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Making a Lightbulb

Markbnj

Markbnj

Elite Member <br>Moderator Emeritus
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Six and a half minute film showing every step of the automated process of making a 100-watt incandescent light bulb. The machinery is apparently quite old and difficult to maintain. Probably one of the most complex fully-automated processes I've seen. The music is Bach's Brandenburg Concerto.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a0c_1419298643
 
Cool, saw it on How It's Made too (think it was actually the first episode of that show that I saw). Fairly similar process from what I recall. It's really cool to see some of this machinery at work, and lot of times it's very old machines that still work and are continuously maintained. In some cases you don't want to replace it because it would be too hard to replicate the results, especially for anything that requires a mold.

Would be kind of cool to code the automation logic for this type of machinery. In a machine this old though my guess is most of the logic is all mechanical, that is a whole genius of it's own.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Would be kind of cool to code the automation logic for this type of machinery. In a machine this old though my guess is most of the logic is all mechanical, that is a whole genius of it's own.
Click to expand...

Are you a Doctor Who fan? The clockword droid episode was pretty cool - mechanical robots built like timepieces:

http://www.eyeofhorus.org.uk/images...007/characteroptions-2007-clockwork-brain.jpg

http://stuartreviewsstuff.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/gitf2.jpg

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Clockwork_Droid
 
I used to live near a factory that made light bulbs. We would find all sorts of cool rejects along the railroad tracks, little pillows of glass they used as starters and half blow bulbs that were rejected early in the process.
 
It always amazes me to see that kind of stuff. the sheer amount of genius and knowledge to make all that work together and at the right times is just astounding to me.
 
Rakehellion said:
Here we go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKDjW2FWSsE
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Interesting vid. The promotional nature of it makes it a little harder to get a sense of the whole thing from end-to-end, but it looks like a combination of automated and manual steps and chemical processes. One of the things that most interested me about the incandescent line is that the whole process is automated from raw glass tubing to finished product.

Now who's going to find the LED video?
 
They say it is so inefficient (and I'm sure more modern equipment would be better) but surely they can't be claiming that a CFL is more efficient to build than an incandescent bulb.
 
How many jobs would be created if that factory wasn't automated. It's shameful that we find this beautiful when this "beauty" is destroying our country and our countrymen's lives. Sure they may not have a home, but they can sleep under that street lamp with that 100 watt light bulb that a robot made!
 
momeNt said:
How many jobs would be created if that factory wasn't automated. It's shameful that we find this beautiful when this "beauty" is destroying our country and our countrymen's lives. Sure they may not have a home, but they can sleep under that street lamp with that 100 watt light bulb that a robot made!
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You're right. If we could only make our lightbulbs by hand then everyone could get a job.

But of course, only the very wealthy would have light.
 
momeNt said:
How many jobs would be created if that factory wasn't automated. It's shameful that we find this beautiful when this "beauty" is destroying our country and our countrymen's lives. Sure they may not have a home, but they can sleep under that street lamp with that 100 watt light bulb that a robot made!
Click to expand...
Even factories that are automated need human workers. Remember when you could dial bell telephone and get a real operator? One that could answer questions, or connect you? etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc!!!!!!

"The world is big enough to satisfy everyone's needs. BUT, will always be too small to satisfy individual greed". Ghandi
 
Markbnj said:
Six and a half minute film showing every step of the automated process of making a 100-watt incandescent light bulb. The machinery is apparently quite old and difficult to maintain. Probably one of the most complex fully-automated processes I've seen. The music is Bach's Brandenburg Concerto.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a0c_1419298643
Click to expand...
Manufacturing microprocessor dies is also quite complex and highly automated.
Inside an Intel fab.

The bizarre part: Microprocessors are really just elaborately painted and carved rocks.
Sure, they're carved on incredibly pure rocks using light and chemicals, and painted with exposure to a controlled vapor, but....details.😀


Also, Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major: Good stuff.




momeNt said:
How many jobs would be created if that factory wasn't automated. It's shameful that we find this beautiful when this "beauty" is destroying our country and our countrymen's lives. Sure they may not have a home, but they can sleep under that street lamp with that 100 watt light bulb that a robot made!
Click to expand...
Darn machines, taking away jobs from hardworking people.

At what level do we start to establish a border between acceptable and unacceptable elimination of labor?



T9D said:
Here is a better one. Haven't you watched the 'How it's Made' series? There are a million of them with much more complex products. It's always fascinating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImSGcmJCegM
Click to expand...
It'd be nice if they'd ever put the series out on disc, but only if they're the ones narrated by Brooks Moore.



Markbnj said:
Yeah it's a great series, if a little antiseptic in presentation. It still seems to me the light bulb process is about as complicated as any I've seen.
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Bah, I'd have loved if they'd have gone into more detail, and at least found a pun-writer who was worth more than $2/hr. 😉
I'm the sort who didn't really care for the episodes where it was just one or two people making something. (Kayaks, fishing flies, hand-painted figurines...)
I liked seeing all the machines. Some of the little touches were interesting.
"Dammit, the flap on this box keeps getting caught. I know! I'll put a tiny whirling thing here to give it a stiff slap to bend it downward slightly!"

but

"...there's absolutely no room here to add anything else. Dammit."



I'd also have liked to see more use of high-speed cameras. They'd sometimes slow a machine down to a lurchingly-slow crawl where it looks like it's about to keel over and die because it wasn't meant to run at that speed, but it can be interesting to see the motion of parts as they're being flung around faster than a regular TV camera can see.
 
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