in the event of an outage.

It assumes the electrical load until the public-utilities system comes back online.

With your own standby generator, a power outage is never a crisis.

Production starts with a stator.

It's the stationary core of the alternator-- the part that converts energy from the motor to electricity.

A press compacts 100 or more laminated steel disks to create the stator core.

Machinery unwinds steel banding and wraps it around the stack to hold the core layers together.

Machinery lifts the stator core out of the assembly device and transfers it to the next station.

Here, an automated system insulates the numerous slots in the core.

As the core turns, a machine cuts, forms, and inserts synthetic insulating fabric into each slot.

Meanwhile, at another station, an automated system winds copper wire onto a mandrel.

The slots in the mandrel are the same size as the insulated slots in the core.

This configures the copper windings to fit the core slots.

But first, a technician slides the copper coils onto a threading tool.

This tool maintains the configuration of the coils to prepare them for installation in the stator core.

They wind more bundles of copper wire.

Once all the windings have been correctly arranged on the threading tool, the technician is ready to transfer them to the stator core.

He places the stator on top of the threading tool and activates a hydraulic device that pushes the wires up through the tool and into the slots of the stator core.

The device retracts, and he removes the stator.

The copper wires transform the stator into an electromagnet, which is critical for electrical generation.

He trims the ends of the wires and sets the leftovers aside for recycling.

He slides insulating sleeves onto the ends.

Then it's into the lacing machine.

This machine crochets a string wrap around the bundles to hold the wires together.

It also pulls in any loose strands to keep them from snagging on generator components.

With the wiring precisely wound and wrapped, this important generator component is ready for the finishing touch-- a clear varnish.

The lid closes on the tank, and a vacuum pulls air out.

The tank then fills with clear varnish to coat the stators.

The varnish fills in any gaps in the windings.

They transfer the stators to an oven and bake on the varnish.

Once hardened, the varnish insulates the entire assembly.

The next technician connects the stator lead wires to a testing machine.

The machine applies high-voltage pulses to the wire windings and monitors the output for anything that could cause generator failure.

The stator passes the test.

A technician now positions an outer casing and an end cap on top of the stator, followed by a steel pressing plate.

A hydraulic arm then provides the muscle power needed to fit the casing and cap snugly to the stator.

Coming up next, the generator stator joins the rotor and engine, and the result is purely electric.

The average home may contain over 100 electrical appliances and devices.

When there's a power blackout, everything shuts down.

A standby generator restores electricity in seconds to keep the refrigerator running and the heat on.

In an extended power outage, a generator can be a life saver.

To produce the alternator's rotating part, the rotor, the technician stacks laminated steel disks to the same height as the stator core.

He lubricates the opening in the center of the disks.

He inserts a shaft, and a press pushes it into the stack to complete the installation.

Powered by the generator engine, the shaft will spin the rotor.

The technician installs steel rods to maintain the disks' alignment and then removes the rotor from the assembly device.

He fits more rods to it on a slight angle.

They'll act as conductors and stabilize the rotor's electrical output.

He slides aluminum caps onto both ends of the rotor.

Then it's over to an automated welder.

The machine grips the rotor at both ends and slowly turns it as a robot welds both caps to the rotor body.

Welded in place, the caps secure the aluminum rods.

The aluminum solder used in the weld is conductive and will create an electrical connection.

The technician unclamps the rotor from the welding machine and then tucks insulation into slots on the sides.

The rotor then goes for a spin in a machine that winds bands of copper wire around the insulated sections.

These wires will act as electromagnets and help produce electrical current.

They tie string around the wire, add bearings and a copper collector ring, and bake an insulating varnish onto the entire rotor.

They're now ready to assemble the standby generator.

Using a lift, the technician lowers the engine into position.

He joins the rotor shaft to the engine crankshaft.

To secure the assembly, he drives a very long bolt through the rotor to the crankshaft and tightens it to a specific torque.

Next up is the stator.

It will provide a magnetic field to advance the flow of electrons in the rotor.

The technician slides the stator onto the rotor.

A steel end bracket is next.

It aligns the rotor and the stator.

He forces the bracket into place.

To secure the alignment, he installs four long bolts from the end bracket to the engine-adapter plate.

He anchors the stator and rotor to the generator base and adds special rubber mounts under the supports to buffer vibrations.

He attaches a motorized carbon brush to copper rings on the rotor shaft.

The brush will collect electricity from the shaft and transfer it to the generator controller.

He secures it to the end bracket with screws.

He connects the wiring harness that moves electricity from the brush to the controller.

He links the other end of the harness to the engine.

He plugs in a sensor to monitor oil pressure and makes all the other electrical connections.

Next up is a panel through which he runs some of the wiring.

It acts as a separator to prevent entanglements and also supports the fuel regulator.

Other parts include a muffler to help dampen engine noise and a controller that converts generated power to the correct voltage.

The assembly of this standby generator is complete.

The technician fuels up and runs it first at partial capacity, then to the max.

The test confirms there's no wavering in electrical output.

Once encased in a neutral-colored corrosion-resistant shell, the standby generator blends into the background, but in a power outage, its contribution will definitely be noticed.


Wooden Barrels
Fire Hydrants
Automotive Seats
Cathode Ray Tubes

Today on "how it's made"...

Wooden barrels...

Fire hydrants...

Automotive seats...

And cathode-ray tubes.

In the old days, wooden barrels stored all kinds of goods, simply because they were easy to move.

If you couldn't lift them, you could roll them.

Today modern machinery has made barrels obsolete, except for storing fine wine and spirits.

And so the time-honored tradition of barrel making lives on.

These wooden barrels are for storing whiskey.

They're made from american white oak cut into pieces called staves.

The staves go into a planer that shaves them to about an inch thick.

Next, a machine punches two quarter-inch holes on either side of each stave.

Dowel pins made of hickory, a very strong wood, go into these holes to hold the staves together.

Workers take the staves, place them on a guide, and press them together.

A smaller piece completes the shape.

Now it's onto the rounder, a machine that cuts it into a circular shape.

This creates the barrel's lid, or head, as it's called.

And each barrel requires two, one for the top and one for the bottom.

The barrel head now goes onto a contraption called the char tunnel.

Its gas burners scorch the wood.

This charring not only changes the wood's appearance, it also gives color, flavor, and aroma to the whiskey this barrel will hold.

The workers coat the head's edge with liquid beeswax, which helps them set it snugly into the barrel body.

They run the staves against this machine to narrow their ends.

This gives the barrel its characteristic shape, with a smaller radius at the ends than in the middle.

At the barrel-raising station, a worker positions an iron hoop and starts to assemble the barrel inside it.

He selects staves that vary in width in order to use as few as possible.

This reduces the numbers of joints and potential leak points.

He has to be gentle as he lassos the barrel together.

If he pulls that dry wood too tight, it'll break into pieces.

A loose hoop gives the wood room to expand.

Next, the barrels pass through a steam tunnel for about 15 minutes.

This adds moisture to the wood so it can flex without snapping.

Workers pull out the barrel and remove the top and bottom hoops.

Sturdier hoops replace them and are hammered into place.

Without them, the barrel would spring apart.

Next, two more hoops around the body.

The wood groans from the intense pressure that forces the staves together, but there can't be any gaps between the staves, or else the barrel will leak.

The barrels pass over a gas burner that blasts a flame inside each one to char its interior.

Seconds later, water shoots into the barrel to put out the flames.

An automated saw cuts a v-shaped notch into the top and bottom of each barrel.

This is where the barrel head will slide in.

A fan blows away the sawdust.

Now a machine removes the iron hoop on each end.

A worker pours in a gallon of water to cool the barrel, still hot from the charring process.

Then he puts on a barrel head and stronger, permanent iron hoops on both ends.

Now machines remove the two iron body hoops and replace them with stronger ones.

These barrels hold their shape by sheer pressure.

There's not a drop of glue holding them together.

That gallon of water is still inside the barrel.

Workers drill a hole in the side, then plug it by hammering in a rubber stopper with a spout.

An inspector checks the barrel for leaks, stamps it approved, and labels it with a bar code for inventory.

Then they remove the stopper and out comes the water, turned to steam because of the heat.

The barrels are now ready to go on to the distillery, where they'll get their fill of some fine kentucky whiskey.

When we return, you see them on every street corner, but how are they made?

Fire hydrants have been in use for more than 200 years.

In the old days, their main purpose was to supply water to fight fires, but they also provided the public with a handy water supply.

Today fire crews rely on the nearest hydrant to help them douse flames whenever and wherever they break out.

Fire hydrants are essential to every community.

They need to be instantly recognizable, easily accessible, and simple to operate.

The ones in residential areas are designed to deliver an impressive 1,500 gallons a minute.

The hydrant-making process starts with recycled scrap iron, along with steel and raw iron.

Using a magnetic crane, workers load the metals into a furnace and melt them at 2,800 degrees fahrenheit.

This turns the scrap metal into molten iron.

This superhot mixture is transferred into a remote-controlled ladle...

And emptied into an automated pouring system.

To cast the hydrants, workers first make two-part molds by compressing a mixture of sand and bonding materials.

One part, called the mold, forms the hydrant's exterior shape, while the other part, called the core, forms the interior shape.

An automatic core setter positions a core in each mold.

Then a conveyer advances the mold under the pouring box, which fills the cavity between the mold and core with molten iron.

After the iron cools and solidifies, the molds enter a tumbling barrel.

As they revolve, the sand gradually disintegrates, freeing the iron casting inside.

Workers drill and thread the hydrant castings to prepare them for assembly.

Then they preassemble and paint them.

The fire hydrant's internal workings, called the valve assembly, allow water to flow through when the hydrant's open.

A series of rubber "o" rings on the main valve will prevent leaks when the hydrant is closed.

Now the hydrant is ready for final assembly.

Workers attach the nozzle section to the top of the hydrant barrel and fasten nozzle cap chains with a crimping tool.

Using a torque wrench, they attach cast-iron safety rings.

These rings are designed to disengage the top from the bottom of the hydrant so it doesn't get damaged if a vehicle hits it.

Workers clamp the water-main connector into place and pressurize the hydrant to normal city pressure to check for leaks.

Using a hoist, they lower the preassembled nozzle section over the stem...

And fasten it to the water-main connector with stainless steel bolts.

They lower the bonnet into place...

Bolt it to the nozzle section...

Then open the hydrant for a high-pressure test.

They turn the operating nut to allow water to flow through.

But first, they have to force out the air inside the hydrant with water.

Workers transfer the finished hydrant to a pallet and apply final paint touch-ups.

Some fire hydrants that were installed more than 100 years ago are still in use today.

Coming up, it's a cushy job, but somebody's got to do it.

Most people don't pay too much attention to car seating, but this feature has come a long way since the car was invented in the 19th century.

Back then, seats had no springs and not much padding.

So you could feel every bump on the road.

In today's car seats, we have a much easier ride.

Padded and belted, modern automotive seats are designed to be safe and comfortable.

The components are manufactured separately and shipped to this factory for assembly.

They arrive as needed on the production line so there's not a lot of stockpiling.

It means the flow of parts into this plant has to be highly organized because they make over 400 seat variations here.

The parts are carted to the assembly line in the order they're needed.

On this assembly line, there are 60 workers, each with specific tasks to perform.

They receive a build ticket for each part and scan it.

This allows a central computer to track production and verify that the right parts are being used to build the right seat.

An operator tucks the seat-warmer pad and cables into the cushioning for the bottom half of the seat.

She loosely places the fabric cover over the assembly and attaches it with wire.

Then it's over to the next station, where the operator completes the upholstery job.

Each worker has just 88 seconds to perform his or her tasks, so there's no sitting down on this job.

They install a seat-warmer system on the backrest section of the seat and cover it.

Then they slide an air bag into a special sleeve.

These seats come with springs that clip on to their metal framework to provide lumbar support.

Workers fit the cushion assembly onto the spring framework and pull it tight.

They smooth out any wrinkles, a process called finessing.

Then they install the headrest.

Next they tackle the lower framework.

They equip it with a mechanism that adjusts the height of the seat.

Electrical connectors go in next.

Then they bolt the lower framework to the cushioned backrest.

They attach the pretensioner apparatus, which locks the seat belt into position, then wire the connector box.

They fit the lower cushioning on the framework and add the recliner spring.

A plastic valance makes it all look neater.

Now it's time to take this driver's seat for a test run.

Inspectors hook it up to a power source and make sure the air bag and seat warmer are operational.

They iron out all the wrinkles because the automaker will reject any seat that's less than perfect.

Then they slide and tilt the seat to make sure the adjustment mechanisms are working properly.

Workers assemble the rear seats using the same techniques.

Again, each operator gets exactly 88 seconds to complete his or her job.

When you add it all up, an entire seat set takes just 62 minutes to assemble.

Before they ship the seat set to the car factory, they snap a photo as a production record.

It proves each set was in perfect condition when it left the factory.

Now these seats are ready to hit the road.

Workers strap them onto delivery pallets and load them into a big truck, 60 sets at a time.

They'll arrive at the car plant just as the vehicles they were made for are rolling off the assembly line.

Once they're installed, all you need to do is sit back and enjoy the ride.

Next, making the tubes that bring tvs to life.

The crt, short for cathode-ray tube, produces the image that we see on our tvs and computer monitors-- the ones that aren't lcd or plasma, that is.

Believe it or not, the cathode-ray tube was invented back in 1879.

A crt is made up of two main components, a large glass bulb and an electric gun.

Crts start with a molded glass bulb.

Workers remove microscopic debris with a high-pressure water rinse.

Then they spray hydrofluoric acid to clean the glass at an atomic level.

Phosphor solution is poured into the bulb.

Phosphor is an organic compound that emits light when struck by electrons.

The phosphor particles settle and form a chemical bond with the bulb face.

Workers pour off the excess solution...

And clamp the bulb over a nozzle that sprays clear lacquer over the phosphor.

The centrifugal force guarantees an even coat.

This worker paints a conductive coating over the anode button which will provide a flow path for the electrons that will light up the phosphor particles.

Meanwhile, another worker drops an aluminum pellet into a tungsten coil.

He places the bulb over a vacuum device and draws out the air.

Then he applies an electrical current to the coil.

It evaporates the aluminum pellet, which spreads a mirrorlike coating on the inside of the bulb.

Now they heat the bulb to 425 degrees fahrenheit for one hour.

This bakes out the lacquer and any trace of moisture.

Using a high-temperature flame, a worker aligns and fuses a glass neck to the bulb.

Then he paints it with the same conductive coating.

This assembly is part of the electron gun that goes inside the bulb.

It shoots electrons at the bulb's phosphor particles that lights them up, creating the image we see on screen.

Workers stack the grip cups that focus the electrons on the screen.

Then, using beading glass, they align and fuse them into position.

Robots heat and affix the beading glass to assemble the electron-gun components.

Then the gun is cooled with pressurized air.

Once cool, a worker builds up the gun and inserts the completed gun assembly into the bulb.

Next he positions the bulb on a glass-blowing lathe and cuts excess glass from the neck.

Using a graphite paddle and a high-temperature torch, he mates the glass neck to the electron-gun stem.

This ceramic heating coil melts that green glass pellet to keep the bulb under vacuum.

The tube is heated to 750 degrees fahrenheit for two hours, and once again a vacuum is drawn.

To minimize image flicker over the tube's life-span, workers condition the bulb using a high-voltage coil.

It smoothes any rough surfaces that might remain on the electron gun.

Finally, workers apply electrical connections to the electron gun to bring the cathode-ray tube to life.


Jaws of Life
Artificial Christmas Trees
Soda Crackers
Ratchets

The jaws of life were first used in 1963 to free racecar drivers from car crashes.

It was so big, it had to be suspended from the back of a pickup truck.

Today it weighs as little as 33 pounds and is small enough for one person to operate.

It can free an accident victim from a car in minutes.

In an emergency situation, timing is everything.

A rescue tool has to pry open a vehicle as easily as a tin can or cut through solid steel like butter, because a few seconds can make all the difference.

What gives the cutting blades and the spreading arms their power is hydraulic fluid.

The jaws of life begin with a milling machine that shapes the spreader arms from a bar of solid aircraft-grade aluminum.

The spreader arms then get a protective coating.

A lathe now makes the cap that fits on the end of the tool.

A high-speed carbide tip shapes the solid aluminum into a finished endcap that is then drilled and treated to a coat of rust-resistant protection.

Arms that both cut and spread are made from tool steel.

A surface grinder ensures that the two arms are perfectly flat.

A worker installs a seal that prevents the hydraulic fluid from leaking out of the cylinder.

He lubricates a piston with hydraulic fluid so it slides into the cylinder without damaging the interior.

Then he taps it in so it will connect with the link assembly.

He attaches a link assembly to the piston and secures it in place.

The link assembly relays power to the cutting blades or spreader arms.

He then attaches an assembled end cap to the cylinder and bolts it in place.

He connects the two hoses that lead to the tool's hydraulic cylinder.

He puts on a handgrip that protects the hoses and makes it easier to work the thumbwheel.

He tightens the bolts and completes the control valve.

He then attaches the front handle that allows the operator to hold the tool safely.

This protective guard will keep all the moving components away from a rescuer's hands.

Then he aligns the holes in the blades to the tool and inserts a steel pivot pin.

He puts on a locknut, and, as with all fasteners on the rescue tool, he tightens it to a precise engineering specification.

After mounting the blades, he secures them to the link assembly with a steel-alloy pin and a snap ring.

Then he folds the protective guard back and finishes assembling the tool.

A worker then tests the tool, which has been filled with fire-resistant hydraulic fluid.

The fixture he uses is designed to measure the pressure at the strongest point in the cutting.

The tool passes the pressure test.

Whether it's a rescue tool that cuts through metal or pries it open, emergency-response teams arriving on an accident scene will have what it takes to help save lives.

The quest for the perfect tree is a rite of the holiday season.

And ever since the late 19th century, people have been trying to come up with an artificial version.

First, there were feather trees and, later, trees made of animal bristles.

But by the 1960s, the use of synthetics finally gave us the perfect fake fir.

Today's faux firs can be several stories tall-- big enough for your town square.

You can get them with many of the trimmings so decorating isn't such a stretch.

These big artificial trees start with a steel skeleton.

Rollers bend steel tubing into arcs.

They'll be joined to form the base of the framework.

Workers weld vertical supports to the arcs, building the structure in sections.

A spray of polyester powder gives the welded metal a smooth finish that's actually tougher than paint.

They bake the parts to set the coating.

After a quick cooling, it's time to assemble all the pieces.

They fasten the structure together with u-bolts and a ratchet.

Meanwhile, a roll of green pvc plastic winds its way towards a roller equipped with many circular cutters.

They slice it into 4-inch-wide strips.

Each of the narrow plastic strips then goes under a roller with even more blades.

They shred it into a needlelike configuration, leaving a solid spine at the center to hold the simulated needles together.

An automated spool then winds up the fringed green pvc.

These artificial needles come in an assortment of colors, so if you want glitz, you can really go out on a limb.

Here, streams of the fringed green and a strip of brown pvc travel over tension-control guides.

Steel wire unwinds and merges with the green and brown pvc.

This machine twists them together.

The brown strip lands at the core of the twisted fringe, creating the illusion of a stem among the needles.

This twisting technology churns out a continuous supply of artificial greenery.

Giant scissors slice it to the correct length.

To make branches that appear snow-tipped, this machine twists and then frosts the pvc needles with a spray of white latex paint.

They use this ring fastener to crimp the artificial foliage together, branch by branch.

This creates a tightly knit mass of greenery that will be used to cover the tree's framework.

They apply single garlands on key parts of the tree grid first, using a handheld pneumatic fastener.

They fill in the sections between them with the assembled branches.

This is easier than attaching them to the framework branch by branch.

They string the lights and then plug them in to check each bulb.

After all, it's easier to change one now than after the tree has been erected, especially since this one will be a story and a half tall.

They also wire the ornaments to the branches.

It's one less job for the customer to do.

And now it's time to put up the tree.

They bolt the cone of wired greenery to the lower framework...

And then hook the panels of artificial greenery onto the rest of the structure.

It has taken just one day for this artificial tree to come together, where growing a real one this size would take many years.

And the convenience is unreal.

Soda crackers are also called saltines, originally a brand name that over time became a generic term.

You can eat them plain or spread something on them or crumble them into soup.

Doctors even recommend eating soda crackers when you're nauseous, because they're dry and easy to digest.

They're flat and bumpy on the outside, with a tasty texture resulting from some interesting chemical reactions.

Workers first dump ice into a trough to prevent the dough from overheating during fermentation.

The first ingredient is a specific amount of finished dough to kick-start the fermentation of this new batch.

To that, they add water, wheat flour, yeast, and enzymes to help the fermentation.

A mixer blends the ingredients for about 5 minutes.

They let the dough sit for 16 hours while the enzymes break down the starch and the wheat into simple sugars.

The yeast then reacts with those sugars, producing carbon-dioxide gas, which makes the dough rise.

Then they adjust the fermented dough's ph level with sodium bicarbonate to produce the right flavor, color, and shelf life.

Then, for additional flavoring, some salt...

Malted barley flour...

And vegetable oil.

Then the mixer remixes the dough for about 5 minutes to blend in these new ingredients.

Now they let the dough ferment for another 6 hours.

The sodium bicarbonate counteracts the acidity this produces and relaxes the gluten so that the dough now breaks easily when stretched-- the perfect consistency for soda crackers.

A machine then extrudes the massive dough into a sheet that's 2 inches thick and folds the sheet over itself 3 times.

This folding creates the light and flaky layers inside the cracker.

The dough sheet then goes through a series of rollers that reduce it to its final thickness, about a millimeter.

A revolving die cuts the cracker shapes, perforations and all.

The little pins puncture the dough and push it firmly onto the conveyor belt.

This keeps the dough from deforming when moisture and gases escape during the baking process.

From there, the sheet passes under a shower of salt.

The sheet now takes a three-minute trip through a long oven with different temperature zones.

Gas flames bake the dough from above and below.

The heat transforms the sodium bicarbonate in the dough into carbon-dioxide gas, which then breaks through and escapes.

This drives out trapped moisture and forms blisters in the crackers.

As the sheet of baked crackers exits the oven, a roller breaks it into rows.

The rows then run from one conveyor belt to the next, stacking like roof shingles.

Alignment wheels keep them straight until the next set of wheels gently breaks the rows into individual crackers.

Each row makes its way through a series of gates that guide it onto a track that leads to the packaging equipment.

The crackers are upright now, and the machine begins dividing them according to the number of crackers per package-- in this case, those little 2-cracker packs you often get with soup.

The cracker pairs enter the wrapping machine, which sandwiches them between a sheet of printed plastic film.

A wheel then simultaneously seals and cuts the wrapper between each pair.

This all happens at an astonishing rate of 525 packages per minute.

And that's the way the cracker crumbles.

Ratchets come in many shapes and sizes and can tackle almost any job.

Ratchets with socket attachments deliver more power and speed without slipping or damaging the bolt or nut.

Just snap an interchangeable socket onto the ratchet, and you're ready to get the job done quickly and properly.

Versatile and easy to use, a ratchet tightens or loosens nuts and bolts in a continuous motion.

It uses removable sockets that fit many different sizes of fittings and fasteners.

To start, a steel bar travels into a shearing machine that cuts it into specific lengths.

These pieces, called billets, will be used to make the ratchet.

A machine feeds the billets into an induction coil, which heats them to about 1,800 degrees fahrenheit.

A forge press then shapes the soft billets into ratchets.

The first die creates the ratchet's general form.

The second die gives it its finished shape.

And the third die cuts off excess metal.

The ratchets exit the forge press and fall into a collection box, where they cool.

Then a vertical milling machine prepares the body cavity to receive the internal working parts of the ratchet, called the gear assembly.

A worker then places the ratchet on a hydraulic press, which stamps the brand name and the on-and-off indicator on the ratchet's face.

A lathe cuts away the rough forged metal from the handle and trims off the end, making it ready to receive the handgrip.

A worker then grinds any rough edges off the machined ratchet.

Then he crimps each side of the smooth handle so it will hold a rubber handgrip in place.

The ratchets now undergo a 3-stage tempering process that hardens and strengthens the metal.

Ceramic stones and a chemical solution prepare the ratchets for nickel and chrome plating.

A plating machine cleans the ratchets, then treats them to a nickel and a trivalent chrome plating.

The two platings make the ratchets corrosion-resistant and give them a bright cosmetic finish.

A worker then lubricates the ratchet cavity, puts in an on-and-off switch and a spacer to support additional components.

A worker sets a retention ball onto a ratchet gear, then a punch press locks it in place.

Next they fit a gear mechanism into the cavity, then attach all the internal components that control the movements of the ratchet.

Once completed, the gear assembly allows or restricts movement.

So, putting the assembly into either the on or off position is all it takes to tighten or loosen a nut or bolt.

She then puts a rubber seal onto a cover plate and closes up the ratchet.

She makes sure the gear assembly works properly.

Finally, this machine friction-fits a handle on the ratchet's shaft.

Evolving from a steel bar to a finished product in 10 steps, the ratchets must undergo a final test of strength to prove they meet the highest quality standards.

Ratchet sets are available in a variety of sizes.

They're used for big and small jobs by handymen and professional mechanics alike.


Powder Horns
Handcrafted Molds
Pierogi
Inner Tubes

On the battlegrounds of american history, powder horns were everywhere.

These modified cow horns served as carrying cases for gunpowder in 18th century colonial battles and the american revolution.

For soldiers engaged in heated battle, the containers were a good way to keep their powder dry.

With the invention of ammunition cartridges in the 19th century, muzzle-loading firearms and powder horns became a thing of the past.

But today, they're back.

Powder horns are in demand for historical re-enactments and among some sportsmen and collectors.

The concept of using a cow horn to make a gunpowder container demonstrates the resourcefulness of people in an earlier time.

Cow horns were accessible.

They're naturally hollow, lightweight, and waterproof.

To start, the craftsman selects the cow horn and evaluates it for structural flaws.

Finding no cracks or weaknesses in this one, he proceeds.

He scrapes off the scale to clean it and get a better look at its condition.

Next, he identifies the depth of the cavity with a thin wire.

This tells him where the hollow section ends and the horn becomes solid.

He marks the spot then draws another line 1 1/2 inches down.

These markings serve as guides as he now turns the tip of the horn into a spout.

He cuts off the pointed end along the second line.

He drills into the horn all the way through to the horn cavity.

He lays out the design of the spout with rubber rings.

He traces around them and then scores the horn at the pencil marks.

He files the horn around the score marks to give the spout end the desired contours and builds up a ringed ridge for the powder-horn strap to rest against.

Next, he gouges the horn to create ornamental notches above the spout.

This is known an engrailing.

He pencils lettering onto the side of the powder horn.

He scratches the horn along the penciled lines to engrave the letters into it.

Historically, powder horns were a soldier's canvas upon which he etched maps, designs, and personal information.

He rubs ink onto the lettering, and it seeps into the fine cuts.

When he wipes off the ink, it remains in the engravings to make them really stand out.

He slices the other end of the cow horn to create an even edge.

Then, he boils butternut hulls and wood chips in water to make a dye.

He immerses the powder horn in the dye for about an hour to give it a look that would take decades to achieve naturally.

It gives the powder horn a yellowed, more aged patina.

He now carves a base plug from pinewood.

He trims the rough shape to the exact curvature of the horn.

He inserts the plug and ensures it's a snug fit.

He drills six holes into the horn and through to the plug.

With a tack hammer, he drives wooden pegs into the holes, securing the plug permanently.

He slices off the end of the wood to make it flush to the horn.

He stains the wood plug with shoe dye to make it blend in with the color of the horn.

Once the stain has dried, he creates a hook for a shoulder strap.

He drills holes that are a little smaller than the hook so that when he pounds it into the holes, the hook is firmly installed.

He loops the strap through the hook and stitches it up.

He inserts a wooden stopper into the spout, and this powder horn is now ready for containment.

But mostly, it will just hang around as a reminder of another time.

Mass-produced glass items are typically shaped by automated machines, which insert molten glass into an assembly line of molds.

Specialty items are usually cast individually with the artist manually planting the molten glass in a mold crafted by skilled mold-makers.

These molds for making specialty glass items are entirely handcrafted.

This one, comprised of three sections, produces the ornate shade of a glass candle lamp.

This one, comprised of two sections, produces the lamp's base.

The glass manufacturer submits the design sketch of the item to the mold shop.

The shop, using computer software, converts the sketch into technical drawings.

Then following the drawings, workers prepare a wooden pattern of the mold.

They first make a cardboard template for each mold section, then trace the template on a piece of wood, saw along the pencil line, then finalize the shape with a sander.

They send the patterns for the mold sections to a foundry, which casts copies in iron.

These iron castings are rough, so when they return from the foundry, the mold-makers refine each section with a series of milling machines.

This takes a tremendous degree of expertise, as these are not computer-guided automated machines.

These skilled tradesmen maneuver the mills manually, following the technical drawings.

Once they finalize the shape, they use a drill press to bore holes for the hefty pins on which the mold sections will pivot open and closed.

Iron is the ideal material for glass molds because it withstands a temperature of over 2,000 degrees fahrenheit for molten glass.

Iron does expand with such heat.

However, once cool, it contracts and resumes its original shape without any distortion.

They mount the mold section on a lathe to begin forming the cavity.

Using a tool called a boring bar, a mold-maker shapes the cavity as per the technical drawings.

Then he takes the mold section off the lathe and paints the cavity yellow to give him a bright background against which to sketch out the fine details of the design.

This particular pattern features circles, which he sketches with compasses.

Using an arsenal of chisels with different size and shape tips, he chips the metal to carve out what he sketched.

Again, he follows the technical drawings meticulously, giving the carved lines the specified depth and profile.

Once he finishes the pattern, he mounts the mold section on one side of a mechanical copying machine called a pantograph.

On the other side, he mounts another section of the mold which doesn't yet have the carved pattern.

The pantograph stylus traces the pattern on the carved section and simultaneously moves an engraving tool through the identical motions on the uncarved section, transferring the pattern.

Because this is a three-sectioned mold, they make two copies on the pantograph.

The carving tools leave marks on the surface of the cavity, so the next step is to polish them away with emery paper.

On the right, you can see the marks.

And on the left, the smooth, polished surface.

The sections are now ready to be assembled with pins into a complete mold.

When it's time to pour in the molten glass, the pins enable the sections to close and interlock.

Once the glass cools and solidifies, the pins make it easier to open the mold to extract the casing.

Glass artisans and glass manufacturers alike use handcrafted molds to produce a wide variety of glass items from functional to fancy.

The perogi is a pillowy pastry stuffed with mashed potato or other fillings.

Popular for centuries in eastern europe, perogies were initially peasant food.

But today, their appeal crosses class and cultural boundaries, and worldwide there's a growing appetite for perogies.

Perogies are comfort food, traditionally made from scratch by generations of polish grandmothers.

But today, few people have time for all that work, and the job of making perogies has moved from the kitchen to the factory.

All you have to do is add the sour cream and chives.

Production starts with the potato and cheese filling.

They boil potatoes until tender.

Then, still piping hot, they transfer the potatoes to a mixer grinder.

They add a generous amount of shredded cheddar cheese along with some salt and spices.

A spiraling blade mashes and mixes the ingredients.

The blade misses a few chunks of potato, so the machine forces the ingredients through a perforated metal plate.

It gets rid of the chunks and leaves the mix smooth and creamy.

With the filling done, it's over to the dough department.

They pour measured amounts of flour into a mixer.

They add oil for texture and flavor and some salt to further enhance the taste.

They open an overhead tap, and a measured amount of water flows directly into the mixer.

The mixer's roller bars blend and knead the dough to a fairly thick consistency.

After leaving the dough to soften a bit, they feed it to a special perogi-making machine.

The potato and cheese filling flows into the same machine.

It forces both the filling and the dough into a forming device.

It's enclosed for safety reasons, so you can't see it here.

Inside, the machine shapes the filling into a cylindrical form and the dough around it into a sleeve.

Here, the machine pumps out a roll of potato filling, the dough surrounds it, creating sausage-like form.

As the filled dough exits, a roller shapes it into individual perogies.

It also cuts and crimps the edges.

This produces uniformly plump perogies at an incredible speed.

This machinery churns out 50,000 perogies an hour.

The freshly formed perogies ride by a divider mechanism that separates them, preventing clumping as they transfer to another conveyor.

An inspector rejects any defective dumplings so that only perfect perogies head into a freezer.

The temperature inside is an icy negative-50 degrees.

It's a winding journey on spiraling tiers, where they chill for about 14 minutes.

When they exit, they're frozen solid and ready for packaging.

The dumplings ride a series of conveyors towards the packaging line.

It's a quick journey, giving them no time to thaw.

The perogies funnel into weigh stations.

Below, mechanical fingers open bags.

The scale releases 22 ounces of perogies into each bag.

That's about 23 perogies per bag.

Hot jaws seal the plastic.

The bags of perogies travel through an x-ray station on their way to the warehouse freezer.

It scans them for bits of metal or glass that may have contaminated the perogies during production.

Today, perogies have many different fillings.

There are even fruit-filled ones for dessert, the recipe may be centuries old, but there are a few new tricks.

The earliest tires were bands of steel fitted to wooden wheels, hardly a comfortable ride.

Air-filled inner tubes were part of the first successful car tire in 1911, and inner tubes are still used today in most bicycle tires and many motorcycle tires.

These motorcycle inner tubes are made with a combination of synthetic and pure, natural rubber.

They come in a variety of sizes and offer superior quality because no recycled or reclaimed rubber is used during the manufacturing process.

A worker selects a slab of synthetic rubber, a package of chemically enhanced rubber, chemicals used as antioxidants, accelerators and curing agents, and finally a package of pure, natural rubber.

A worker pulls the materials from an internal mixer and guides them into a two-roll mill, where they're squeezed together.

He trims off the rubber sheet.

Ideally, the texture of the rubber sheet is smooth.

Carbon black provides pigmentation to the process and reinforces the rubber.

The rubber is now sent for cooling.

It soaks in a mixture of calcium carbonate, which, once dry, will prevent the rubber from sticking to itself.

Workers carefully fold the continuous sheet of rubber in a stack to dry.

The next day, the rubber is cool and hard, and the calcium carbonate has dried into a powder.

A worker places the small strip coming out of the two-roll mill onto an overhead conveyor belt, which takes it to the next phase of production.

The strip falls into a extruding machine, where a turning screw forces the raw rubber through a strainer.

A worker uses a wire to cut the rubber strands as they emerge.

He places the rubber wad in the two-roll mill once again.

The rubber will gradually be shaped in preparation for the next phase of extrusion.

Squeezed into a strip, the rubber falls into a tube extruder machine.

As it passes through the die, it emerges in a cylindrical shape.

The rubber tube is hot.

Water cools it down and cleans away any remaining residue.

The rubber tube now enters a cutting machine.

Calcium carbonate powder helps prevent sticking.

After being cut, a hole is punched in the tube and a valve inserted.

The first cone punches the hole.

The second inserts the valve.

A worker replaces each valve after it's been inserted into the rubber tube.

This machine can process 22 tubes per minute.

Here is the rubber tube with the hole punched and with the incomplete valve inserted.

A worker now connects the two ends of the cut tube.

He places both ends into the machine, which, using different steps, cuts and fuses them together.

By the time the machine completes the process, the worker has two more loose ends in place.

First, the knife cuts both ends of the tube.

By clearing away the calcium carbonate powder, the two heated ends can stick together.

No glue is needed.

The cut is clean and straight.

Heat, combined with the rubber's natural stickiness, firmly holds the seam together.

A worker now pumps air into the circular tube.

He hammers wax into the incomplete valve in order to temporarily seal the air inside.

Another worker places the tube in a mold.

It will be heated for a few minutes, part of the vulcanization process.

The wax that held the air inside has melted, but after being vulcanized in the mold, the tube retains its cylindrical shape.

To flatten the shaped tube, any air remaining inside is removed using a vacuum.

These workers give the inner tube its finishing touches.

They complete the valve by adding a core, followed by a ring, a nut, and a valve cap.

They fold the finished inner tube and circle it with two elastic bands.

The folded inner tubes are inserted in packaging that is then heat sealed.

Ready to hit the open road, these motorcycle inner tubes are sure to get riders pumped.


Today on "how it's made"...

Conga drums...

.metal plating...

And buttons.

The conga drum may be a staple of latin-american music, but it was developed from an ancient african drum made from an animal skin stretched over a hollow tree trunk.

Today, they stretch the hide over a wood or fiberglass cylinder.

As you're about to see, making congas takes plenty of hands-on skill.

these congas are made of ash, a wood that has good acoustics.

That means sound resonates off of it rather than being absorbed into it.

First, the drum maker cuts the curved slats that will form the drum's body, called the shell.

He traces a slat-shaped template on a rectangular piece of wood.

Then, using a band saw, he cuts along the trace line, creating a curve on the outside and inside surfaces.

Then he moves to a bench saw, a saw whose blade can be adjusted to different angles.

He clamps the piece onto a template and angles the edge.

He flips the piece over...

And angles the other edge.

The drum maker applies carpenter's glue to both edges and clamps the slats together in a circle on a specially designed form.

The number of slats per drum varies, depending on the diameter of the shell.

The larger the diameter, the lower the conga's sound.

The glue dries in 24 hours.

It comes off the form looking like this bongo shell, but taller.

The drum maker now mounts the dried shell on a wood lathe.

Using a tool called a wood gouge, he shears off about .

2 of an inch, rounding the outside of the shell.

Then he uses a series of woodworking tools to add decorative detailing.

Once that's done, he smoothes the shell's surface, using three progressively finer grains of sandpaper.

Then he either leaves the wood its natural color or stains it.

A thick coat of oil-based lacquer protects the wood from both dryness and humidity.

Now for the essential hardware.

First, side plates made of chrome-plated steel.

Their job is to anchor the drum's animal-skin head.

They're bolted to the shell.

Next, the drum maker feeds a steel strip through a bending machine.

Its high-pressure rollers curve the strip, forming the drum's rim.

Then he rivets v-shaped steel pieces onto the rim.

Elsewhere in the workshop, they prepare the cowhide that will become the drum's head.

First they soak it in a corrosive bath of cold water and lime.

This literally burns the hair off the hide.

After two or three days, they remove the skin and scrape off any stubborn hairs.

Then they stretch it over a circular frame, leaving it to dry at room temperature for a couple of days.

After chrome-plating the rim, it's time for the final assembly.

They stretch the head over the shell and clasp it in place with the rim.

They hook the v's to the side plates, then adjust the tension to tune the instrument.

The last step is to trim off the excess skin.

Now the musical handiwork can begin.

Plating is a layer of metal coating an object made of a different type of metal.

The purpose can be decorative, as in silver plating, or practical.

With industrial parts, for instance, zinc or cadmium plating prevents the underlying metal from rusting, while nickel or chrome plating protects against wear.

You can plate almost any type of metal.

Let's follow some steel aerospace parts as they're about to be plated with cadmium to make them corrosion-resistant.

For the plating metal to bond properly, the steel surface must be free of contaminants such as oil and grease.

Workers suspend the parts over a vat of boiling chemical solvents.

As the hot vapor comes in contact with the colder metal, it condenses, dripping down into the vat and taking any contaminants along with it.

The remaining solvent residues evaporate, leaving the parts squeaky-clean and dry.

Next, a worker wearing protective clothing sandblasts the parts with aluminum oxide powder, a strong abrasive.

This roughens up the surface so that the plating metal will adhere better.

The most common plating metals for industrial purposes are zinc, chrome, and nickel.

Think motorcycle parts or sink faucets.

Decorative items, on the other hand, are most likely to be plated in tin, brass, gold, or silver.

Traditional tea sets, for instance, are often made of silver-plated copper or zinc.

The plating process is called electroplating because the key is electricity.

They start by tying strands of copper wire to a copper support frame.

Copper is the best metal for conducting electricity.

Then they attach the steel parts they'll be plating.

When they hook up the support to an electric current, electricity will run from the support through these wires right to the pieces.

They do the electroplating in a tank.

After filling it with water, they add a handful of chemicals to help conduct electricity, because water alone won't conduct it sufficiently.

Along the sides of the tank, in bags, are metal baskets.

They contain bars or balls of the plating metal-- in this case, cadmium.

Workers connect the support frame with the steel parts to the negative terminal of an electric source-- the baskets of cadmium to the positive terminal.

Then, they switch on a steady d.c. current no stronger than six volts.

The electricity dissolves the cadmium, placing the particles with a positive charge.

They travel through the water and attach themselves to the negative-charged steel parts.

This creates a smooth and even layer of cadmium.

Thin plating requires just a few minutes in the tank.

Thick plating, several hours.

Then workers rinse the parts in water for about a minute to remove the chemical residues.

To make the parts even more rust-resistant, workers immerse them in a series of compounds.

This triggers a chemical reaction in the plating, enhancing its ability to withstand corrosion.

This reaction, however, changes the color.

A final rinse in hot water, and this cadmium-plated steel aerospace part is finally ready.

From start to finish, the process has taken about 90 minutes.

To plate with chrome or gold, they have to use a chemical compound containing gold or chromium.

That's because electricity can't dissolve solid chromium well enough, and it can't dissolve solid gold at all.

The compound dissolves in the bath like salt, but then solidifies once it reaches the object being plated.

Metal plating is very durable, but if subjected to a lot of wear and tear, the object will eventually have to be replated.

Have you ever wondered why men's buttons are traditionally on the right side of a garment and women's on the left?

Legend has it that this enabled a man to unbutton his coat with his left hand while drawing a sword with his right.

Wealthy women, meanwhile, had their buttons sewn on the left side to make it easier for their right-handed maids to dress them.

One way to make plastic buttons uses a multilayer sheet of synthetic resin-- hence the industry term, sheet buttons.

Workers start by mixing liquid polyester resin with a catalyst to gel it.

They pour the material into a revolving drum, which disperses it evenly.

They spray a solution containing an ultraviolet pigment on this first layer only.

You'll see why later on.

For this particular model, they make grooves in the resin while it's still malleable.

This will create a design.

After about five minutes, the resin gels and they can mix and add a second layer in a different color.

Besides building up the thickness of the sheet, the resin flows into the first layer's grooves, creating a design of contrasting lines.

Once this second layer gels, they mix and pour in a third color.

The drum spins for another 10 to 15 minutes until all layers cure.

A resin sheet can be comprised of up to 4 different color layers.

Workers can now remove the sheet.

It's hardened enough to be cut into buttons, but it's still flexible enough not to crack when cut.

They feed each sheet into a press that's outfitted with the die for that particular button model.

The press punches out circles in the diameter of the button.

These circles are called blanks.

Here, you can see the different color layers.

The blanks move on to the machining center, where they'll be transformed into buttons.

Automated equipment loads them onto carousels with the back of the blank facing outward.

How does the loader know which side is which?

Remember that ultraviolet solution the workers sprayed onto the first layer of resin?

A u.v. detector scans each blank to make sure the first layer is facing upward.

If it isn't, the machine rejects the blank, then flips and reloads it.

The carousels first run the back of the blank against a series of cutting heads.

The heads are changed according to the model being produced.

For this one, the heads gradually carve a curved back.

The equipment then transfers the blank onto a second carousel, exposing the front side this time.

Again, a series of cutting heads gradually carve the front of the button.

The shape of this model exposes the different color layers underneath, creating a veined effect.

The last cutting head drills the holes.

Here, you can see the full progression from blank to button.

Now they polish the buttons for several hours in drums containing abrasive ceramic stones and pumice.

Then workers flush the drums with water.

The heavy polishing stones sink to the bottom while the lightweight buttons float to the surface and spill out.

The buttons then go into drums that contain silicon wax and thousands of tiny wooden pegs.

While the drums spin, the pegs act as a carrier, distributing an even coat of wax.

As the buttons exit the drums, the pegs are screened out.

From here, plain buttons are often custom-dyed to match fabric swatches provided by clothing manufacturers.

You've seen how they manufacture some types of plastic buttons, just a few of the many styles on the market.

There are several different ways to produce these handy little fasteners.

So, forgive us if we buttonhole you to stay tuned and watch some more.

Archeologists have unearthed bone buttons dating back to prehistoric times.

The ancient greeks and romans used buttons to fasten and decorate their clothing.

Europeans wore buttons strictly for adornment until about the 1200s.

That's when fitted garments became the trend, fastened by a long row of buttons down the front.

The rich wore buttons made of silver or gold, sometimes set with precious gemstones.

Ordinary people wore buttons made of bronze or wood.

This is another way to make plastic buttons using polyester resin.

Only instead of turning it into sheets, they pour the resin into long metal tubes.

Here, they're mixing two different colors to create a design in the plastic.

The tubes go into an oven, where they bake at 212 degrees fahrenheit for about an hour until the liquid resin hardens.

Once the tubes cool off, workers remove the contents.

These long resin rods will become what the industry calls rod buttons.

The rods go into a machine called the slicer.

Its sharp carbide blade chops the long rods into button-sized blanks.

Here's what that looks like in slow motion.

It's no use showing you this at regular speed.

It would be but a blur.

This machine cuts up to 700 blanks per minute.

Blanks cut from resin rods run through the same machining center as those cut from resin sheets.

In the last segment, we showed you the machining steps in slow motion.

Here's what they look like at actual speed.

Any type of button can be engraved with a company name or logo.

They do this using a computer-programmed laser machine.

The laser beam burns the lettering into the plastic.

Workers visually inspect the finished buttons to make sure that none have defects.

A third way to make plastic buttons is a method called thermoset compression, a technique that combines both heat and pressure to mold the button's shape.

As we see here in slow motion, the raw material isn't liquid resin, but rather melamine powder.

A pill-making machine-- the kind pharmaceutical companies use-- compresses the powder into pill-shaped blanks.

Here's what that pill-making action looks like at actual speed.

To transform these pills into buttons, workers load them onto a press.

The press uses high pressure to force each pill into a button mold for a period of 40 to 60 seconds, depending on the size of the button.

At the same time, it heats the mold to 325 degrees fahrenheit.

This bakes the melamine into hard plastic.

They cool the molded buttons in a basin of cold water.

Some specialty buttons will be gold-plated, but not before soaking in a chemical bath to clean their surface so that the plating will bond well.

As a rule, only materials that conduct electricity can be metal-plated.

Plastic, of course, is nonconductive.

This company has managed to devise a way to gold-plate plastic buttons.

Exactly how is a closely guarded secret it's not willing to divulge.

After plating the buttons in copper, a 12-hour process, they plate them in nickel, which takes just a couple of minutes, and finally, in 24-karat gold, which takes just a few seconds.

A mere one ounce of gold is enough to plate 180 pounds of buttons.

Thermoset compression buttons are a lower-end product used primarily for uniforms.

Sheet buttons and rod buttons are higher quality, the standard choice for everyday and higher-end clothing.