Some Assembly Required (2007–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Moonbounce/Zamboni/Windows - full transcript
For all the everyday things,
all the stuff in our world,
there's the story of
how it comes to be.
Hello. I'm Brian Unger.
I'm Professor Lou Bloomfield.
UNGER: From the drawing
board to the assembly line,
it's how the ordinary is
actually extraordinary.
On "Some Assembly Required,"
bounce houses,
Zamboni, and windows.
Well, we're in
Burbank, California,
at the H.Q. of Magic Jump.
Now, their motto is,
"We manufacture fun,"
which means they make
these really cool inflatables,
these jump houses.
You've probably driven
by one of these like I have,
gotten out of your car,
walked into a
children's birthday party,
and said, "Excuse me,
kids, I need to jump in this."
Yeah, it scares the children.
But you got to
admit, it is a little fun.
Sure, fun, but also curious,
even to an old guy like me.
Since the beginning of time,
kids have loved
jumping up and down.
But bounce houses, or jump
houses as some call them,
didn't get off the
ground until the 1960s.
Magic Jump is one of
the giants of this industry,
a family business run
by Andy Bagumyan.
Why is it so popular now?
Because this is for kids,
and the kids love to jump.
The Bagumyans of Burbank.
They opened in 1995
as a two-man operation.
Today over 30 people work to
keep up with the high demand
for buying and
renting bounce houses.
We rent like 80 jumpers a week.
- Really? 80 jumpers a week?
- Yeah.
Wow, they're
going like hot cakes.
Yes.
The Bagumyans make over
150 kinds of bounce houses,
and they all start here
with Manny Avadesian.
AVADESIAN: What we
do is start with a concept.
Say we want to start a giraffe.
UNGER: Where do you
get your ideas from, Manny?
Can you execute
anything you want?
Of course.
Yes, the possibilities
are endless.
You have incredible confidence.
AVADESIAN: We start
with a simple shape, like so.
Mm-hmm.
And I tell the program
to flatten it out.
Then I send that flat
shape to the pattern cutter.
Mm-hmm.
And it cuts the exact shape
that I've created here out there.
Out on the floor, we roll
out the first 50 feet of vinyl
for the pattern cutter.
It is a computer-guided
circular razor.
This is a really hard part.
- I just push the button?
- Yeah.
I'll give you the sign, and
you just push this button.
Okay.
Sam's gonna give me the sign,
and then I'm going
to push the button.
Waiting on you, Sam.
- Really? Good to go?
- Yeah.
Let's make a giraffe.
So, what do we do now? Do
we pick out these patterns?
Yes. Get these patterns.
UNGER: It really is
like making cookies.
And these are
the... Check it out.
We have the
beginnings of a giraffe.
- Upside down.
- Upside down.
Sure, oh, yeah.
Oh, right here. There you go.
Wait a minute. Right side.
There's the eye.
Yeah.
This is turning into
"Wild Kingdom" right here.
One of the biggest challenges
of designing the
first bounce house
was finding a material
that could withstand this.
Did you try to make
a paper jump house?
[Laughs]
Did you make one out of glass?
Did you make one out of latex?
You did.
I was gonna say,
latex is inflatable.
Stretchable. You
can bounce on it.
It's not very durable.
That's right.
It can break.
Turns out plastic is
perfect for a bounce house,
but not just any
plastic will do.
The best kind is vinyl,
and the Bagumyans
get theirs from up north.
The Naizil Corporation
here in Ontario, Canada,
makes about 1,200
miles of vinyl every year.
You know how much
vinyl that is, Lou?
Tell me.
That's enough to build a freeway
from Los Angeles to Houston
made entirely of vinyl.
That'd be one big Slip 'n Slide.
UNGER: Oh,
indeed. A lot of vinyl.
Whipping up a big pot of vinyl
is like cooking
with, well, big pots.
We start with plasticizer.
This is the stuff
that gives plastic
strength and flexibility.
Now, Lou, I see all kinds
of top-shelf plasticizers here.
They all have weird names.
PlastiStab, Plasticizer,
Plastomoll DOA.
That sounds good for you.
This all gets whipped up
into some sort of cocktail?
Yeah, we're starting off
with the liquid
basis for the plastic.
The plasticizer are like
molecular lubricants.
Polyvinyl chloride, or
PVC, is a hard, brittle plastic.
This stuff softens it.
- Are you ready for it?
- Yeah. Oh.
Now, how much vinegar
do we add to this, Lou?
Now it looks like fake
butter for popcorn.
The next element we add
to our chemical stew is color.
Since we're making bounce houses
that must be
eye-catching to little kids,
we need custom
colors, lots of them.
Oh, thanks. I'll get you back.
Now we have to add the final
and most important ingredient,
vinyl, or PVC.
This is polyvinyl chloride,
a hard, brittle plastic
consisting of lots of
little chain-like molecules,
all tangled up and
barely able to move.
It's kind of like spaghetti
you left in the bowl
overnight with no sauce.
But once you mix it with
the plasticizers in the vat,
they'll lubricate
those molecules,
kind of like adding
sauce to the spaghetti.
And now you have a
flexible, tough, elastic material
to cover the fabric
for moon bounce.
[Buzzer sounds]
The liquid vinyl will be
poured onto a polyester fabric
and then put into the oven.
UNGER: Now, it'll
travel about 20 meters
at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
and emerge here perfectly cured.
It's then fed to this final
spool right over here,
where it's a completed
product of vinyl,
and it's ready to be
shipped to, say, Magic Jump
to make a beautiful
new bounce house.
We're assembling a bounce house.
This is an air-cushioned
jumping heaven for kids,
all made possible
through PVC, or vinyl.
The airtight yet
flexible material
is perfect for helping
kids defy gravity.
They call it fun.
At Magic Jump in California,
they use about 3 million
feet of thread in a single year
and 35 tons of vinyl every
month to make bounce houses.
Like the one Manny
Avadesian here is making.
It's shaped like a giraffe.
Ah, but what is a
giraffe without its spots?
This calls for some
heavy-duty glue.
And then any kind of
special glue in here?
Yes. This is
special vinyl cement.
It's not that toxic where it
will give you brain damage.
Won't give you any brain
damage? Won't do any of that?
I shouldn't sniff this,
though, basically.
- No, it's not good to sniff it.
- Okay.
Reminds me of making
a model airplane.
So, basically, Manny, our
computer designer inside,
has created what we will
call spots for our giraffe.
And this is the part
that gets actually,
physically, kind of messy.
See, Manny, he gets
to sit at the computer
and just peck away
at the keyboard.
This is where the
actual labor comes in.
I'm starting to feel it already.
It's not exactly
like a rose garden.
No.
It's pretty...
Whew.
That's why the guys that do
it regularly are not here today.
Oh, they're not?
They're recuperating?
[Chuckles]
Okay.
Okay.
I'm ready for the
long haul. Are you?
Yes. Go ahead.
Here we go.
- Like so?
- One done.
One done. And how
many? 149 to go?
Yeah.
Manny, we should
be more economical
with the spots, right?
Yes, we should.
Now, vinyl is
tough, even airtight.
But bounce houses,
they need to breathe
and not hold air
in like a balloon.
If that were the case, too
many kids in a bounce house
would just blow
the sides right out.
So this thing adapts, and it
has to be allowed to adapt
to the number of people inside.
The way they do that is with
the air compressor that fills it.
This unit puts
air in to blow it up
and to keep it inflated
against the leaking,
but it also allows
the air to come out
when the houses
carry a lot of weight.
It's like the biggest
sewing job in the world.
I mean, wow.
I got a little gas
pedal down here.
So, do you want to
get on the other side
and pull it through for me?
Okay.
I mean, ordinarily,
do you have someone
who helps you pull all
this material through?
- So it's like two-man job?
- Yeah.
- Uh-huh.
- You cannot do it by yourself.
But you did want to see me
try to do it by myself, didn't you?
Hey, do you like
working for Sam?
He's my cousin.
He's your cousin?
So you got to...
I don't think he knows
what he's talking about.
Hold on. Hold on.
Hold on. Hold on.
You want to see the difference?
Do I want to see the difference
between what you
sewed and what I sewed?
Oh, geez.
I'm just gonna say that
you did this whole thing.
This is where you were awake.
And then this is where
you fell asleep right here.
[High-pitched beep]
Oh, darn.
Breaktime.
Now, while I've been trying
to sew the head of this giraffe,
the rest of the crew is
assembling the body.
170 square yards of vinyl,
all fed through industrial-
grade sewing machines by hand.
This heavy-duty
needle is pretty scary.
Sam, how long does it take
to pass an entire bounce house
through one sewing
machine like this?
A unit this size
takes about two days.
Two days?
So John will be
working for two days
- just sewing one bounce house?
- Yeah.
I imagine, John, this thing
could just take your finger
right off if you slipped.
If you notice, John
actually has all of his fingers.
Our bounce house is done.
200 pounds of vinyl
cut, sewn, and glued.
The moment of truth.
Time now for an awkward
moment with Sam Bagumyan.
Kick off the shoes, dude.
It's time to bounce.
You know what I'm saying?
[Grunts]
- Is the bounceability good?
- Yeah.
- Like enough?
- Yeah.
Sam, you're not
jumping high enough.
If your head touches this.
- If my head touches this?
- You pass the test.
Can I pull this down?
No.
No. I can't do that?
Thanks for letting us
spend the day with you.
- Thank you.
- That's a nice house.
I made it.
I'm exhausted.
It is one of the
world's great mysteries
how one sweep of this cool ride
turns rough, dull ice
smooth and shiny.
Now, you've seen it over and
over ever since you were a kid,
and you still don't
know how it's done.
So, how do you take a dirty,
grungy ice surface like this one
and turn it into a nice, glassy,
silky smooth one like this
just using a razor blade,
a few gallons of water,
and do it in just seconds?
We are inside the
Zamboni factory
in Paramount, California.
Zamboni is a name that is
synonymous with ice resurfacing.
And anyone who has been to
an ice rink has had to wonder,
how do these ice
resurfacers work?
It's kind of a mystery.
Well, not really.
I mean, it begins with a vehicle
designed to drive on ice.
Now, just like any other
set of heavy-duty wheels,
the Zamboni ice resurfacer is
built on a heavy-duty chassis
with enough steel to hold
five tons of ice and water.
So, we are building our chassis
that is going to hold
the tremendous weight.
How many pieces of metal
make up this chassis, Perry?
PERRY: There's about 23 pieces.
- About 23?
- Yeah.
Enough to build a
very strong chassis.
When Frank Zamboni
built his early versions
of an ice resurfacer,
he started out
using a jeep chassis.
But it couldn't handle the
weight he needed to put on it.
Now, Frank, who
was a real avid tinkerer
and a one-time mechanic,
decided to build a
chassis from scratch.
The biggest change Frank made
was these reinforcement beams
that span the
width of the chassis.
Now, they weld each
seam by hand here.
That kind of expert detail
is what makes a Zamboni ice
resurfacer last up to 50 years.
That's good.
Don't want to
mess it up too much.
UNGER: Well, Patrick here
is raising this giant steel
frame that we've welded.
It's got an
anti-corrosive coating,
which will help this
thing from being rusted.
The folks at Zamboni
have a ginormous
85% global-market
share on ice resurfacing,
yet it's still very much a
mom-and-pop operation.
It's really a bit of a
homegrown company here.
We work the same way that
Frank Zamboni originally did,
where if he saw a
problem, then he would fix it.
'Cause this
assembly is a little...
- I mean, it's personalized.
- Right.
We've got the Zamboni
and our Zamboni notes.
[Buzzer sounds]
- I'm on break. See ya.
- Okay.
Our chassis is built and wired.
Now we need some power.
This compact,
maneuverable machine,
it does a lot of work
in a confined space
in a short amount of time.
And to handle all that,
they use hydraulics.
What if you try to lift a
couple thousand pounds
of ice and snow and water?
How are you gonna do
that with just a motor?
You're gonna need
some pretty serious gears.
So they use hydraulics for that.
BLOOMFIELD: In hydraulic
systems, power is distributed
by pushing fluid from
one place to the next.
In a Zamboni machine, an
engine or motor powers a pump
that forces pressurized
fluid through hoses
that feed it to all
the parts that rotate
or require heavy lifting.
It can push with
10,000 pounds of force.
It can lift something
that's as heavy as a bus.
Really?
UNGER: That
hydraulic system is key
to handling the Zamboni's
three main jobs...
Removing, cleaning, and
smoothing over the ice.
And none of that can happen
without some very big tanks.
- Are you ready, José?
- Yes.
UNGER: Thank goodness
for this hoist, huh?
It's about a ton.
Yes.
Let's just lift it.
Lift at the knees. Okay, ready?
- Yeah.
- Too much.
Let's use the hoist.
Thanks to hydraulics,
this snow tank can hold, lift,
and dump 100
cubic feet of dirty ice.
We want to lower this down.
Then this looks
like a hydraulic post.
Hydraulic cylinder, which
actually lifts the tank.
Tilts it forward so the
snow will come out.
Our Zamboni can
now carry the dirty ice
as it gets shaved away,
but it still has to clean
the ice and smooth it out.
To accomplish this,
the Zamboni needs to carry a
lot of water on board in tanks.
This is the world's
worst hot tub.
There are three
tanks on the Zamboni.
There's the snow tank,
which holds the dirty
ice after it's shaved,
and the freshwater tank,
which holds the water
that cleans the ice.
This machine is
like a big bar cart.
Now, inside this
tank goes vodka.
And what they do is they
lay this vodka down on the ice
and make a nice, big martini.
Have you tried licking the ice?
Try it sometime.
You'll get a buzz.
Okay, maybe not vodka.
This tank actually
holds the freshwater
that pours out onto the ice.
It freezes over and
becomes new ice.
Lou Bloomfield, you
forgot your flip-flops.
Once the Zamboni ice
resurfacers are assembled,
they often bring them out
here to the mean streets
of Paramount, California,
to see what they can do.
That's Richard Zamboni
behind me, tearing it up.
How's she handling, Richard?
- Good, good.
- Good.
Getting in there. Good circle.
Richard Zamboni is Frank's
son, and he still runs the company
in the same way and
in the same location...
Sunny, snowless
southern California.
Mr. Zamboni, let me
ask you a question.
This is not a completed
assembly, obviously.
We've got things
still to do here.
Why do you bring them out
here? What are you looking for?
Well, it just depends
on what shows up.
Through assembly,
one thing shows this.
You want to be certain
before it goes out the door.
What else does this need?
Well, this one will have
the paneling going on it.
Both the sides, the
front, and the back.
And then the conditioner.
Down in here, right?
That's the real working
part of the machine.
And eventually go out the door.
Our Zamboni ice resurfacer
has its customized
six-cylinder engine
on its custom-built chassis,
and it has its tanks to
hold the ice and water,
but it's not yet
equipped to clean the ice.
Hi. I'm Brian Chapstick.
[Laughs]
Back in the 1950s,
cleaning the ice was a big
problem for Frank Zamboni.
At the Zamboni family rink,
a tractor would pull
an ice scraper around.
Then three or four workers
cleaned and smoothed
the ice by hand.
This process took more
than an hour each time.
Okay. Now we're going up.
And it's going that way?
Yes, sir.
Right towards that camera.
PERRY: Right
towards that camera.
UNGER: Don't get hurt, Brett.
Frank Zamboni wanted
to turn dirty, rough ice
into clean, smooth ice quickly.
He set out to invent
a brand-new machine
that would revolutionize
ice resurfacing
and keep his customers skating.
So he created what's
known as the conditioner.
It clears, cleans, and smooths
over the ice almost instantly.
The first trick is to make
the rough ice disappear.
But it has to go from
the back of the machine,
where it gets
collected, to the front.
This is the underbelly of the
conditioner, minus the blade.
The blade mounts right
here on the blade holder.
They call it the T-bar.
BLOOMFIELD: The
blade is 57 pounds
of razor-sharp,
high-carbon steel
tipped 15 degrees
up from the ice
to form a ramp that lifts the
shavings up and into the auger.
The auger is
another kind of ramp,
only the blade wraps around a
center beam, forming a screw.
As the the screw moves
around, so does the ice.
This auger is
basically a spiral ramp
that pushes the ice
toward the center.
See it going?
The other side is also
pushing it toward the center.
Mm-hmm. All moving
toward the center.
And then this little guy
right here, I presume,
is feeding it to
the vertical auger.
Yeah. This is the
horizontal auger.
There's a second
one we don't see yet.
Vertical carries
it off to the ice pit.
Pretty cool.
Because this is the part
hockey fans don't get to see.
UNGER: Our blade and auger
have cleared off the dirty ice,
but we still need to
clean and smooth it over,
and we need to do it
without having to make
another pass on the rink.
This part of the conditioner
is actually a highly
engineered plumbing scheme.
Water is piped
into the conditioner,
which washes the ice.
This is the water pump that
actually sucks up the water
that gets built up
underneath the conditioner.
Another pipe at the
rear of the conditioner
delivers freshwater
to form the new ice.
It actually sprays onto the
back end of the conditioner,
which flows down.
And the towel actually
spreads it out real smooth.
We are almost done assembling
our Zamboni ice resurfacer.
The engine, control panel,
and hydraulics all installed.
These are heavy.
Whether it's electric
or gas-powered,
each ice resurfacer
is assembled by hand.
You do this by yourself?
Before we take this
baby out onto the ice,
we need to ready our
tires for the slippery ride.
Old snow tires won't do.
This massive machine
has to turn on a dime, on ice,
so we need more
than just traction.
We need bite.
- Perfect.
- Nice.
So, Brian's putting
studs in the tire.
These are tungsten
carbide studs.
A stud made of carbide is
incredibly strong and hard,
and it'll stay sharp on
ice essentially forever.
BLOOMFIELD: When the
Zamboni goes over the ice,
they grip the surface
like little teeth.
I mean, you get some
serious grippage here.
Perfect. Man, you're a pro.
Second shot, and you're perfect.
UNGER: This
thing is just hauling.
You know, 8 miles per
hour never felt so good.
UNGER: And now I
get a lesson of a lifetime.
Richard Zamboni has agreed
to teach me how
to drive a Zamboni.
You never know when
this is gonna come in handy.
Tell me exactly where you're
looking when you're driving.
Are you looking ahead?
Are you looking down at
where most of the action
is occurring down
here with the auger?
Where are your eyes?
Once you get going,
you're actually interested
in getting your process
going, the different steps.
Lower the conditioner, set your
blade, get your conveyors going.
And you're looking
forward at that time.
And then doing your pattern,
you want to be sure that
your alignment is such
you'll overlap a little
bit, but not too much.
So you get on and get off
the ice without too many laps.
So it's kind of a forward, down,
back, forward, down, back?
Very true.
UNGER: It sounds very difficult.
You're juggling a lot.
ZAMBONI: You are,
but it takes a little while.
And the really good
operators can get out there,
and they just make
the machine talk.
There's no question about that.
They know what they're
doing. They're watching it.
And it becomes very simple
after you get the hang of it.
Simple, not quite.
But fun, yes.
I'm lowering the
blade a little bit here.
We're trying to see
how the shave's doing.
Good, good.
We're really in good shape now
and ready to start
the water operation.
So we'll just open this
valve maybe about halfway.
Where would my
right, left wheel be?
Your left will be
on that edge there
that separates the grooves.
I'm ready for the garden.
You want to anticipate
your turn down here.
So I'm gonna go that narrow lap?
That's right.
It is trickier than you think.
It's a little bit of a
juggling act, right?
It is. You got a lot of things
to concentrate on, Brian.
Because when you
leave spots along the ice,
people see that and they think,
"I can do a better
job than that guy can."
UNGER: 'Cause you
do have to go back
and hit patches
you'd left behind.
ZAMBONI: An
accomplished operator
doesn't have to do
much going back, though.
That's the thing.
Maybe as you're getting
on the thing a little bit more,
you'll miss some.
But I noticed a couple
of spots you missed.
You're being kind.
If you had to assign me a grade,
Richard, what would you give me?
I think it's a strong "C."
Oh, man!
A "C"!
And you're being
generous, aren't you?
[Both laugh]
Thank you so much.
Ohh.
You know, it's such a simple,
routine act of everyday life.
Opening and closing a window.
Yet I'm not really sure how
or why this window glass
started out as a heap of sand.
Are you still here?
The story of windows
starts here, way up here,
60 feet off the ground in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, at PPG.
These are giant, massive silos
that hold the key
ingredients to glass.
The main one... sand.
Every day, 800 tons of it
are fed into the building here
and then mixed with two elements
critical to the manufacture
of window glass...
Soda ash and lime,
or sodium carbonate
and calcium carbonate.
They lower the melting
point of silica sand
and alter its basic
molecular structure.
These chemicals
soften the glass.
They make it easier to melt.
They terminate the
silicon-oxygen chains
and make a more
manageable glass to work with.
And that soda-lime silica glass
lies at the heart
of every window.
Now, all of our raw materials
have been mixed together
and dumped into
tanks like these,
where it's a cool,
oh, 3,000 degrees.
It's actually hotter
than molten lava.
And it will take three days
for a single molecule of sand
to get from this point
all the way to the
other end of the factory,
where it actually starts to
resemble a sheet of glass.
All right, so, we're wearing
this protective garment
for a reason, right?
Wearing Kevlar
gloves, fire-retardant.
We're dressed
like big oven mitts.
Right.
It's pretty hot where we are,
but it's gonna get a lot hotter.
So let's rake.
Steve Anderson and I have
to rake this batch quickly.
The goal... Well, don't
let the rake melt first,
and spread out the mix
to reduce air pockets
that might form.
ANDERSON: We're pulling
that whole rack over to the wall.
UNGER: It's like taffy.
Yeah, it's just like taffy.
It doesn't take long
for the batch to start
looking less like sand
and more like an
overflowing volcano.
The only way to
see this river of glass
is through these
polarized metal masks.
Without them, your
vision will be, well, gone.
There, inside, that shiny
surface on the bottom.
That is liquid glass.
For 10 hours, the molten mix is
superheated behind thick walls
to allow gas to
bubble up and out.
Bubbles drive glassmakers nuts.
After all, nobody wants
to look out a window
you can't see through.
There is only one way to
create plate glass without bubbles
and, more importantly,
flat on both sides.
If a window isn't flat,
it'll distort your vision like
a wrong pair of glasses.
But making flat
window panes is hard.
And it used to be done by
blowing giant glass bubbles,
cutting them open,
and laying them flat
before they solidified.
They didn't end
up perfectly flat.
So since 1959,
glass has been made
by pouring molten glass
on a river of liquid tin.
BLOOMFIELD: The surface
of any vast, undisturbed liquid
is flawlessly flat.
10 ingots are melted down,
creating that
perfectly flat surface.
The glass pours onto the tin
and immediately begins to cool.
Tin and glass don't mix.
Like oil and water, the lighter
glass floats on the denser tin.
And the result is a system
where the liquid glass and liquid tin
start at high temperature
one end of this giant river,
and they cool.
They're cooled
deliberately until, at the end,
the tin's still liquid, but
the glass is solidified.
UNGER: Compared to
glass, tin's melting point is low.
By the time it reaches
this stage of the assembly,
the glass hardens,
floating on top of the molten
tin like driftwood on water.
Still very hot, as in 1,000
degrees Fahrenheit hot,
the glass moves down the line
in one long, continuous sheet.
It stretches a
quarter of a mile,
and because of its
length and temperature,
it's surprisingly elastic
and strong enough
to really beat on.
This glass almost
as hard as you want.
You won't break that
glass. It's extremely strong.
Steve, I think you've actually
proved your point there.
So from here to there,
you need to bring it
down about 100 degrees.
That's why we have such
a long cooling conveyor
is to allow it just to
cool down naturally.
A robot then cuts this
long ribbon of glass
into slabs that run
about 12 feet across.
UNGER: These long pieces
of glass have been cut,
and in a moment,
they'll be packaged
and then shipped
to their distributors,
where they'll be
turned into windows.
To make windows, we haul
glass down the road a ways
to a window factory
called Viwinco,
in Morgantown, Pennsylvania,
where on average, 400 sheets
of plate glass stream in all day,
destined to become window panes.
Working with this stuff
can be very dangerous.
Now, this is kind
of like Kevlar?
- Is that what this is?
- This is Kevlar material.
This is the same stuff
they use in bulletproof vests.
Yep. When you're
pulling them off the table,
pretty much that glass
is right at your waist,
right at your leg area.
So we want to make
sure that's protected.
Always put your
Kevlar sleeves on first.
Andy, dare I ask, has
anyone ever been cut?
Yes.
I had no idea the dickey
was making a comeback.
Lou, suit up, my friend.
You got to put it on.
So you got your dickey on.
You got your Kevlar sleeves.
And you really are kind of ready
for kind of a Liberace
thing in Vegas.
It's nice. With a little
Michael Jackson.
At the window factory
in Pennsylvania,
we've got these
huge plates of glass
that need to be cut
into window panes,
or lights, as they call them.
They're floating on
what appears to be
a giant air-hockey table,
which makes it easier
to move them around.
Now, I notice you don't
treat these pieces of glass
with kid gloves.
You really just kind
of throw them around.
ANDY: Yes, yes.
How big is this glass,
Andy, right here?
72, 84.
So, one hand moves this,
basically, over this table.
There's so much air shooting
up through the surface.
Yes.
Now, cutting glass
is far different than,
say, cutting wood.
You just need to scratch
the surface, literally.
Glass breaks by tearing.
When you stress it, it
finds a defect in the surface
and tears through
from that point.
And if you don't put
defects in yourself,
it's gonna tear
wherever the heck it likes.
They've introduced
defects all over the surface
in a pattern that
controls the tear.
So, Andy, how many
will we cut here?
In this particular pattern,
we'll probably cut
about 15, 17 lights.
So you can really move at
a good clip through here?
Yes.
And now it's time
to break it out?
Now it's time to break it out.
So, I know the scoring
line. I can see it right here.
ANDY: Yep. Perfect.
UNGER: That was pretty easy.
ANDY: Soon as you get that
glass up in the air a little bit,
that break's gonna shoot
all the way through the score.
Break it, you bought it.
Beautiful.
UNGER: Another
scoring line right here.
Okay.
Now, check this out.
See that little
piece right there?
ANDY: Yeah.
UNGER: Did I break that?
A lot of glass tends
to slide a little bit.
When they break it,
they want to make sure
they keep a handle on it
so it doesn't slide
into each other.
And I also chipped this.
Yes. We would actually reject
both lights and recut them.
So, I basically broke
two pieces of glass
the first time I've
tried to cut them.
I have cost the company
how much money?
- Thousands.
- Thousands of dollars?
No.
We should pack
it up and go home.
Unusable panes, like the ones
I specialize in, are recycled.
ANDY: Go ahead. Take a
step towards it and toss it in.
- Cool.
- Perfect.
Typically, these guys kick
out nine panes, or lights,
every minute.
That's 3,000 a day.
From here, the panes
roll down the line
to be framed by the components
that add up to a window.
Fold it over here.
Well, that was pretty simple.
Fold at the corner.
UNGER: Hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey.
Almost got it.
Manuel Cuevas and I are
making aluminum spacers
for energy-efficient windows.
There you go.
UNGER: Okay.
Now our spacers are
fit between two panes.
While we're putting
this first pane of glass
and the spacer on top,
right behind me, the
other pane of glass
that's gonna be its mate
will be joined with it on that
big, giant press down there.
And eventually go through
the heating process,
where the adhesive, the sealant,
on the edges of these spacers
will sort of melt a little bit
and seal it up permanently.
I actually sound like I
know what I'm talking about.
At this point, some
of the panes will be fed
onto a line dedicated to
making hurricane glass
for windows that can stand
up to the fiercest winds,
These amazingly strong
windows rely on one key material.
This is the substance that goes
between the two pieces of glass.
This is the magic
of hurricane glass.
Yeah.
Now, Lou, what is PVB exactly?
Polyvinyl butyral.
It's a tough, clingy plastic
that'll grip onto
the glass snugly,
and it'll be very
hard to get through
even after the glass breaks.
The PVB is positioned between
two regular panes of glass.
This PVB sandwich can withstand
almost anything thrown at it
by a hurricane, even a tornado.
We're gonna prove
it in a moment.
Kind of went over a little.
Yeah. We're amateurs, anyhow.
Boy, that's an understatement.
- How's that?
- Good.
- Time to cut?
- Time to cut.
Now, Lou, we have to heat this.
Now, how does that
work? Is it like an oven?
Well, we're gonna go first into
an 1,100-degree-Fahrenheit oven,
which will only heat
the glass and plastic
to about 180 Fahrenheit.
That's enough to
get the PVB tacky
and stick the whole
sandwich together forever.
Okay.
But then it's gonna
go into an autoclave,
which will bake it under high
pressure for about 3 1/2 hours.
It'll really melt the plastic.
About 280 degrees Fahrenheit.
And you'll end up with
a permanently bonded,
totally clear assembly.
But that's the finished
product right there.
Yeah. This is after it comes
out of the oven, literally.
Yeah, after the
autoclave. Clear as a bell.
It looks exactly like
any normal glass.
Now we'll put it to the test.
So, we are in the R&D
department of Viwinco,
and it's time now to put our
hurricane glass to the test.
We've made it, and this laser
is actually pointing at our
window that we just made.
We're looking at our WMD
here they have at Viwinco,
and this is basically
a giant air cannon.
This is gonna shoot this
projectile out of this barrel
to simulate a 160-mile-per-hour
hurricane wind.
You have your little
musket loader there,
and you're gonna stuff that in.
We're gonna see how much
this glass actually can withstand.
50 what per second?
Feet per second.
50 feet per second? Are
you ready to fire this baby?
Oh, yeah.
There is a procedure
to follow. Plug up.
I'm going to
"pressure," "enable."
Safety first.
[Buzzer blaring]
Check this out.
I mean, it really does hold.
The layer of PVB between
the pieces of glass is so tough,
the board goes from a
speed of 50 feet per second
to a dead stop.
It actually bounces
back toward us.
What did we break?
It broke the outside layer of
glass, which is totally normal.
Then the inner composite,
we broke both sheets of glass.
But that plastic
layer is unbreakable.
And that's what we're
dealing with now.
Huh!
We're now kicking
against it. It's a trampoline.
You can't get
through this stuff.
- So it's an elastic window?
- Right.
Whether these panes
are keeping out the wind
or your noisy neighbors,
they all funnel back onto
the main assembly line
to be turned into
actual windows.
Making windows, a process
that once took three weeks,
through automation
now takes just 72 hours.
Frames, sills, and sashes
are heat-welded together.
This last stage looks
like a racecar pit crew.
In the span of a few seconds,
screws, glue, and locks
fly onto the windows.
So, this is the window
that we put together earlier.
Completely sealed.
Drops into the sash
with the adhesive.
And, voilà, there is the window.
We try to average about 40
windows per hour on this line.
Yeah, not today.
The top window is
fastened into place.
Glazing pops on.
The sash slides in.
You got to really
move that thing, huh?
And that's a wrap.
What took 21 days is
now a three-day process
with this super modern,
efficient assembly.
And only a week before that,
the glass was just
a heap of sand.
A pile of sand,
superheated, liquefied,
cooled to a quarter-mile
ribbon of pristine plate glass,
scored and snapped,
fortified and framed.
Yikes.
It's hard to believe a window
pane started out like this.
all the stuff in our world,
there's the story of
how it comes to be.
Hello. I'm Brian Unger.
I'm Professor Lou Bloomfield.
UNGER: From the drawing
board to the assembly line,
it's how the ordinary is
actually extraordinary.
On "Some Assembly Required,"
bounce houses,
Zamboni, and windows.
Well, we're in
Burbank, California,
at the H.Q. of Magic Jump.
Now, their motto is,
"We manufacture fun,"
which means they make
these really cool inflatables,
these jump houses.
You've probably driven
by one of these like I have,
gotten out of your car,
walked into a
children's birthday party,
and said, "Excuse me,
kids, I need to jump in this."
Yeah, it scares the children.
But you got to
admit, it is a little fun.
Sure, fun, but also curious,
even to an old guy like me.
Since the beginning of time,
kids have loved
jumping up and down.
But bounce houses, or jump
houses as some call them,
didn't get off the
ground until the 1960s.
Magic Jump is one of
the giants of this industry,
a family business run
by Andy Bagumyan.
Why is it so popular now?
Because this is for kids,
and the kids love to jump.
The Bagumyans of Burbank.
They opened in 1995
as a two-man operation.
Today over 30 people work to
keep up with the high demand
for buying and
renting bounce houses.
We rent like 80 jumpers a week.
- Really? 80 jumpers a week?
- Yeah.
Wow, they're
going like hot cakes.
Yes.
The Bagumyans make over
150 kinds of bounce houses,
and they all start here
with Manny Avadesian.
AVADESIAN: What we
do is start with a concept.
Say we want to start a giraffe.
UNGER: Where do you
get your ideas from, Manny?
Can you execute
anything you want?
Of course.
Yes, the possibilities
are endless.
You have incredible confidence.
AVADESIAN: We start
with a simple shape, like so.
Mm-hmm.
And I tell the program
to flatten it out.
Then I send that flat
shape to the pattern cutter.
Mm-hmm.
And it cuts the exact shape
that I've created here out there.
Out on the floor, we roll
out the first 50 feet of vinyl
for the pattern cutter.
It is a computer-guided
circular razor.
This is a really hard part.
- I just push the button?
- Yeah.
I'll give you the sign, and
you just push this button.
Okay.
Sam's gonna give me the sign,
and then I'm going
to push the button.
Waiting on you, Sam.
- Really? Good to go?
- Yeah.
Let's make a giraffe.
So, what do we do now? Do
we pick out these patterns?
Yes. Get these patterns.
UNGER: It really is
like making cookies.
And these are
the... Check it out.
We have the
beginnings of a giraffe.
- Upside down.
- Upside down.
Sure, oh, yeah.
Oh, right here. There you go.
Wait a minute. Right side.
There's the eye.
Yeah.
This is turning into
"Wild Kingdom" right here.
One of the biggest challenges
of designing the
first bounce house
was finding a material
that could withstand this.
Did you try to make
a paper jump house?
[Laughs]
Did you make one out of glass?
Did you make one out of latex?
You did.
I was gonna say,
latex is inflatable.
Stretchable. You
can bounce on it.
It's not very durable.
That's right.
It can break.
Turns out plastic is
perfect for a bounce house,
but not just any
plastic will do.
The best kind is vinyl,
and the Bagumyans
get theirs from up north.
The Naizil Corporation
here in Ontario, Canada,
makes about 1,200
miles of vinyl every year.
You know how much
vinyl that is, Lou?
Tell me.
That's enough to build a freeway
from Los Angeles to Houston
made entirely of vinyl.
That'd be one big Slip 'n Slide.
UNGER: Oh,
indeed. A lot of vinyl.
Whipping up a big pot of vinyl
is like cooking
with, well, big pots.
We start with plasticizer.
This is the stuff
that gives plastic
strength and flexibility.
Now, Lou, I see all kinds
of top-shelf plasticizers here.
They all have weird names.
PlastiStab, Plasticizer,
Plastomoll DOA.
That sounds good for you.
This all gets whipped up
into some sort of cocktail?
Yeah, we're starting off
with the liquid
basis for the plastic.
The plasticizer are like
molecular lubricants.
Polyvinyl chloride, or
PVC, is a hard, brittle plastic.
This stuff softens it.
- Are you ready for it?
- Yeah. Oh.
Now, how much vinegar
do we add to this, Lou?
Now it looks like fake
butter for popcorn.
The next element we add
to our chemical stew is color.
Since we're making bounce houses
that must be
eye-catching to little kids,
we need custom
colors, lots of them.
Oh, thanks. I'll get you back.
Now we have to add the final
and most important ingredient,
vinyl, or PVC.
This is polyvinyl chloride,
a hard, brittle plastic
consisting of lots of
little chain-like molecules,
all tangled up and
barely able to move.
It's kind of like spaghetti
you left in the bowl
overnight with no sauce.
But once you mix it with
the plasticizers in the vat,
they'll lubricate
those molecules,
kind of like adding
sauce to the spaghetti.
And now you have a
flexible, tough, elastic material
to cover the fabric
for moon bounce.
[Buzzer sounds]
The liquid vinyl will be
poured onto a polyester fabric
and then put into the oven.
UNGER: Now, it'll
travel about 20 meters
at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
and emerge here perfectly cured.
It's then fed to this final
spool right over here,
where it's a completed
product of vinyl,
and it's ready to be
shipped to, say, Magic Jump
to make a beautiful
new bounce house.
We're assembling a bounce house.
This is an air-cushioned
jumping heaven for kids,
all made possible
through PVC, or vinyl.
The airtight yet
flexible material
is perfect for helping
kids defy gravity.
They call it fun.
At Magic Jump in California,
they use about 3 million
feet of thread in a single year
and 35 tons of vinyl every
month to make bounce houses.
Like the one Manny
Avadesian here is making.
It's shaped like a giraffe.
Ah, but what is a
giraffe without its spots?
This calls for some
heavy-duty glue.
And then any kind of
special glue in here?
Yes. This is
special vinyl cement.
It's not that toxic where it
will give you brain damage.
Won't give you any brain
damage? Won't do any of that?
I shouldn't sniff this,
though, basically.
- No, it's not good to sniff it.
- Okay.
Reminds me of making
a model airplane.
So, basically, Manny, our
computer designer inside,
has created what we will
call spots for our giraffe.
And this is the part
that gets actually,
physically, kind of messy.
See, Manny, he gets
to sit at the computer
and just peck away
at the keyboard.
This is where the
actual labor comes in.
I'm starting to feel it already.
It's not exactly
like a rose garden.
No.
It's pretty...
Whew.
That's why the guys that do
it regularly are not here today.
Oh, they're not?
They're recuperating?
[Chuckles]
Okay.
Okay.
I'm ready for the
long haul. Are you?
Yes. Go ahead.
Here we go.
- Like so?
- One done.
One done. And how
many? 149 to go?
Yeah.
Manny, we should
be more economical
with the spots, right?
Yes, we should.
Now, vinyl is
tough, even airtight.
But bounce houses,
they need to breathe
and not hold air
in like a balloon.
If that were the case, too
many kids in a bounce house
would just blow
the sides right out.
So this thing adapts, and it
has to be allowed to adapt
to the number of people inside.
The way they do that is with
the air compressor that fills it.
This unit puts
air in to blow it up
and to keep it inflated
against the leaking,
but it also allows
the air to come out
when the houses
carry a lot of weight.
It's like the biggest
sewing job in the world.
I mean, wow.
I got a little gas
pedal down here.
So, do you want to
get on the other side
and pull it through for me?
Okay.
I mean, ordinarily,
do you have someone
who helps you pull all
this material through?
- So it's like two-man job?
- Yeah.
- Uh-huh.
- You cannot do it by yourself.
But you did want to see me
try to do it by myself, didn't you?
Hey, do you like
working for Sam?
He's my cousin.
He's your cousin?
So you got to...
I don't think he knows
what he's talking about.
Hold on. Hold on.
Hold on. Hold on.
You want to see the difference?
Do I want to see the difference
between what you
sewed and what I sewed?
Oh, geez.
I'm just gonna say that
you did this whole thing.
This is where you were awake.
And then this is where
you fell asleep right here.
[High-pitched beep]
Oh, darn.
Breaktime.
Now, while I've been trying
to sew the head of this giraffe,
the rest of the crew is
assembling the body.
170 square yards of vinyl,
all fed through industrial-
grade sewing machines by hand.
This heavy-duty
needle is pretty scary.
Sam, how long does it take
to pass an entire bounce house
through one sewing
machine like this?
A unit this size
takes about two days.
Two days?
So John will be
working for two days
- just sewing one bounce house?
- Yeah.
I imagine, John, this thing
could just take your finger
right off if you slipped.
If you notice, John
actually has all of his fingers.
Our bounce house is done.
200 pounds of vinyl
cut, sewn, and glued.
The moment of truth.
Time now for an awkward
moment with Sam Bagumyan.
Kick off the shoes, dude.
It's time to bounce.
You know what I'm saying?
[Grunts]
- Is the bounceability good?
- Yeah.
- Like enough?
- Yeah.
Sam, you're not
jumping high enough.
If your head touches this.
- If my head touches this?
- You pass the test.
Can I pull this down?
No.
No. I can't do that?
Thanks for letting us
spend the day with you.
- Thank you.
- That's a nice house.
I made it.
I'm exhausted.
It is one of the
world's great mysteries
how one sweep of this cool ride
turns rough, dull ice
smooth and shiny.
Now, you've seen it over and
over ever since you were a kid,
and you still don't
know how it's done.
So, how do you take a dirty,
grungy ice surface like this one
and turn it into a nice, glassy,
silky smooth one like this
just using a razor blade,
a few gallons of water,
and do it in just seconds?
We are inside the
Zamboni factory
in Paramount, California.
Zamboni is a name that is
synonymous with ice resurfacing.
And anyone who has been to
an ice rink has had to wonder,
how do these ice
resurfacers work?
It's kind of a mystery.
Well, not really.
I mean, it begins with a vehicle
designed to drive on ice.
Now, just like any other
set of heavy-duty wheels,
the Zamboni ice resurfacer is
built on a heavy-duty chassis
with enough steel to hold
five tons of ice and water.
So, we are building our chassis
that is going to hold
the tremendous weight.
How many pieces of metal
make up this chassis, Perry?
PERRY: There's about 23 pieces.
- About 23?
- Yeah.
Enough to build a
very strong chassis.
When Frank Zamboni
built his early versions
of an ice resurfacer,
he started out
using a jeep chassis.
But it couldn't handle the
weight he needed to put on it.
Now, Frank, who
was a real avid tinkerer
and a one-time mechanic,
decided to build a
chassis from scratch.
The biggest change Frank made
was these reinforcement beams
that span the
width of the chassis.
Now, they weld each
seam by hand here.
That kind of expert detail
is what makes a Zamboni ice
resurfacer last up to 50 years.
That's good.
Don't want to
mess it up too much.
UNGER: Well, Patrick here
is raising this giant steel
frame that we've welded.
It's got an
anti-corrosive coating,
which will help this
thing from being rusted.
The folks at Zamboni
have a ginormous
85% global-market
share on ice resurfacing,
yet it's still very much a
mom-and-pop operation.
It's really a bit of a
homegrown company here.
We work the same way that
Frank Zamboni originally did,
where if he saw a
problem, then he would fix it.
'Cause this
assembly is a little...
- I mean, it's personalized.
- Right.
We've got the Zamboni
and our Zamboni notes.
[Buzzer sounds]
- I'm on break. See ya.
- Okay.
Our chassis is built and wired.
Now we need some power.
This compact,
maneuverable machine,
it does a lot of work
in a confined space
in a short amount of time.
And to handle all that,
they use hydraulics.
What if you try to lift a
couple thousand pounds
of ice and snow and water?
How are you gonna do
that with just a motor?
You're gonna need
some pretty serious gears.
So they use hydraulics for that.
BLOOMFIELD: In hydraulic
systems, power is distributed
by pushing fluid from
one place to the next.
In a Zamboni machine, an
engine or motor powers a pump
that forces pressurized
fluid through hoses
that feed it to all
the parts that rotate
or require heavy lifting.
It can push with
10,000 pounds of force.
It can lift something
that's as heavy as a bus.
Really?
UNGER: That
hydraulic system is key
to handling the Zamboni's
three main jobs...
Removing, cleaning, and
smoothing over the ice.
And none of that can happen
without some very big tanks.
- Are you ready, José?
- Yes.
UNGER: Thank goodness
for this hoist, huh?
It's about a ton.
Yes.
Let's just lift it.
Lift at the knees. Okay, ready?
- Yeah.
- Too much.
Let's use the hoist.
Thanks to hydraulics,
this snow tank can hold, lift,
and dump 100
cubic feet of dirty ice.
We want to lower this down.
Then this looks
like a hydraulic post.
Hydraulic cylinder, which
actually lifts the tank.
Tilts it forward so the
snow will come out.
Our Zamboni can
now carry the dirty ice
as it gets shaved away,
but it still has to clean
the ice and smooth it out.
To accomplish this,
the Zamboni needs to carry a
lot of water on board in tanks.
This is the world's
worst hot tub.
There are three
tanks on the Zamboni.
There's the snow tank,
which holds the dirty
ice after it's shaved,
and the freshwater tank,
which holds the water
that cleans the ice.
This machine is
like a big bar cart.
Now, inside this
tank goes vodka.
And what they do is they
lay this vodka down on the ice
and make a nice, big martini.
Have you tried licking the ice?
Try it sometime.
You'll get a buzz.
Okay, maybe not vodka.
This tank actually
holds the freshwater
that pours out onto the ice.
It freezes over and
becomes new ice.
Lou Bloomfield, you
forgot your flip-flops.
Once the Zamboni ice
resurfacers are assembled,
they often bring them out
here to the mean streets
of Paramount, California,
to see what they can do.
That's Richard Zamboni
behind me, tearing it up.
How's she handling, Richard?
- Good, good.
- Good.
Getting in there. Good circle.
Richard Zamboni is Frank's
son, and he still runs the company
in the same way and
in the same location...
Sunny, snowless
southern California.
Mr. Zamboni, let me
ask you a question.
This is not a completed
assembly, obviously.
We've got things
still to do here.
Why do you bring them out
here? What are you looking for?
Well, it just depends
on what shows up.
Through assembly,
one thing shows this.
You want to be certain
before it goes out the door.
What else does this need?
Well, this one will have
the paneling going on it.
Both the sides, the
front, and the back.
And then the conditioner.
Down in here, right?
That's the real working
part of the machine.
And eventually go out the door.
Our Zamboni ice resurfacer
has its customized
six-cylinder engine
on its custom-built chassis,
and it has its tanks to
hold the ice and water,
but it's not yet
equipped to clean the ice.
Hi. I'm Brian Chapstick.
[Laughs]
Back in the 1950s,
cleaning the ice was a big
problem for Frank Zamboni.
At the Zamboni family rink,
a tractor would pull
an ice scraper around.
Then three or four workers
cleaned and smoothed
the ice by hand.
This process took more
than an hour each time.
Okay. Now we're going up.
And it's going that way?
Yes, sir.
Right towards that camera.
PERRY: Right
towards that camera.
UNGER: Don't get hurt, Brett.
Frank Zamboni wanted
to turn dirty, rough ice
into clean, smooth ice quickly.
He set out to invent
a brand-new machine
that would revolutionize
ice resurfacing
and keep his customers skating.
So he created what's
known as the conditioner.
It clears, cleans, and smooths
over the ice almost instantly.
The first trick is to make
the rough ice disappear.
But it has to go from
the back of the machine,
where it gets
collected, to the front.
This is the underbelly of the
conditioner, minus the blade.
The blade mounts right
here on the blade holder.
They call it the T-bar.
BLOOMFIELD: The
blade is 57 pounds
of razor-sharp,
high-carbon steel
tipped 15 degrees
up from the ice
to form a ramp that lifts the
shavings up and into the auger.
The auger is
another kind of ramp,
only the blade wraps around a
center beam, forming a screw.
As the the screw moves
around, so does the ice.
This auger is
basically a spiral ramp
that pushes the ice
toward the center.
See it going?
The other side is also
pushing it toward the center.
Mm-hmm. All moving
toward the center.
And then this little guy
right here, I presume,
is feeding it to
the vertical auger.
Yeah. This is the
horizontal auger.
There's a second
one we don't see yet.
Vertical carries
it off to the ice pit.
Pretty cool.
Because this is the part
hockey fans don't get to see.
UNGER: Our blade and auger
have cleared off the dirty ice,
but we still need to
clean and smooth it over,
and we need to do it
without having to make
another pass on the rink.
This part of the conditioner
is actually a highly
engineered plumbing scheme.
Water is piped
into the conditioner,
which washes the ice.
This is the water pump that
actually sucks up the water
that gets built up
underneath the conditioner.
Another pipe at the
rear of the conditioner
delivers freshwater
to form the new ice.
It actually sprays onto the
back end of the conditioner,
which flows down.
And the towel actually
spreads it out real smooth.
We are almost done assembling
our Zamboni ice resurfacer.
The engine, control panel,
and hydraulics all installed.
These are heavy.
Whether it's electric
or gas-powered,
each ice resurfacer
is assembled by hand.
You do this by yourself?
Before we take this
baby out onto the ice,
we need to ready our
tires for the slippery ride.
Old snow tires won't do.
This massive machine
has to turn on a dime, on ice,
so we need more
than just traction.
We need bite.
- Perfect.
- Nice.
So, Brian's putting
studs in the tire.
These are tungsten
carbide studs.
A stud made of carbide is
incredibly strong and hard,
and it'll stay sharp on
ice essentially forever.
BLOOMFIELD: When the
Zamboni goes over the ice,
they grip the surface
like little teeth.
I mean, you get some
serious grippage here.
Perfect. Man, you're a pro.
Second shot, and you're perfect.
UNGER: This
thing is just hauling.
You know, 8 miles per
hour never felt so good.
UNGER: And now I
get a lesson of a lifetime.
Richard Zamboni has agreed
to teach me how
to drive a Zamboni.
You never know when
this is gonna come in handy.
Tell me exactly where you're
looking when you're driving.
Are you looking ahead?
Are you looking down at
where most of the action
is occurring down
here with the auger?
Where are your eyes?
Once you get going,
you're actually interested
in getting your process
going, the different steps.
Lower the conditioner, set your
blade, get your conveyors going.
And you're looking
forward at that time.
And then doing your pattern,
you want to be sure that
your alignment is such
you'll overlap a little
bit, but not too much.
So you get on and get off
the ice without too many laps.
So it's kind of a forward, down,
back, forward, down, back?
Very true.
UNGER: It sounds very difficult.
You're juggling a lot.
ZAMBONI: You are,
but it takes a little while.
And the really good
operators can get out there,
and they just make
the machine talk.
There's no question about that.
They know what they're
doing. They're watching it.
And it becomes very simple
after you get the hang of it.
Simple, not quite.
But fun, yes.
I'm lowering the
blade a little bit here.
We're trying to see
how the shave's doing.
Good, good.
We're really in good shape now
and ready to start
the water operation.
So we'll just open this
valve maybe about halfway.
Where would my
right, left wheel be?
Your left will be
on that edge there
that separates the grooves.
I'm ready for the garden.
You want to anticipate
your turn down here.
So I'm gonna go that narrow lap?
That's right.
It is trickier than you think.
It's a little bit of a
juggling act, right?
It is. You got a lot of things
to concentrate on, Brian.
Because when you
leave spots along the ice,
people see that and they think,
"I can do a better
job than that guy can."
UNGER: 'Cause you
do have to go back
and hit patches
you'd left behind.
ZAMBONI: An
accomplished operator
doesn't have to do
much going back, though.
That's the thing.
Maybe as you're getting
on the thing a little bit more,
you'll miss some.
But I noticed a couple
of spots you missed.
You're being kind.
If you had to assign me a grade,
Richard, what would you give me?
I think it's a strong "C."
Oh, man!
A "C"!
And you're being
generous, aren't you?
[Both laugh]
Thank you so much.
Ohh.
You know, it's such a simple,
routine act of everyday life.
Opening and closing a window.
Yet I'm not really sure how
or why this window glass
started out as a heap of sand.
Are you still here?
The story of windows
starts here, way up here,
60 feet off the ground in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, at PPG.
These are giant, massive silos
that hold the key
ingredients to glass.
The main one... sand.
Every day, 800 tons of it
are fed into the building here
and then mixed with two elements
critical to the manufacture
of window glass...
Soda ash and lime,
or sodium carbonate
and calcium carbonate.
They lower the melting
point of silica sand
and alter its basic
molecular structure.
These chemicals
soften the glass.
They make it easier to melt.
They terminate the
silicon-oxygen chains
and make a more
manageable glass to work with.
And that soda-lime silica glass
lies at the heart
of every window.
Now, all of our raw materials
have been mixed together
and dumped into
tanks like these,
where it's a cool,
oh, 3,000 degrees.
It's actually hotter
than molten lava.
And it will take three days
for a single molecule of sand
to get from this point
all the way to the
other end of the factory,
where it actually starts to
resemble a sheet of glass.
All right, so, we're wearing
this protective garment
for a reason, right?
Wearing Kevlar
gloves, fire-retardant.
We're dressed
like big oven mitts.
Right.
It's pretty hot where we are,
but it's gonna get a lot hotter.
So let's rake.
Steve Anderson and I have
to rake this batch quickly.
The goal... Well, don't
let the rake melt first,
and spread out the mix
to reduce air pockets
that might form.
ANDERSON: We're pulling
that whole rack over to the wall.
UNGER: It's like taffy.
Yeah, it's just like taffy.
It doesn't take long
for the batch to start
looking less like sand
and more like an
overflowing volcano.
The only way to
see this river of glass
is through these
polarized metal masks.
Without them, your
vision will be, well, gone.
There, inside, that shiny
surface on the bottom.
That is liquid glass.
For 10 hours, the molten mix is
superheated behind thick walls
to allow gas to
bubble up and out.
Bubbles drive glassmakers nuts.
After all, nobody wants
to look out a window
you can't see through.
There is only one way to
create plate glass without bubbles
and, more importantly,
flat on both sides.
If a window isn't flat,
it'll distort your vision like
a wrong pair of glasses.
But making flat
window panes is hard.
And it used to be done by
blowing giant glass bubbles,
cutting them open,
and laying them flat
before they solidified.
They didn't end
up perfectly flat.
So since 1959,
glass has been made
by pouring molten glass
on a river of liquid tin.
BLOOMFIELD: The surface
of any vast, undisturbed liquid
is flawlessly flat.
10 ingots are melted down,
creating that
perfectly flat surface.
The glass pours onto the tin
and immediately begins to cool.
Tin and glass don't mix.
Like oil and water, the lighter
glass floats on the denser tin.
And the result is a system
where the liquid glass and liquid tin
start at high temperature
one end of this giant river,
and they cool.
They're cooled
deliberately until, at the end,
the tin's still liquid, but
the glass is solidified.
UNGER: Compared to
glass, tin's melting point is low.
By the time it reaches
this stage of the assembly,
the glass hardens,
floating on top of the molten
tin like driftwood on water.
Still very hot, as in 1,000
degrees Fahrenheit hot,
the glass moves down the line
in one long, continuous sheet.
It stretches a
quarter of a mile,
and because of its
length and temperature,
it's surprisingly elastic
and strong enough
to really beat on.
This glass almost
as hard as you want.
You won't break that
glass. It's extremely strong.
Steve, I think you've actually
proved your point there.
So from here to there,
you need to bring it
down about 100 degrees.
That's why we have such
a long cooling conveyor
is to allow it just to
cool down naturally.
A robot then cuts this
long ribbon of glass
into slabs that run
about 12 feet across.
UNGER: These long pieces
of glass have been cut,
and in a moment,
they'll be packaged
and then shipped
to their distributors,
where they'll be
turned into windows.
To make windows, we haul
glass down the road a ways
to a window factory
called Viwinco,
in Morgantown, Pennsylvania,
where on average, 400 sheets
of plate glass stream in all day,
destined to become window panes.
Working with this stuff
can be very dangerous.
Now, this is kind
of like Kevlar?
- Is that what this is?
- This is Kevlar material.
This is the same stuff
they use in bulletproof vests.
Yep. When you're
pulling them off the table,
pretty much that glass
is right at your waist,
right at your leg area.
So we want to make
sure that's protected.
Always put your
Kevlar sleeves on first.
Andy, dare I ask, has
anyone ever been cut?
Yes.
I had no idea the dickey
was making a comeback.
Lou, suit up, my friend.
You got to put it on.
So you got your dickey on.
You got your Kevlar sleeves.
And you really are kind of ready
for kind of a Liberace
thing in Vegas.
It's nice. With a little
Michael Jackson.
At the window factory
in Pennsylvania,
we've got these
huge plates of glass
that need to be cut
into window panes,
or lights, as they call them.
They're floating on
what appears to be
a giant air-hockey table,
which makes it easier
to move them around.
Now, I notice you don't
treat these pieces of glass
with kid gloves.
You really just kind
of throw them around.
ANDY: Yes, yes.
How big is this glass,
Andy, right here?
72, 84.
So, one hand moves this,
basically, over this table.
There's so much air shooting
up through the surface.
Yes.
Now, cutting glass
is far different than,
say, cutting wood.
You just need to scratch
the surface, literally.
Glass breaks by tearing.
When you stress it, it
finds a defect in the surface
and tears through
from that point.
And if you don't put
defects in yourself,
it's gonna tear
wherever the heck it likes.
They've introduced
defects all over the surface
in a pattern that
controls the tear.
So, Andy, how many
will we cut here?
In this particular pattern,
we'll probably cut
about 15, 17 lights.
So you can really move at
a good clip through here?
Yes.
And now it's time
to break it out?
Now it's time to break it out.
So, I know the scoring
line. I can see it right here.
ANDY: Yep. Perfect.
UNGER: That was pretty easy.
ANDY: Soon as you get that
glass up in the air a little bit,
that break's gonna shoot
all the way through the score.
Break it, you bought it.
Beautiful.
UNGER: Another
scoring line right here.
Okay.
Now, check this out.
See that little
piece right there?
ANDY: Yeah.
UNGER: Did I break that?
A lot of glass tends
to slide a little bit.
When they break it,
they want to make sure
they keep a handle on it
so it doesn't slide
into each other.
And I also chipped this.
Yes. We would actually reject
both lights and recut them.
So, I basically broke
two pieces of glass
the first time I've
tried to cut them.
I have cost the company
how much money?
- Thousands.
- Thousands of dollars?
No.
We should pack
it up and go home.
Unusable panes, like the ones
I specialize in, are recycled.
ANDY: Go ahead. Take a
step towards it and toss it in.
- Cool.
- Perfect.
Typically, these guys kick
out nine panes, or lights,
every minute.
That's 3,000 a day.
From here, the panes
roll down the line
to be framed by the components
that add up to a window.
Fold it over here.
Well, that was pretty simple.
Fold at the corner.
UNGER: Hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey.
Almost got it.
Manuel Cuevas and I are
making aluminum spacers
for energy-efficient windows.
There you go.
UNGER: Okay.
Now our spacers are
fit between two panes.
While we're putting
this first pane of glass
and the spacer on top,
right behind me, the
other pane of glass
that's gonna be its mate
will be joined with it on that
big, giant press down there.
And eventually go through
the heating process,
where the adhesive, the sealant,
on the edges of these spacers
will sort of melt a little bit
and seal it up permanently.
I actually sound like I
know what I'm talking about.
At this point, some
of the panes will be fed
onto a line dedicated to
making hurricane glass
for windows that can stand
up to the fiercest winds,
These amazingly strong
windows rely on one key material.
This is the substance that goes
between the two pieces of glass.
This is the magic
of hurricane glass.
Yeah.
Now, Lou, what is PVB exactly?
Polyvinyl butyral.
It's a tough, clingy plastic
that'll grip onto
the glass snugly,
and it'll be very
hard to get through
even after the glass breaks.
The PVB is positioned between
two regular panes of glass.
This PVB sandwich can withstand
almost anything thrown at it
by a hurricane, even a tornado.
We're gonna prove
it in a moment.
Kind of went over a little.
Yeah. We're amateurs, anyhow.
Boy, that's an understatement.
- How's that?
- Good.
- Time to cut?
- Time to cut.
Now, Lou, we have to heat this.
Now, how does that
work? Is it like an oven?
Well, we're gonna go first into
an 1,100-degree-Fahrenheit oven,
which will only heat
the glass and plastic
to about 180 Fahrenheit.
That's enough to
get the PVB tacky
and stick the whole
sandwich together forever.
Okay.
But then it's gonna
go into an autoclave,
which will bake it under high
pressure for about 3 1/2 hours.
It'll really melt the plastic.
About 280 degrees Fahrenheit.
And you'll end up with
a permanently bonded,
totally clear assembly.
But that's the finished
product right there.
Yeah. This is after it comes
out of the oven, literally.
Yeah, after the
autoclave. Clear as a bell.
It looks exactly like
any normal glass.
Now we'll put it to the test.
So, we are in the R&D
department of Viwinco,
and it's time now to put our
hurricane glass to the test.
We've made it, and this laser
is actually pointing at our
window that we just made.
We're looking at our WMD
here they have at Viwinco,
and this is basically
a giant air cannon.
This is gonna shoot this
projectile out of this barrel
to simulate a 160-mile-per-hour
hurricane wind.
You have your little
musket loader there,
and you're gonna stuff that in.
We're gonna see how much
this glass actually can withstand.
50 what per second?
Feet per second.
50 feet per second? Are
you ready to fire this baby?
Oh, yeah.
There is a procedure
to follow. Plug up.
I'm going to
"pressure," "enable."
Safety first.
[Buzzer blaring]
Check this out.
I mean, it really does hold.
The layer of PVB between
the pieces of glass is so tough,
the board goes from a
speed of 50 feet per second
to a dead stop.
It actually bounces
back toward us.
What did we break?
It broke the outside layer of
glass, which is totally normal.
Then the inner composite,
we broke both sheets of glass.
But that plastic
layer is unbreakable.
And that's what we're
dealing with now.
Huh!
We're now kicking
against it. It's a trampoline.
You can't get
through this stuff.
- So it's an elastic window?
- Right.
Whether these panes
are keeping out the wind
or your noisy neighbors,
they all funnel back onto
the main assembly line
to be turned into
actual windows.
Making windows, a process
that once took three weeks,
through automation
now takes just 72 hours.
Frames, sills, and sashes
are heat-welded together.
This last stage looks
like a racecar pit crew.
In the span of a few seconds,
screws, glue, and locks
fly onto the windows.
So, this is the window
that we put together earlier.
Completely sealed.
Drops into the sash
with the adhesive.
And, voilà, there is the window.
We try to average about 40
windows per hour on this line.
Yeah, not today.
The top window is
fastened into place.
Glazing pops on.
The sash slides in.
You got to really
move that thing, huh?
And that's a wrap.
What took 21 days is
now a three-day process
with this super modern,
efficient assembly.
And only a week before that,
the glass was just
a heap of sand.
A pile of sand,
superheated, liquefied,
cooled to a quarter-mile
ribbon of pristine plate glass,
scored and snapped,
fortified and framed.
Yikes.
It's hard to believe a window
pane started out like this.