>You can run them, you can climb them, build them, fly them, even eat them. There's one thing they all share. They're all made in the USA. Known for its large-scale innovation, America has paved the way in the manufacturing world. >>When you can make things, you can do anything. It's that kind of destiny that America should always be striving for. >Join us as we look at just a few of the things that are made in this country every day. >>It can be done and we're doing it. >Made in the USA, on Modern Marvels. >>Over the last two centuries, the United States has carved its way into becoming one of the super powers of production. However, with a globalized economy changing the face of the manufacturing world, made in the USA has taken on a new meaning. But the US is still the number one manufacturer in the world turning out over one and half trillion dollars worth of goods a year. So what is the United States still making these days? The answer might surprise you. For 75 years, New Balance has been crafting athletic footwear for both the professional and every-day athlete. Originally founded in Boston in the early 1900's, New Balance has made a commitment to insure at least 25 percent of its athletic shoes sold in North America are manufactured on US soil. >There are five domestic factories between Massachusetts and Maine. >>These five factories staff over 2,000 employees. And one of those factories lies in the heart of Skowhegan, Maine. In 1965, there were over 29,000 shoe jobs in Maine. Today less than ten percent of those jobs remain. >It's important. It's not something you see every day. You know, a lot of stuff you see made in China, Japan, overseas. I think it's important that we still have something here in the United States keeping us busy. You know what I mean? >>It just gives me pride. You know, it's putting people to work. It's just, it's a great thing. >The factor is making New Balance's most popular technical shoe, sold in North America; the men's size 10 and a half model 993. By the end of the day, 3,000 pairs of shoes will be boxed and ready for the customers. The factory floor consists of seven separate stations: rolled goods, embroidery, prefit, computer stitching, manual stitching, sole preparation and assembly area. >>The process of shoemaking is very interesting. We start right off with rolled goods coming in on the dock. Those goods go to the cutting tables where the cutters cut those parts. >Over 30 components will build the top of the shoes, or what is called the upper. But before the upper is pieced together, the tongue makes a quick pit stop to the embroidering room where the Made in the USA label comes to life. These machines run at 800 rpm's, or 800 stitches per minute. At this rate, they spin over nine miles of thread each and every day. The upper begins to take form at the computerized stitching area. This is where the collar straps and signature Ns are added. To ensure consistent stitch lines, these machines utilize what is called See Technology. Using lighting and cameras, a machine will take a thousand pictures a second to follow the line of the shoe. >>So the machine will correct itself if there's any imperfections that we're making. That's a very innovative machine. >After the core components are added, the shoe moves to manual stitching or the closing area. This process relies on a more traditional sewing technique; the steady hands of the operator. This station speaks a language of its own. Here they stitch the sprong tip, crimp the collar lining and bonus close the heel. Only one size is made on any given day, ranging from a woman's four all the way up to a man's 18 quadruple E. Once the upper is completed, the shoe is steamed to form the heel and toe. At the same time, the sole is sprayed with hot-melt cement, which is the gluing agent that keeps the sole and upper together. It is then placed in a flash activator that applies quick, intense heat to ignite the adhesive. The sole and upper are then sealed and pressed, the insert is added, the shoe is laced, inspected and boxed for shipping. >>The average New Balance athletic shoe takes 32 to 36 people to assemble. >I've heard the analogy that we're not building watches many times and sometimes I wonder if that's true. The amount of technology that goes into this shoe, the quality that we're looking for, the tolerances of the stitching and the stitch lines, so, as I said, I'm not sure we aren't building watches. It is pretty tight, what we do every single day. >>Any one of the five US New Balance plants produces between 3,000 to 7,000 pairs of shoes a day. For this company, much of the enjoyed success can be credited to the most unlikely of muses, the chicken. Boston, Massachusetts, 1906. English immigrant William Riley set out to create prescription footwear that would alleviate arch pain for those who spend their work days standing up. He developed an arch support based on the structure of the three-pronged chicken foot, which Riley believed exemplified perfect balance. Using this concept with his knowledge of the human foot, the New Balance legacy was born. Over the next several decades, the New Balance shoe has developed into a complex piece of athletic footwear. But the race to perfection continues. At the New Balance Sports Lab in Lawrence, Massachusetts, engineers are working on the next generation of running shoes to be made in America. Utilizing the latest in motion-sensor technology, a runner is monitored by eight high-speed cameras, taking 200 pictures a second. This information is then rendered into 3D animations for the engineers to analyze. >We can utilize this information to calculate exactly the joint angles and segment motion we're looking to investigate. >>This approach allows the team to design a product that will better respond to a runner's needs. >Our goal is to allow athletes to perform as best as they can any given day of the week. We're going to make very small, minute changes that maybe the athlete doesn't even realize that's going to give him a second on an 800. A second is the difference between first and eighth. >>After a new shoe has been developed, it's sent to the Smash Lab. >This machine's a servo-hydraulic unit that can produce very large quantities of force and can do so in very short bursts of time. >>In just a few minutes, the mini-bionics unit can inflict the wear and tear of a three-hour marathon run. >So the mini-bionics unit basically allows us to produce anywhere from zero to 5,000 pounds of force. In this case, you're seeing the shoe being impacted ten times per second. But when we're evaluating this type of product, we want to make sure that it's going through the ut, its utmost durability in making sure that nothing's going to break down over time or crack over time. So essentially this is a pretty extreme test but a pretty important test for our customers. >>The Smash Lab isn't necessarily the toughest exercise the New Balance brand will endure. For over two decades, New Balance has provided athletic footwear for every branch of the armed forces. Each pair is specialized with the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Navy and Marine Corps emblems for the service men and women of the United States military. >People should care about the fact that New Balance is making shoes domestically because it's unique, because so much we believe is not being done domestically anymore. We believe in the domestic workforce, we believe in their creativity, their innovation and their ability to meet demand. It can be done and we're doing it. >>While New Balance was born to run, the Segway PT was built to rock. We're dissecting this gravity-defying unit to find out just how it stands on two wheels. >The United States has long been known as the car manufacturing super power. While this country is still building cars for the world over, some US companies are rethinking the wheel. Washington DC; a tour group is gearing up for their first ride in the nation's capital via Segway Personal Transporters. Within minutes, they're off without a hitch. The Segway PT's uncanny ability to balance the most novice of riders is a technological breakthrough. >>I think the most interesting part technologically about the Segway is how sensitive the gyroscopes are to what pressure you put forward and back because I'm looking at you so I feel like I should be closer to you and that, you know, brain power just converts right to the feet power and the Segway pick up on it absolutely intuitively. It's really, really cool. >To understand the mind of the Segway PT, you would have to go to where it all begins, in Bedford, New Hampshire. Each and every unit sold around the world is built right here at the Segway headquarters. An American-made brand with out-of-this-world technology. Start to finish, the unit is completely assembled by a team of five in less than 30 minutes with an average of 50 made a day. All parts come prefabricated from the US and other countries around the world. A chassis begins its trek down the line and a Segway PT is ready to take form. The motors are the first to be installed. Followed by the control unit boards and sensors. These two components are considered the brains of the Segway PT. The gearbox is added, then the chassis enters the test station. Here the serial number is registered and the operating software is loaded and calibrated. Next the platform cover is placed over the chassis. This allows for the rider to communicate with the electrical boards and sensors. The hub of the handlebar or the pivot assembly is attached, which feeds the steering commands to the processors and the control board. The assembling line ends with the wheel and battery installation. The handlebar is attached for the test drive and the Segway PT is ready for shipping. This technology is credited to Dean Kamen, who originally set out to build a self-balancing wheelchair capable of climbing stairs and allowing for the disabled to greet people at a standing eye level. After Kamen discovered his balancing system worked with a person standing up, the Segway transporter came to life. So how does this mobile unit pull off such a picture perfect balancing act? >>A Segway works on a principle called dynamic stabilization. Sometimes it's more commonly referred to as the inverted pendulum, sort of like balancing a broomstick in your hand. So I stand upright and when I start to lean forward, the Segway underneath me starts moving forward to match my movement so it accelerates as I lean forward. The same is true of breaking. When I lean back, the machine slows down. When the sensors that are attached to the leaning handlebars sense that I'm leaning one way or another, it responds in proportion to how I lean in order to sort of slalom, just as if I'm skiing or riding a skateboard. >So how does it do all that? Well, let's start to take a look inside. >>J.D. Heinzman is one of Segway's principal engineers. He's been involved in the technology for over a decade. >Because this system is balancing a person, we have redundant systems on board. So you'll see here everywhere that there is two pretty much of everything electronic in here. So these are our control boards. >>For safety, every function in the Segway PT is duplicated, meaning there are two fully-operational systems working in unison. This is called redundancy. For example, there are two motors driving each wheel. If one fails, the other is programmed to take full command while signaling the board to bring the unit to a safe and complete stop. This prevents the Segway PT from ever losing its balance. That gravity-defying balance comes from a group of sensors that could fit in the palm of your hand. >This unit that you see right in the middle here is what we call our BSA or our balance-sensor assembly. These components work together to figure out which way is up and figure out when the platform is level. >>This balancing assembly is a vast network of wires and sensors, inspired by the human body. A person's equilibrium comes from the function of the inner ear, which contains tiny patches of hair cells. When the head moves, the cells are stimulated, causing them to send messages to the brain. The brain then tells the body where it is in relation to gravity and earth in order for it to remain balanced. In the Segway, sensors respond to the rider's shift in weight. Signals are then sent to the processor or the brain of the Segway. From there, operational commands go to the motors, which adjust the wheels to keep the platform level. The result, a fluid and seamless riding experience. With the balance in place, one question still remains: how fast does it go? >The Segway PTs can go up to 12 and a half miles an hour, which is about three to four times a walking pace. It's roughly the equivalent of an average person sprinting. And the reason we chose 12 and a half miles an hour is because we designed the Segway PT to fit into a pedestrian environment, so operating on sidewalks with other people who might be walking, so we chose that speed limit so that the vehicle would integrate more easily into that environment. >>Because of its smooth glide, the Segway PT has been adopted to alleviate a different set of commuting obstacles. Segs for Vets is an organization that is utilizing the unit's intuitive technology to help veterans who have sustained catastrophic injuries during combat operations. >And what's great is that through legislation that we've been able to pass, the Segway is now considered a fully-fledged wheelchair. >>A group of recipients are being trained on how to best navigate the Segway PT through their new set of challenges. Segs for Vets has donated over 500 Segway units to eligible veterans. An unintended benefit born from the very technology Dean Kamen created to help those with disabilities. >It changes everything about it and you don't mind being on a Segway. You don't feel disabled and people don't look at you as disabled. They're always just looking up at you now. >>The Segway just became an extension of my legs and it's given me back a lot of things that I thought I lost. >This balance technology is also being exported. Marathon Robotics has applied the technology in creating live fire exercises for the Australian military. A tele-operator can control a fleet of free-ranging targets by designing a game scenario on a computer. This allows the conductor to simulate unpredictable movements for the soldier's point of view. But in the broader scope, Segway's goal is still to help the world rethink the way it commutes. The next generation of US made Segway transports has been unveiled, such as the Puma. Utilizing the Segway sensory technology, this transporter steers with a drive-by wire interface, eliminating all mechanical controls. Another is the Envy, which is designed to perform autonomous mobility, leaving the driving to the machine. In collaboration with General Motors, these visionary prototypes are slated for a 2030 release. The Segway PT is an American-made machine that defies conventional design and a company that pushes forward in creating the transportation of the future today. >Being made in America isn't only about the textile and electronic industries. Our food has also reached the global market. Discover Foods in Hayward, California, has become one of the largest frozen-food distributors in the country. And this American company has become the top provider of a very popular Asian appetizer; the potsticker. Also known as a dumpling, the potsticker consists of a meat or vegetable filling thinly wrapped in dough. A dumpling is traditionally boiled, where a potsticker is fried. >Our Ling Ling Potstickers are the leading pasta potstickers in the world. We have the largest market share of anyone in the United States, well-recognized as the authentic, great-tasting potsticker to give the real Asian experience with the convenience of home preparation. >>This is the beginning of our process in our mixing and grinding room. We process roughly 25,000 pounds of chicken a day. Ten tons of cabbage and enough flour in the process to make 15,000 loaves of bread every day. We bring in our raw chicken, grind it, mix it with the cabbage, spices and oils. >The ingredients are finely blended together to reach a consistent filling. At the same time, the dough ingredients are mixed, then threaded through a ribbon to flatten out the dumpling skin. The remaining scraps of dough are collected, then recycled back through the ribbon to create more dumpling circles, wasting as few grains of flour as possible. Now, it's time to create the dimpled dumplings. The dough is cut into circles and the dumplings are loaded with 12 and a half grams of filling. >>Our potsticker line produces more than 25 potstickers per second or over a million potstickers every day. >They are then pinched with stainless-steel fingers to mimic the look and feel of a dumpling that was made by hand. The potstickers then head to the freeze process to lock in the freshness. >>This is the spiral freezer which preserves the product so that they are wholesome and great-tasting for our consumers. In this freezer we maintain the temperature at minus 14 degrees Fahrenheit. The product resides in here, moving up the spiral for a period of 23 minutes, at which time it is completely frozen and ready for our bagging and packaging operation to ship to our consumer. >This American phenomenon of buy now, eat later, allows highly-perishable foods to be distributed all over the world without compromising its freshness or taste for months to come. The frozen-food industry can be credited to New York taxidermist, Clarence Birdseye whose 1923 quick-freeze method revolutionized food in the US. This technique works by quickly exposing foods to extremely low temperatures. In accelerating the freeze time, fewer ice crystals form, which can damage tissue structure. As a result, the fresh taste remains until the consumer is ready to eat. The frozen potstickers work their way over to the weighing and packaging area. An elaborate system of computerized scales is used to weight out one bag of potstickers. They pass through several weight buckets in order to wean down any excess pieces. Once the buckets approve the weight, the potstickers are combined for a final portion calculation, then dropped into the bag. At this rate, the packaging line seals over 52,000 bags a day. Another million potstickers heads to stores and this bubbled appetizer is ready for you whenever you are ready for it. In discovering all things made in the USA, we ran the gamut with New Balance, blazed a trail with Segway and indulged in an American treat with an Asian twist at Discovery Foods. But to understand the innovations of today, you have to reach back to the inspirations of yesterday; toys. K'NEX, in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, is the only large-scale toy manufacturing company in the United States. By thinking outside of the box, this US company now sells over ten million sets a year. Started in 1992, in just 500 US retail stores, K'NEX toys are now carried in 17,000 stores in over 40 countries. The concept is simple: take a rod and connector, snap them together and repeat. These basic parts allow for an infinite amount of possibilities and have spawned a new generation of K'NEX toys. The modern-day toy factory consists of an army of stainless-steel, high-tech machines. K'NEX has over 250,000 square feet of manufacturing automation working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. >Our manufacturing process is known as classic injection molding. Essentially we're making fancy Jell-O molds in stainless steel to exactly whatever part it is. >>When a newly-designed part comes in from the development team, a stainless steel cavity must be created. Using state-of-the-art mold fabrication precision, lasers electronically burn out the cavity, which is to mirror the design of the rod, connector or brick. Outdoor silos hold over 200,000 pounds of petroleum-based plastic before the material is brought in to be melted and molded into a part. >The basic injection-molding process is the taking of a solid plastic, feeding it up into the proportional loader, mixing it with color and converting it into a liquid at a very high temperature, in this case 420 degrees which will come out of the nozzle and shoot into the back of the tool and actually push the molten plastic into the cavities of the tool to form the impression of that cavity, which in this case is a K'NEX rod. >>Each press is microprocessor controlled and self-diagnosed with a clamping force of 400 tons. With over five billion parts made each year, K'NEX is the only major US manufacturer able to compete with China's grip on toy production. >The reason we're able to complete with everybody around the world with our parts is because we've automated and invested in incredible technology to get the precision of the parts every time. For every one of these five billion parts that we make every year, the parts are better and the parts are less expensive and they're closer to our customers. It's what made in America is all about. >>K'NEX is known for its big ideas, such as working grandfather clocks, bikes you can ride, to even a fully-functional 8,000 piece Ferris wheel. >It'll take a good builder anywhere from 15 to 20 hours to put together and it definitely, with this many pieces you can then build whatever you imagine. The system is infinite. You can really build anything you want but we know we just can't sell one single box of toys so we do prescribed building, whether it's a roller coaster, a car, an airplane, we want kids to buy multiple K'NEX toys that can all work together. It's the big bin at home. Once you get more, you dump them in and you keep growing and growing the bin of K'NEX parts so you can build anything you want. >>From the classics to the confusing, no idea is too simple or perplexing for the development team at K'NEX. This group spends countless hours working on creating the next great toy set or model. >The design process starts in a couple of different ways. We take an idea and we do what we call a sketch. And that sketch starts either on the computer or with the parts that we have and do a physical sketch. We then take that sketch and show it to the design team and the marketing team and sometimes focus groups as well and see if that sketch has some legs to it. >Once those legs are built, the toy needs to be carefully dissected and mapped out because the construction of the set is all part of the fun. Graphic designers are given the task to devise steps that pose a challenge for the assembler but at the same time, maintaining a user-friendly appeal. >>We spend about half of our development dollars doing instructions so that a kid can have guaranteed success no matter what age. >The vibrant colors have more purpose than aesthetic appeal but also speak a universal language. >>It's designed so it can be used by any kid anywhere in the world. The color coding is important because we don't want words so just color-coded building instructions lets the instruction books be clear to everybody. >And that global reach has helped turn the toy construction set business into a 20 billion dollar a year industry. However, this booming growth has greatly influenced the manufacturing community. >>Toys used to be made just about a hundred percent here. And over the last 25 years, you've seen America shed about 45 percent of the manufacturing jobs overseas. >But with 95 percent of its production happening in the United States, K'NEX is creating more jobs for US workers. >>If we had just design here and did everything in China, then we'd probably have only about ten or twelve employees here instead of 200 and that ripple effect is about another 3,000 jobs in this area. >According to the US Chamber of Commerce, for every one manufacturing job, several more are created in sectors such as supply, transportation and web design. >>We're able to have Americans helping Americans making American toys, kids having fun and parents having jobs. >However simple or complex they are, these miniature playthings will inspire the next generation of American inventors, builders and craftsmen. >>When you can make things, you can do anything and manufacturing things that people love in the United States says to me that there's quality, there's innovation and there's opportunity. And it's that kind of destiny that America should always be striving for. Following the road to all things made in America, you can't help passing a few banners along the way. The official flag of the United States has become one of the most recognizable symbols in the world. Take a look around; it's everywhere, adorning public buildings, doorsteps and lining neighborhood streets. The American flag is one product that demands to be made by domestic hands. Annin Flag Makers in South Boston, Virginia, is one of the oldest and largest flag manufacturers in the world. >I ship probably pretty close to 18 to 20,000 flags a week but I ship US flags, I ship foreign country flags, I ship a lot of custom flags. We produce more US than we do anything else. >>The US flag-making business has come a long way since the days of Betsy Ross and Mary Pickersgill, both considered pioneers in the art of flag-making in the early 17 and early 1800s. Back then it would take a month to make one 30 by 40-foot flag. Today, that same flag can be made in just a few hours. The process begins with the arrival of the raw material or gray goods, which are rolls of nylon and polyester. The material needs to first go through the dying process to convert the dull fabric into the flag's signature colors. >We call these jig dyers and once we put them into the, put the material into the dyer, then it runs back and forth on rollers the whole length. There's a 3,000-yard roll in there and it's running back and forth running through the dye at the bottom of the machine. From the time we put it in to the time we take it out, it takes us about ten hours to dye one 3,000-yard roll. >>In 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act that ordered the flag to hold stripes of red and white and the base of the star field to be blue. These three colors symbolized courage, purity and justice. Once the dye process is completed, the rolls are to be cut into cakes, which will allow the three colors to be sewn together. >These are all automatic sewing machines. When they load the stripes on, then the machines will sit their and sew without an operator actually running the machine. When the bottom runs out they have to put a new bobbin thread in, if they break a thread they have to keep up with that and one operator usually runs about four machines. >>After leaving the automatics department, the sewn stripes are cut into shorts or longs. The shorts are attached next to the embroidered star field and the longs go underneath. The fly hem is then added to prevent the flag from unraveling and shredding in the wind. A golden yellow fringe is added to those intended for interior settings. A canvas heading is attached. The brass grommets are inserted and the flag is folded and boxed for shipping. Annin has a rich background in providing flags to some of the most profound moments in United States history. >We've been making flags for better than 165 years. We made the flag that was hoisted over Iwo Jima. We made the flag that was on Abraham Lincoln's coffin. We made the flag that was posted on the moon. >>Since Zachary Taylor took the Presidential Oath in 1849, Annin and Company has provided US flags for every inauguration over the last 160 years. >Well, we make American flags all the way from four by six-inch stick flags, that people wave on a stick all the way up to 30 foot by 60 foot. >>The proportions of the flag were not officially standardized until President William H. Taft signed the Executive Order of 1912. It prescribed the hoist and fly of every flag purchased for the government shall be a ratio of 10 to 19. Each year this facility ships out over 500,000 flags to vendors all over the country. Along with the stars and stripes, Annin manufacturers every state flag in the union and every country flag in the United Nations. However, not all Annin flags are stitched and embroidered. Some are printed. Today Annin is screen printing what many consider to be its crowning achievement; the POW MIA flag. During the height of the Vietnam War, Annin Flag Makers was commissioned to create a flag that honored prisoners of war and those missing in action. In 1971, the black and white motif was unveiled and has since become the iconic image for those who have not yet come home from war. To this day, it is the only flag ever flown over the White House alongside the stars and stripes. The process begins with a scoured fabric that is adhered to a belt and fed through the line. The printer will then dispense the liquid dye onto the inkwell of the screen. The platform will then drop, allowing for a magnet underneath the belt to propel a stainless-steel rod across the screen, forcing the liquid dye through its pores. This process is repeated until the color is completely deposited into the fabric. Once the flags are printed, they will advance to the end of the belt, where the wet ink is dried. The material travels to the three-hole washer to eliminate any excess or residual ink. Then it's straightened and dried. From there the flags are rolled, cut and ready to be shipped out to vendors across the country. With the large number of flags made under one roof, it's no wonder that Annin is one of the largest flag manufacturers in the world. And all of them made right here in the United States. >Annin prides itself on all its product being US made. Uh, we advertise all of our product is US made. By rights it should be made in the USA. >>Today, being made in America evokes a new sense of pride for this country; a collaboration of man and machine that continues to push American innovation forward, lead by an assembly line of fabricators, engineers and artists who are filling the shelves with an array of home-grown products, carrying on the manufacturing legacy that is made in the USA.
