Original subtitles

--Captions by vitac-- www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by discovery communications, inc.

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

Steel -- the original heavy metal...

Apple juice -- from the tree to the glass...

Aircraft landing gear --

what you really need to score a touchdown,

and cosmetics --

we'll tour a factory where they make it up as they go along.

They call Superman "the man of steel"

because, flying and X-ray vision aside,

he could bend solid steel with his bare hands.

Thanks to its legendary strength,

steel is used for everything from bridges and skyscrapers

to household appliances.

Steelmaking usually begins with a pile of scrap metal.

Using this 11-ton electromagnet,

scrap iron -- composed of crushed car bodies,

electric appliances, cans, and other steel scraps --

is gathered up.

This powerful magnet is able to lift 5 1/2 tons of metal.

About 83% of this scrap will be transformed into bars of steel.

This metal is then dumped into a basket

which, by itself, weighs 35 tons.

The basket can hold up to 65 tons of metal.

And now they're going to melt the metal.

This furnace reaches a temperature

of 3,000 degrees, hot enough to liquefy the metal.

It is heated by three electrodes and by four natural-gas burners.

The contents of the basket are dumped into the furnace.

Here, the pieces of metal come into contact

with liquefied steel,

which always remains at the bottom of the furnace.

There's a reaction, and an aeration system draws out

the smoke that's produced.

At this high heat, the 66 tons of metal

will melt in about 60 minutes.

Then the cover is placed on the furnace.

This liquid is composed of impurities

that rise to the surface when the metal becomes molten.

At this stage, a workman draws a sample of steel

to determine its chemical makeup.

And now they make use of a supersonic Oxygen lance.

This lance blows Oxygen into the molten steel.

This reduces its carbon content,

homogenizes the mix, and speeds up the melting process.

A ladle is positioned beneath the furnace.

The molten steel will be transferred

from the furnace into this ladle.

The molten steel easily pours into the ladle.

The ladle weighs 60 tons and holds 127 tons of molten steel.

An overhead crane capable of lifting 200 tons

carries the ladle filled with steel.

Additives are introduced

in order to obtain the correct steel tone.

Here, the electrodes are taken out of the furnace ladle.

A workman now opens the pouring nozzles of the distributor.

It is equipped with four pouring holes.

The molten steel runs into molds.

It cools very quickly and begins to harden.

Steel billets are produced

in lengths varying from 15 to 35 feet.

The billets are then cut to the desired length

with a natural-gas torch.

A pouring identification number is marked on them

with a wax crayon.

The difference between a steel billet

and the nearly finished flattened product is clear.

Flattening of the billets remains to be done.

Before flattening begins,

billets are placed in the furnace to be reheated

for 2 hours at 2,000 degrees.

Water jets cool the billet ejector.

The billets are placed on the flattener,

where powerful rollers compress them.

This operation gives the billets the required shape and size.

Water-cooled rollers crush the billets.

Some billets go from a thickness of 5 inches down to 1/2 an inch,

while other reduce from 6 inches down to 3/4 of an inch.

At the end of production,

bars move along at a speed reaching 22 miles per hour.

Once they reach their required dimensions,

the bars must be cooled.

This cooling bed allows the steel bars to cool uniformly.

A total of 440,000 tons of steel bars

are made at this plant each year.

Narrator: Dump thousands of apples into a giant press,

apply several tons of pressure, and what do you get?

Apple juice, of course.

And good thing it's made on such an enormous scale,

when you consider how many people

drink gallons of this popular juice every year.

Here at rougemeau, they make apple juice

mainly from McIntosh apples.

Some 90% of juice production

is done at harvesttime in October.

A conveyor transports apples to an inspection location.

Apples tumble in the reverse direction of the conveyor belt

so that wet leaves and undesirable materials

adhere to the belt.

The apples are stored in silos for several hours.

So the apples don't get too bruised in their descent,

they're slowed down in this stepped chute.

Juice making can now begin.

Now they wash the apples.

Since they use some apples

that have already fallen to the ground,

this first water bath must eliminate pebbles.

A shower of cool water completes the washing process.

The apples are cut into little pieces in this grinder

and produce gratings.

Enzymes are added, which break down

the cellular structure of the fruit,

allowing for maximum juice extraction.

Next, the gratings are transferred

into maceration reservoirs,

where they'll stay for 60 to 90 minutes.

Then they extract the juice.

The gratings are pumped into a powerful hydraulic press.

Inside the press, filter sleeves hold back the skins,

seeds, and stems of the apples.

Quality control is strict.

At each stage of the process, they draw off samples of juice

to evaluate its quality

and to make sure that fabrication parameters

are well adhered to.

The juice is filtered a first time.

The very smallest undesirable particles

are held back by this sieve.

The fabrication process continues.

Juice flows from one stage to another

via these immense reservoirs.

The next step will be pasteurization.

Juice enters this exchanger at 72 degrees

and is heated up to 190 degrees,

then cooled back down to 122 degrees.

Enzymes are then added to hydrate the pectin

and facilitate the second filtration.

This is the ultra-filtration process,

where filter membranes with microscopic pores

retain the smallest of particles.

The apple juice is now perfectly filtered.

Its clarity is verified, as well as its flavor,

color, and natural fruit-sugar content.

Since juice is produced in October,

it has to be conserved throughout the year.

A portion of the production is stored

in this sterile warehouse area

to await being bottled during the year.

Each reservoir can hold 29,000 gallons of filtered juice.

No preserving agent is added.

Now we move to the next stage, the filling of containers.

These little drinking containers

are filled at the rate of 100 a minute.

The containers are then hermetically sealed.

Two little sprays of hot glue are applied to the containers.

This secures the straws to their sides.

Another automated production line fills bottles with juice.

They circulate in a row on this conveyor.

Bottles are washed and disinfected

with hydrogen peroxide in this white, sterile room.

Then they're rinsed with sterile water

before being carried to the filling location.

Each minute, 120 bottles are filled

with pasteurized apple juice

and sealed with a cap in a sterile environment.

Bottles are then labeled and sent to shipping.

Between 20,000 and 40,000 tons of apples

are transformed into juice yearly.

Thanks to its perfect preservation,

consumers can enjoy this juice at any time of the year.

Narrator: What goes up, they say, must come down,

and when what's up is an airplane,

you need dependable landing gear to get you back down safely.

This critical piece of aircraft equipment

is the product of expert mechanics

combined with sophisticated technology.

This heavy piece of steel

is the undercarriage of a kc-135r airplane.

A landing gear comprises a central shaft

to which an axle and wheels are attached.

They begin machining the shaft.

This digital lathe machines the exterior surface of the part.

Sprays of water and oil cool the part,

which heats up due to friction.

They're now going to pierce the shaft.

This drill head will ream out the inside of the shaft.

Alignment of the head must be perfect,

so they're cautious with their work.

The perforating gets under way.

Turnings from the cutting are saved,

and these will be sold to foundries,

where they'll be recycled.

We see here the cutting tool

used to pierce the holes in the landing gear.

To perforate the part, very sharp cutting tools are used.

Here, they complete an attachment hole.

The hole is enlarged on its sides,

as required by this machine tool.

The part is cooled with a mix of water and oil.

Cutting is completed,

and the hole is now cleaned out with compressed air

so that they can proceed with a visual inspection.

Here, three pieces are rough-cut

at the same time by this machine.

Because they'll be used in aviation,

these pieces have to be machined to perfection.

The machining of the shaft is now almost completed.

This deburring unit polishes the machine's surfaces

with a compressed-air tool and sandpaper discs.

And now they have to verify the dimensions of the parts.

This digitally controlled machine has three axes

and does the verification with extreme precision.

Here, another unit allows for the machining of parts

with greater dimensions.

This facility also reconditions used landing gears,

such as this one from a boeing 707.

They strip off the paint with a sandblaster

to verify the condition of the parts with great precision.

And here are those parts stripped clean.

But a visual inspection is not enough.

They can detect cracks by magnetic-particle concentration.

They magnetize the part,

and any cracks will become visible under ultraviolet light.

Now it's time for the shot-metal procedure,

where they spray steel balls onto the metal's surface

to increase its resistance to fatigue.

Before repainting the part, they first plate it.

The part is immersed for 10 minutes in cadmium,

which forms a protective coating on it

that will resist corrosion.

Then the part is quickly soaked

in a weak concentration of chromic acid.

Water, agitated by air jets, cleans away the chromic acid,

and the part is rinsed with water another time.

The part is now baked at 375 degrees over 23 hours

to remove hydrogen induced during the plating process.

Then the part is immersed in liquid nitrogen at -200 degrees

before it's inserted in order to reduce its size.

This collar is easily pushed on with a hydraulic jack.

Reheating the collar makes it return to its normal size.

Now the different components and the leakproof joints

are inserted into the piston.

The shock-absorber tube goes into the piston.

This part absorbs the shock stresses when an aircraft lands.

The piston is now slid into the cylinder,

and they verify that the shock absorber is leakproof.

Fabrication finishes with paint baked in an oven.

Some six to eight months are required

to make a new landing gear

and between six to eight weeks to recondition a used one.

Narrator: Perfume, eye shadow, foundation, lipstick --

they're all products of a huge industry

driven by our desire for beauty.

Well, "how it's made" is about to show you

how they manufacture cosmetics,

and we assure you, we're not making this up.

During archaeological excavations,

mummies were discovered wearing makeup,

the Egyptian technique of enhancing eye contours

with antimony, lead, and metal oxides --

all toxic, lethal substances.

Greek women also adorned their cheeks

with a dye made from lead oxide.

In 1910, Florence Nightingale, under the name Elizabeth Arden,

would change the whole makeup picture,

launching the vogue for cosmetics without toxic agents.

Cosmetics have been in existence since the dawn of time.

There are many ingredients that make up a cosmetic formula.

The industry heavily uses iron oxides

to color its products in a multitude of attractive tones.

Before moving into fabrication, each ingredient

must be carefully and accurately weighed.

These raw materials are often dry, such as powder,

but can also be liquid and even oil or wax.

Every ingredient will have first been approved

by the quality-control laboratory.

A single formula may contain over 50 ingredients.

The other essential ingredient is water.

The water used in making cosmetics

is first purified by an inverse-osmosis system.

When it meets strict company standards,

it is put into a stainless-steel tank.

Depending on the complexity of the recipe,

between 4 and 10 hours of work are needed to make up a product.

Let's begin with a bubble-bath recipe.

A part of the recipe is prepared in an adjoining container

to make certain ingredients more soluble.

A stainless-steel screw propeller

mixes all the ingredients thoroughly.

All along its fabrication processing,

the product will be subjected to many tests.

Here, an acid-based neutralization-reaction test

is performed with a color indicator.

The bubble bath has to be colored.

A fragrance and a color are added,

for in this recipe, the final product will be mauve.

Before the filling process,

the quality-control and microbiology laboratories

make sure that the product meets strict quality standards.

Now it's on to the next step.

This filler can simultaneously fill

up to 12 700-milliliter bottles

at a steady pace of 50 per minute.

The fill level is adjusted electronically.

Capping remains to be done.

This capper positions and tightens the caps automatically.

Urethane rollers apply the precise tightening force.

The bottles now pass beneath a sealer via induction,

which generates a magnetic field,

heating the metal piece placed in the cap.

When hot enough, it welds itself onto the neck of the bottle.

Another product made here is the peeling mask.

The mask is poured into this funnel,

whose end is attached to the tube-filler pipe.

The product descends via gravity.

The filler pours the peeling mask into 50 tubes each minute.

Then, with heat and crimping, the tube end is sealed,

and the tube heads for packaging.

Other products made here -- Cologne and perfume.

The liquid is drawn into the bottle by suction.

This rotating filler operates with intermittent vacuum

to fill 50 bottles a minute.

Bottles are positioned beneath the 16 filling spouts

that seal their opening to allow for the creation of a vacuum,

which draws in the product.

Now atomizer pumps are inserted.

Handling two bottles simultaneously,

this machine seals the pump,

securing it around the neck of the bottle.

We see the white sleeve aligning the pump,

while the gray one tightens the pump.

Then there are the sprayers.

This machine applies the spray stoppers

and, with a hammer, presses them onto the pumps of the bottles,

which are now finished.

And one final product -- roll-on deodorants.

This machine fills 115 bottles a minute,

handling 8 bottles at a time.

A filling stem pours the product into the bottle,

and here they place the roller ball at 115 per minute.

Then the ball is lightly pressed into the cavity

in which it turns freely.

This plant makes over 1,200 different products

and yearly sells 32 million items per year.

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