LEGO Bricks In The Making

[Music] the lego brick is an old invention by now the first plastic brick was molded in 1949 since then thousands of new and unique Lego elements have been developed pick a Lego brick from a box today and it will fit with any brick that was molded decades ago this is the result of great precision and commitment for more than 50 years the LEGO Group has factories across the world but how do you produce hundreds of different types of bricks with such precision and in a wealth of colors every single day [Music] and how do the bricks find their way to the right boxes this is the story about how small pieces of plastic granulate are transformed into creative places our truck arrives with raw material at the factory a truck like this holds up to 28 tons of plastic granulate the granulate is blasted from the truck into tall silos where it is stored different types of plastic granulator used depending on the function of each Lego element the granulated spread down a labyrinth of long pipes into the factory the pipes lead to the heart of the Lego factory the molding area [Music] I take injection molding machines produce Lego elements 24 hours a day seven days a week first the raw granulate is mixed with the dye bricks are currently produced in over 50 different colors the colored granulates is then led into the molding machine within no time the granulate is heated to between 230 and 310 degrees Celsius the plastic melts into a texture much like toothpaste with great force the paste is then fed into the mold great forces must be controlled during this process the pressure can reach 29 thousand psi in comparison a car's tire pressure is 29 to 43 psi in the mould the material is cooled in a matter of seconds and out comes a newborn Lego brick as we know it [Music] plastic wastes from the molding machines it's ground and recycled straight away each moles can make one shape of lego elements at a time so make a different shape of elements the molds must therefore be replaced the unique molds are part of the secret behind the success of the LEGO Group in each factory there's a department dedicated to regular cleaning and maintenance of the molds the molds are made with great accuracy ensuring that all Lego bricks always fit together perfectly the molds are therefore handled with greatest care each mold has a specific set of instructions which among other things cover pressure time and temperature temperature tests and molding tests are carried out to ensure the machine is programmed to perfection at each replacement of the molds samples are sent to the Quality department which measures such things as the durability and precision of the element it is ensured that the Lego element is perfect AGV stands for automatic guided vehicle robots like these were introduced into the production as early as 1987 when the books by the moulding machine is full these intelligent helped us replace it with a new empty box the AGB then takes the full boxes to the conveyor system a unique barcode identifies the contents of each box the boxes are shaken to even out the content ensuring it takes up as little space as possible now the lids can be closed this is where the journey of the boxes ends for now in high bay warehouses up to 37 meters high the boxes are ready to be collected when a specific lego element is required the box is collected all registration and glocalization is entirely automated the boxes are then transported onwards from here many elements are taken directly to the packaging lines but not these little guys that many figures must first get their own unique expression a machine can produce more than 7,000 torsos per hour over half a billion minifigures are produced every year making them one of the world's largest populations in the first part of the packaging process counting machines ensure that elements are put in small production boxes one by one they're weighed and measured to secure the right numbers in each box the bricks to be included in just one bag in a complete Lego set are placed in rows of counting machines the contents of each production box is then automatically put in a plastic bag [Applause] the bags are dropped into open Lego boxes along with the building instructions and large special elements the most efficient packaging lines pack over 50,000 boxes every 24 hours now the boxes are closed and sealed here we have final Lego boxes as we know them the Lego boxes are packed for shipping and stacked onto pallets they are now ready for a long journey first stop of the journey is at one of the large distribution centers [Applause] from here they are shipped to stores all over the world it is now up to children and adults to explore the fun and creative building experiences of the Lego set

Channel: The LEGO Group

Views: 3,129,272

Rating: 4.875041 out of 5

Keywords: LEGO, LEGO bricks, bricks, Lego documentary, Lego doc, doc, How to, How lego is made, factual, Short documentary, Lego facts, facts, listicle, Bricks in the making, awesome, crazy, cool

Id: C3oiy9eekzk

Length: 8min 32sec (512 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 02 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/kmlee1113]

now tell us how/why they always include random extra pieces in each set!

[u/Limeleader2]

Except for their unruly use of one time plastics when packaging, Lego is one of my all time favorite companies and they always seem so wholesome.

[u/Joe_of_all_trades]

I'm a bit dissapointed how uncolorful that factory is. Otherwise very neat

[u/valendinosaurus]

thanks for the boner!

[u/[deleted]]

You know you have a successful and robust company when over 80% of your manufacturing is automated. This CEO could literally hire a couple of programmers, alter the system a bit, create more machines and robots, and automate the entire process. Other than power, materials, maintenance, and very light QA, the company would be making some huge profit.

[u/checkonetwo]

not the "whole" process, how do they make plastic granulate?

[u/HansFromHell]

I am disapointed that the factory wasn't build with Lego...

[u/stha_ashesh]

super cool

[u/squidoo_434]

Wow,just wow