HOW IT WORKS | Mushrooms, Laboratory Glassware, Flatpack Shelf, Hotel laundry | Episode 30

the show that reveals how extraordinary items in our world are designed constructed and produced see the engineering the technology and big ideas that make the world go round find out how it works coming up laboratory glassware the ancient craft of glassblowing with a very modern twist doing the hotel industry's dirty washing our factory cleans and presses tons of sheets and towels in just 24 hours and flat pack shelves how the factory that makes them gets it right before you mess it all up but first mushrooms if you think they all grow on forest floors you better think again this is how a mushroom factory produces the fantastic fungi on a massive scale this story of the mushroom begins with the compost it's grown in lorry loads of manure are delivered here every day already laced with millions of mushroom spores a fertilizer is added to help them get growing the mixture is then laid out into vast trays this task used to be performed by hand but automation has taken over and now a tray can be filled every 15 seconds this means the growers can produce far more mushrooms than before to meet the enormous demand in 2005 we ate a staggering 67 thousand tons of mushrooms in the UK alone finally a layer of damp mulch is spread liberally over each tray it protects the mushroom spores and keeps the humidity in so they can grow faster to keep the crop free from insects they use a pressurized environment that keeps the bugs at bay the cars mushrooms don't need any light to grow the factory can save space by stacking the trays on top of one another they're stored in these gigantic climate-controlled chambers by the temperature and humidity can be kept at the ideal level for mushroom growth the crop is regularly inspected to make sure things are going to plan in this factory the mushrooms take approximately two weeks to reach maturity and during this period they grow in size every day until each tray is almost overflowing the trades with the ripened mushrooms are taken here we're nimble-fingered workers pick the cream white crop they harvest up to 80 tons per week a third of the harvest of mushrooms are shipped fresh to vegetable stands and supermarkets all over Europe here they are sorted according to their size and weight the remaining mushrooms are destined for ready meals and pizza toppings having grown in cow manure compost the first thing the mushrooms need is a good bath once they're clean a quality controller picks out any damaged ones and then the healthy mushrooms go into another bath which makes them float either stem up or stem down this means that when they hit the slicer they're all cut vertically they're then sent off to be frozen ensuring they'll stay as fresh as possible the final leg of that journey takes them to this machine where they are weighed and then dumped into boxes the sealed boxes are taken by conveyor belt to be loaded up onto pallets with this factory producing over 4,000 tons of mushrooms each year it looks like mushrooms are really growing on us ever wondered how you make a test-tube the simple bit of lab kit and other more complex equipments is made by skilled men and complicated machines in factories like this one glassware has played an important role in the world of science and in this room they work the glass by hand to build some of the tools of this scientific trade glass is durable heat and chemical resistant and easy to clean so it's ideal for lab equipment from simple test tubes to intricate distillers these distillers separate compounds into individual elements but first they have to be made piece by piece it begins with two spiral tubes that are inserted inside one another this tour chooses natural gas and oxygen and creates heat of up to 1850 degrees Celsius the main casing of the distiller is made from a large tube this worker mounted on his equivalent of a potter's wheel the opening has to be narrowed so it fits this smaller tube it will be attached to he manipulates the molten glass with a heat proof paddle and blows a steady stream of air inside the tube to stop it collapsing using a rod he adds and removes glass to form the opening when he's got it to the right size he can join the two tubes together this is very technical stuff it takes at least three years to get certified as a glassblower but many more years of experience to graduate to complicated pieces like this one as you can see glassblowing requires large quantities of gas and this factory's gas bill must be fairly hefty as they use as much gas in one day as the average family would consume in a year finally the glassblower joins another large tube when they're all fused together the casing is finished which means that the inner spirals can be inserted they slide smoothly into place using delicate adjustments and his expertise the blower constructs entrance and exit holes in the body his colleague has just made after each step the glass has to be fired again and the constant heat takes its toll to make the distiller it's taken a lot of hard work and to very steady pairs of hands and now it's complete it will soon be in a lab separating compounds over at the other side of the factory simpler laboratory glassware such as test tubes and flasks is made by robots they use the techniques developed by glass blowers to shape the glass at high speed just to be safe human eyes still check the final products here the finishing touches are being applied to this laboratory flasks each flask is loaded individually and heated so the robots can shape the neck in a matter of seconds the glass is cooled and it's set in shape once each flask gets finished its sent off along with hundreds of others to a furnace and there it will be fired and then quickly cooled down which evens and toughen the glass structure this process is called tempering you and here's the before and after the tempered glass on the right is now clear and is tough enough to withstand repeated use in science labs or even in school chemistry experiments workers give each item a good polish which also give them a chance to check for any flaws or damage they are then boxed up and ready to play their small but vital part in the world of science still to come a laundry service for hopes howls how a factory makes thousands of towels and sheets clean crease free and ready for your stay and flat pack furniture how a factory makes sure that a piece of furniture fits together perfectly and there are no missing parts the flat-pack shelf cheap effective and allegedly easy to put up this is the intricate process that should make sure you get all the pieces you need to put up those shelves although it's thought that this type of shelving was originally invented in Sweden it's now made all over the world at this Factory in Germany trucks arrive with freshly manufactured chipboard which is the basic building material of the shelving unit each pallet weighs over a ton so a forklift truck helps unload the cargo and take it into the factory you won't be surprised to learn the chipboard is made out of chips of wood they're glued together and compressed to form boards like these this Factory uses up to 30,000 of them in a single day chipboard is cheap and practical but it doesn't exactly exude quality so to smarten up the soon-to-be shelves the chipboard is going to be covered with a wooden veneer this oak veneer is the right thickness half a millimeter but it has to be cut down to the right length for each piece of chipboard then some of the pieces are chopped again this time by a machine to make them the right width other pieces need to be sewn together so they can cover wider boards each veneer panel is then checked over a bright light and weak spots are repaired by gluing on small strips now it's time for the chip boards to get kitted out rollers carry the stacks through the factory then suction cups lift the boards to the veneering machine piece by piece they're given a quick dusting down then two rollers covered both sides of the board with adhesive the tacky surfaces would stick to a conveyor belt so instead they're moved on by thin metal disks a sheet of veneer is placed underneath and another one on top then it's glued into a chipboard sandwich by an industrial press time for the all-important holes 20 drills fixed in a frame are all raised simultaneously to ensure that all the holes are the right distance apart and the correct depth each panel is drilled in less than a second to make doubly sure that every piece of furniture will fit together perfectly they check a sample from the batch against the template and even fit the pegs and dowels the shelving units might be intended for storing books and CDs but they've also got to be able to withstand the odds spilled drink at a housewarming party so after they've been brought into line and dust it off the edges are sprayed with a coat of varnish behind the stack is a water wall which absorbs any stray varnish from the air at 80 degrees Celsius the varnish sets in just 10 minutes any wood fibers that are sticking to the edges are smooth down by a quick polish then it's time for the main services they're varnished in a 100 meter long automated system first the varnish is applied then the boards are dried off and finally they're polished once the boards are finished they're stacked by a conveyor belt next to all of the other parts and a team of workers adds every single item to each pack in theory everyday in hotels all over the world maids have to change the sheets and provide clean linen for the guests strawberry jam stains from romantic breakfasts have to disappear in 24 hours so how do they do it well you may be surprised to learn that they don't clean all of this laundry in the house when you're dealing with nearly 100 tons of dirty sheets towels tablecloths and napkins each month it makes far more sense to send it all to a specialist laundrette every day the linen from around 70 hotels ends up here first of all it's carefully sorted by hand to separate out any colored items and to ensure a full load for each wash cycle the coddle the sheets look pretty much the same the loads are managed by a computer system to keep the factory running smoothly and to ensure the hotels get their clean sheets back without delay each load on the conveyor belt receives a unique number so it doesn't get mixed up with another hotels laundry it then joins the queue to begin its wash cycle when it reaches the top the breakfast stained bed sheets fall into the first of 13 chambers chambers 1 to 4 are the pre wash cycles the next four are the main wash chambers the following fall offer rinsing and in the final chamber the fabric softener is added around 32 minutes after they went into the first chamber the sheets are rejected out of chamber 13 most of the water is squeezed out by a circular press it's recycled and flows back into the chambers to be used again on the next load the clean sheets emerge from the press looking like an enormous aspirin this pill of sheets is loaded into a giant tumble dryer and spun until it's nearly dry but not completely a bit of dampness that remains stomps the sheets from sticking to these rollers while they're being ironed the sheets finally appear pressed and folded they're wheeled away unloaded back into the truck but the return journey the service is guaranteed to take no more than 24 hours which means the hotel staff can serve another romantic breakfast to the next guests on fresh clean sheets you

Channel: Free Documentary

Views: 881,577

Rating: 4.7077165 out of 5

Keywords: How It's Made (TV Program), Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, BBC documentary, Laboratory Glassware, Laboratory (Building Function), How it Works, Laundry (Accommodation Feature)

Id: 0APGPt6tvu0

Length: 23min 22sec (1402 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 07 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/MicrobialMachines]

This farm and packing operation is a bit atypical in the United States.

The setup shown is commonly known in the states as a tray farm. It’s not the most common way of growing them but it’s common enough. Most button and port houses are static freestanding beds built into cinderblock housing. Water is more commonly applied by hand and pickers will climb built in scaffolding to reach the mushrooms instead of the tray coming to them.

This level of automation in the packing room is also a bit advanced relative to the average packing room. Additionally, mushrooms in the states are rarely washed as they will begin to degrade upon washing. This operation caters to food service where sliced frozen / canned mushrooms are preferred.

If you want to see the latest and greatest Agaricus technology, look to the Dutch. Their country has invested quite a bit in the agriculture sector and they have some of the most advanced mushroom growing technologies around.

[u/[deleted]]

Making that glass condenser should be on r/oddlysatisfying