Some Assembly Required (2007–…): Season 2, Episode 1 - Crash Test Dummies/Chips - full transcript
UNGER: For all
the stuff in our world,
there's a story of
how it came to be.
Hello. I'm Brian Unger.
Coming up on "Some
Assembly Required"...
the ear-splitting
recipe for crunch.
And crash-test dummies...
Built to survive
this so you can, too.
If you've ever walked away
from a car crash like this...
or from one like this,
you owe it to a
lot of smart people
and to a lot of dummies...
Crash-test dummies.
Ironically, though,
these guys and ladies and
kids are anything but dumb.
They're extraordinarily
intelligently engineered.
And on "Some Assembly
Required," we wanted to find out
what makes all of them
the principle players
in the science of saving
lives and how they're born.
The nursery
for many of the crash-test
dummies working today
is Denton ATD in Milan, Ohio.
Ultimately, they will be
loaded up with smart technology
so they can tell us
about our injuries.
But first, we need arms,
legs, ribs, and a head.
The parts that make up a
crash-test dummy, the skeleton,
are machined right
on the premises here.
Here are some heads.
Here is a femur.
Here's a pelvis.
Now, machining means
they cut and drill holes
so other body parts
can be mounted on them.
Now, the materials they
use, like in this pelvis,
this is aluminum.
They also use plastic
and bronze and steel.
The objective... biofidelity...
To make these parts that
they machine here in this room
as humanlike as possible.
Who knew a pelvis
was this heavy?
The goal is to build a dummy
that is just fragile enough to
register trauma like a human
but tough enough to
stand hundreds of crashes.
The trick...
Find the right combination
of the perfect materials.
Mike Beebe is the general
manager at Denton ATD.
He's taking me to
his favorite rib joint.
Dummy ribs are an
amazing blend of materials,
starting with damping...
A type of rubber.
Now, damping
material was originally
put on the hulls of
ships and submarines
to dampen noise and
vibrations and energy
that's produced in the hulls.
So we took that same
concept in damping the springs,
which are the steel ribs,
to act more humanlike.
- Is this being made right here?
- Yes.
Curtis is bonding
this damping material
that's cut specially
for each-size rib.
This is a simple process
but a very important process.
Any cracks or any voids,
it won't perform correctly.
Curtis, you make a fine rib.
[Both laugh]
Curtis cooks his ribs in an oven
so they'll be soft for
bending, just like human ribs.
When installed in the dummy,
along with high-tech sensors,
we'll be able to
predict with accuracy
if the impact would have
bruised or broken human ribs.
Well, we've got the
bones of our dummy.
Now for muscle and skin.
I'm making an adult
male hand right now.
And when you're making adult
male hands in your own kitchen,
don't worry if you
get a little messy.
These tins can take some
of the mess that you make.
I'm already pouring
outside the mold.
Well, anyway, this goes
into the oven at 300 degrees
for 20 minutes.
And in 20 minutes, we'll
have delicious male hand.
The liquid vinyl is poured into
these preheated aluminum molds.
Mold shapes exist
for every part of the
dummy covered with skin.
Will this skin react
like human skin?
Well, it's not exactly
like human skin
because it's to act
like us but repeatable.
Mike, um, I don't mean
this in a weird way,
but does it feel like skin?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
Um, so, when you
touch it, it feels like skin.
Sure. It's cold, but it feels
soft and pliable like skin.
In just 10 minutes, our
hand is cool to the touch.
So, we have freshly
molded hands.
These are finished,
but cosmetically, they're
not quite the real thing.
So we come to the body
shop, and we do a little trimming.
Cindy is a trimmer.
And before we
get to these hands,
we're going to
trim some buttocks.
But you trim more than just...
- You also trim hands.
- The whole body.
We would need to clean these up
to make them
like the real thing...
To make them look authentic.
Do your customers want
these to look that authentic?
- Yes, they do.
- Really?
Like no seams, no nothing.
You want this to be...
Smooth as we can get it.
The smoothest butt you can find.
Car manufacturers pay
up to $150,000 per dummy.
And these guys have
to be strong enough
to endure thousands of
crash tests in one lifetime.
And these dummies
have to look good, too.
Every single part of
every dummy must fall
within government weight
and measurement standards
because every single dummy
has to produce reliable
data crash after crash.
It is the load cells that serve
as the brain of a dummy.
These devices give the
dummy a voice of sorts,
enabling us to predict what
would happen to us in a crash.
So, the load cell, these
blue metallic parts here...
Like here in the
neck, here in the arm,
down here is one in the
leg right above the knee...
It's from these load cells
you get those measurements
which ultimately translate
into data that saves lives.
BEEBE: Correct.
Much like the human
reaction to trauma,
the load cell responds to
the force by sending signals
that are, just like
our brain, interpreted.
A load cell is
encased in a cylinder.
Inside, a small metal beam
runs the cylinder's length.
On that beam is a
thin zigzagging wire.
When the beam is bent by force,
that wire creates a
small electrical current
known as variance voltage.
That current is
fed into a computer
to be interpreted
as force, or torque.
A dummy is built to hold
anywhere from
one load cell to 15.
The load cells,
constructed, tested,
and installed at another plant,
all cost more than
an arm and a leg...
About 10 grand each.
Every single part of
a dummy is inspected.
And when they've passed muster,
they're boxed up and
shipped off for duty...
to places like the Insurance
Institute of Highway Safety
in Ruckersville, Virginia,
where at their state-of-the-art
crash-test facility,
their job is to wreck cars.
Today two of our
dummies are strapped in.
And they're about to
come face-to-face with this.
3,300 pounds hurtling down
a runway at 31 miles per hour,
hitting them broadside in a
car in this side-impact test.
Now, our two 110-pound
female dummies
have been placed inside the car.
It takes up to two days
to position these dummies.
Here, one is in the
front. One is in the back.
Now, we are getting very
close to breaking something.
Now, the load cells
that have been assembled
into the crash-test dummies
have 30 feet of wire in what
they call an umbilical cord
and are attached to a
data-acquisition system.
In other words,
what happens to our ladies
inside here is fed into this
and, in turn, fed into a
computer for analysis.
Both dummies have been
placed according to strict protocols,
and their respective positions
have been measured
to the millimeter.
Now, the last step is to
bring in the clown... paint.
So, we're now applying
the red clown paint.
And I'm gonna stay
within the lines here, right?
MAN: Yes.
This paint feels exactly
what you put on your face
when you were a little
kid, and I guess messy.
And that's what
you kind of want.
You want it to transfer
to the part of the car
that impacts with the body part.
Final preparations, and we're
in countdown-to-crash mode.
[Beeping]
[Tires screech]
Oh!
You can actually see in
the monitor already the test.
Look. Bang.
Once the crash site
is deemed secure,
we're allowed to see
how our dummies held up.
Amazingly, it takes just minutes
for the data to be interpreted.
So, how did our dummies do?
So far, it looks pretty good.
We see a possible
injury risk to the pelvis,
but everything else we
see so far looks pretty good.
What we see here... that
most of these numbers are low.
So that's a good sign
if you were an
occupant in this vehicle.
37 different measurements
confirm a good outcome,
even though the
neck twists violently.
The data show that
the speed and torque
were low enough to avoid injury.
The dummy's head is located
mainly on the air
bag of the vehicle.
Now, the driver
may have suffered
a slight injury to the pelvis,
but here's the headline... If
these dummies could walk,
that's how they'd
leave the scene.
I tell you, these
crash-test dummies
do a real number on your car.
But they are
looking pretty good.
They're like star athletes who
just played a really good game.
They're gonna take a couple
days off, rest, get recalibrated.
Then they'll suit up one
more time for another crash.
2/3 of you have them
in your cupboard.
46% of you will have
them in your mouth
over the next two weeks.
The darling of the snack
world... the potato chip.
We wanted to know... how do
you get more crunch in the chip?
To find out, we came to Kettle
Foods in Salem, Oregon...
Makers of the
original kettle chip.
Well, we're walking alongside
60,000 pounds of potatoes.
That's how many potatoes
wind up here at kettle chips
some three to four times a day.
The object here is
to off-load this truck
and size these potatoes.
We're getting ready to make
some delicious kettle chips.
The dirt's still on them.
These just came right
out of the field, basically.
How long does it take
to unload one of these?
MAN: 45 minutes to an hour.
- About an hour?
- Yeah.
First, the potatoes
are inspected
to make sure they're big enough.
They're looking for a potato
that is 2 to 3
inches in diameter.
- This would be good, right?
- Yeah.
Okay.
Now, Jim Green is the
purveyor of potatoes.
You've been here from the
very beginning. Is that right, Jim?
- That's right.
- How many years?
27.
What kind of potato do you use?
What comes in the door here?
Well, Brian, I can't tell
you the exact variety.
We use a special kind of potato.
Is it that you don't think
I can handle the truth?
I'm not sure I can trust
you with the truth, Brian.
UNGER: Wow.
What Jim will tell me is that,
of the hundreds of different
varieties of potatoes,
Kettle has been using the
same one for more than 25 years.
This particular kind of spud
has lots of natural sugars...
The key ingredients to
producing crunch and flavor.
Explain for me, Jim,
why a high sugar content
means better potato flavor?
It's the naturally occurring
sugars in the potato
is what we're looking for.
It's when you cook those
sugars, they caramelize.
So, like you would caramelize
something on your stove at home.
That's right.
If you cook sugar in
a pan in your home,
you see that it darkens
and creates a lot of flavor.
When heated, all those
natural sugars harden,
giving kettle chips more crunch
than if they'd use
the average potato.
Before becoming chips,
the potatoes are
carried along on rollers
that help knock
off dirt and sticks.
Then these spuds go through
a kind of vegetable car wash
where even more
grime is cleaned off.
And on these rollers,
the potatoes are
scrubbed with water.
They are also looked at
and inspected for size
and shape and color.
The ones that are too
big are sort of cut in half.
Bad potato.
A potato like this
gets discarded.
This is a sign that
things on our planet
aren't going as well
as they should be.
Potatoes that make the grade
are grouped into batches
of several hundred pounds.
So, here are the potatoes
that have just been washed.
All the soil has been removed.
The skin is still on them,
and they're being dumped
into these big grinders,
where they will drop into
big, round cutters, right?
This is the last time
they're whole potatoes.
So, at this stage, our
potatoes become chips.
And for that, we
are suited up in our...
What? deep-fryer clothes?
Your cook overalls.
My cook overalls.
This guy, clearly, had been
fired a couple of days ago,
thereby giving me his suit.
It is now time to
dump a lot of potatoes
in a lot of oil...
Safflower oil.
They use safflower oil
because it has a neutral taste,
allowing the potato's
flavor to shine through.
Inside these two cylinder
like metal structures
are spinning blades
guillotining the potatoes.
In some of these, there are flat
blades, which make a flat chip,
and in others, there are
sort of a serrated blade
that makes the crinkle-cut.
Kettle chips are cut
thicker than regular chips,
and it's a simple equation...
More chip to chew
through means more crunch.
Javier and I are going to man
this double-wide tankerful
of safflower oil and chips
with just our sheer
brawn and a garden rake.
After trying out
different tools,
kettle decided to use a
rake because the tines
keep the slices of potatoes
from sticking together.
You just have to kind of
pick them up and just...
UNGER: Oh, wow.
As the oil heats up,
the natural sugars are
released and begin to harden.
UNGER: And the reason
there's so much steam around us
is because the
potato is 80% water.
So, as it evaporates,
the potato is essentially
absorbing all the safflower oil.
The result is a mini sonic
boom every time you bite.
About how long does it take
to cook a big, giant vat of chips?
Roughly, it takes about 5
minutes to cook a batch.
So, as you can see,
this batch is done.
The oil on this side, empty...
moving the rest...
The cooked chips...
Up our incline conveyor.
At Kettle Chips, they
don't have conveyor belts.
They have shaker conveyors.
Shaker conveyors move
the chips by vibration,
and the constant motion thins
them out into a single layer
so that each one
can be inspected.
So, Jim, this is where
the river of chips
flows into what you
call an optical sorter.
GREEN: That's right.
That's this big
machine behind us here.
That's right.
This machine is sort
of hard to believe.
In essence, it's
got a camera in it.
And it's basically able
to tell the difference
between a light
chip and a dark chip.
And in that
instance, a blast of air
knocks the darker
chip off the belt,
and then you collect
them in this bin.
All that has to
happen very quickly.
In a split second.
In the end, there is no
substitute for the human eye
to catch any imperfections
in these potato chips...
In these kettle chips.
So, in this final inspection,
we're looking for chips
that might be dark, like this,
and we reject them.
Or we put them in
our pockets to eat later.
We also look for misshapen
chips, like this guy.
This also gets rejected.
Or eaten... later.
And, finally, if naked
chips aren't enough for you,
how about some flavor?
Kettle's custom-made
flavors are sprinkled on
inside these huge drums.
As the chips cool,
the seasonings settle
into tiny cavities, where
they bind with the oil.
Kim Sheridan is
a flavor architect.
Yes, that's a real job title.
She shows us how chips
hold on to their taste, crunch,
and freshness in
specially designed bags.
What's the bag made of?
It's made of a lot
of different materials
to create a light barrier,
an oxygen barrier,
a moisture barrier,
and be able to seal.
Wow, sounds like
a diaper, almost.
They've worked so hard
to produce a big crunch,
we want to preserve it.
A blast of nitrogen will
keep out the oxygen,
which would make a chip stale.
And it also provides a
cushion that protects the chips.
After less than five
hours, what was a potato
is now a crunchy chip
bursting with flavor,
ready to be shipped
anywhere in the world.
the stuff in our world,
there's a story of
how it came to be.
Hello. I'm Brian Unger.
Coming up on "Some
Assembly Required"...
the ear-splitting
recipe for crunch.
And crash-test dummies...
Built to survive
this so you can, too.
If you've ever walked away
from a car crash like this...
or from one like this,
you owe it to a
lot of smart people
and to a lot of dummies...
Crash-test dummies.
Ironically, though,
these guys and ladies and
kids are anything but dumb.
They're extraordinarily
intelligently engineered.
And on "Some Assembly
Required," we wanted to find out
what makes all of them
the principle players
in the science of saving
lives and how they're born.
The nursery
for many of the crash-test
dummies working today
is Denton ATD in Milan, Ohio.
Ultimately, they will be
loaded up with smart technology
so they can tell us
about our injuries.
But first, we need arms,
legs, ribs, and a head.
The parts that make up a
crash-test dummy, the skeleton,
are machined right
on the premises here.
Here are some heads.
Here is a femur.
Here's a pelvis.
Now, machining means
they cut and drill holes
so other body parts
can be mounted on them.
Now, the materials they
use, like in this pelvis,
this is aluminum.
They also use plastic
and bronze and steel.
The objective... biofidelity...
To make these parts that
they machine here in this room
as humanlike as possible.
Who knew a pelvis
was this heavy?
The goal is to build a dummy
that is just fragile enough to
register trauma like a human
but tough enough to
stand hundreds of crashes.
The trick...
Find the right combination
of the perfect materials.
Mike Beebe is the general
manager at Denton ATD.
He's taking me to
his favorite rib joint.
Dummy ribs are an
amazing blend of materials,
starting with damping...
A type of rubber.
Now, damping
material was originally
put on the hulls of
ships and submarines
to dampen noise and
vibrations and energy
that's produced in the hulls.
So we took that same
concept in damping the springs,
which are the steel ribs,
to act more humanlike.
- Is this being made right here?
- Yes.
Curtis is bonding
this damping material
that's cut specially
for each-size rib.
This is a simple process
but a very important process.
Any cracks or any voids,
it won't perform correctly.
Curtis, you make a fine rib.
[Both laugh]
Curtis cooks his ribs in an oven
so they'll be soft for
bending, just like human ribs.
When installed in the dummy,
along with high-tech sensors,
we'll be able to
predict with accuracy
if the impact would have
bruised or broken human ribs.
Well, we've got the
bones of our dummy.
Now for muscle and skin.
I'm making an adult
male hand right now.
And when you're making adult
male hands in your own kitchen,
don't worry if you
get a little messy.
These tins can take some
of the mess that you make.
I'm already pouring
outside the mold.
Well, anyway, this goes
into the oven at 300 degrees
for 20 minutes.
And in 20 minutes, we'll
have delicious male hand.
The liquid vinyl is poured into
these preheated aluminum molds.
Mold shapes exist
for every part of the
dummy covered with skin.
Will this skin react
like human skin?
Well, it's not exactly
like human skin
because it's to act
like us but repeatable.
Mike, um, I don't mean
this in a weird way,
but does it feel like skin?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
Um, so, when you
touch it, it feels like skin.
Sure. It's cold, but it feels
soft and pliable like skin.
In just 10 minutes, our
hand is cool to the touch.
So, we have freshly
molded hands.
These are finished,
but cosmetically, they're
not quite the real thing.
So we come to the body
shop, and we do a little trimming.
Cindy is a trimmer.
And before we
get to these hands,
we're going to
trim some buttocks.
But you trim more than just...
- You also trim hands.
- The whole body.
We would need to clean these up
to make them
like the real thing...
To make them look authentic.
Do your customers want
these to look that authentic?
- Yes, they do.
- Really?
Like no seams, no nothing.
You want this to be...
Smooth as we can get it.
The smoothest butt you can find.
Car manufacturers pay
up to $150,000 per dummy.
And these guys have
to be strong enough
to endure thousands of
crash tests in one lifetime.
And these dummies
have to look good, too.
Every single part of
every dummy must fall
within government weight
and measurement standards
because every single dummy
has to produce reliable
data crash after crash.
It is the load cells that serve
as the brain of a dummy.
These devices give the
dummy a voice of sorts,
enabling us to predict what
would happen to us in a crash.
So, the load cell, these
blue metallic parts here...
Like here in the
neck, here in the arm,
down here is one in the
leg right above the knee...
It's from these load cells
you get those measurements
which ultimately translate
into data that saves lives.
BEEBE: Correct.
Much like the human
reaction to trauma,
the load cell responds to
the force by sending signals
that are, just like
our brain, interpreted.
A load cell is
encased in a cylinder.
Inside, a small metal beam
runs the cylinder's length.
On that beam is a
thin zigzagging wire.
When the beam is bent by force,
that wire creates a
small electrical current
known as variance voltage.
That current is
fed into a computer
to be interpreted
as force, or torque.
A dummy is built to hold
anywhere from
one load cell to 15.
The load cells,
constructed, tested,
and installed at another plant,
all cost more than
an arm and a leg...
About 10 grand each.
Every single part of
a dummy is inspected.
And when they've passed muster,
they're boxed up and
shipped off for duty...
to places like the Insurance
Institute of Highway Safety
in Ruckersville, Virginia,
where at their state-of-the-art
crash-test facility,
their job is to wreck cars.
Today two of our
dummies are strapped in.
And they're about to
come face-to-face with this.
3,300 pounds hurtling down
a runway at 31 miles per hour,
hitting them broadside in a
car in this side-impact test.
Now, our two 110-pound
female dummies
have been placed inside the car.
It takes up to two days
to position these dummies.
Here, one is in the
front. One is in the back.
Now, we are getting very
close to breaking something.
Now, the load cells
that have been assembled
into the crash-test dummies
have 30 feet of wire in what
they call an umbilical cord
and are attached to a
data-acquisition system.
In other words,
what happens to our ladies
inside here is fed into this
and, in turn, fed into a
computer for analysis.
Both dummies have been
placed according to strict protocols,
and their respective positions
have been measured
to the millimeter.
Now, the last step is to
bring in the clown... paint.
So, we're now applying
the red clown paint.
And I'm gonna stay
within the lines here, right?
MAN: Yes.
This paint feels exactly
what you put on your face
when you were a little
kid, and I guess messy.
And that's what
you kind of want.
You want it to transfer
to the part of the car
that impacts with the body part.
Final preparations, and we're
in countdown-to-crash mode.
[Beeping]
[Tires screech]
Oh!
You can actually see in
the monitor already the test.
Look. Bang.
Once the crash site
is deemed secure,
we're allowed to see
how our dummies held up.
Amazingly, it takes just minutes
for the data to be interpreted.
So, how did our dummies do?
So far, it looks pretty good.
We see a possible
injury risk to the pelvis,
but everything else we
see so far looks pretty good.
What we see here... that
most of these numbers are low.
So that's a good sign
if you were an
occupant in this vehicle.
37 different measurements
confirm a good outcome,
even though the
neck twists violently.
The data show that
the speed and torque
were low enough to avoid injury.
The dummy's head is located
mainly on the air
bag of the vehicle.
Now, the driver
may have suffered
a slight injury to the pelvis,
but here's the headline... If
these dummies could walk,
that's how they'd
leave the scene.
I tell you, these
crash-test dummies
do a real number on your car.
But they are
looking pretty good.
They're like star athletes who
just played a really good game.
They're gonna take a couple
days off, rest, get recalibrated.
Then they'll suit up one
more time for another crash.
2/3 of you have them
in your cupboard.
46% of you will have
them in your mouth
over the next two weeks.
The darling of the snack
world... the potato chip.
We wanted to know... how do
you get more crunch in the chip?
To find out, we came to Kettle
Foods in Salem, Oregon...
Makers of the
original kettle chip.
Well, we're walking alongside
60,000 pounds of potatoes.
That's how many potatoes
wind up here at kettle chips
some three to four times a day.
The object here is
to off-load this truck
and size these potatoes.
We're getting ready to make
some delicious kettle chips.
The dirt's still on them.
These just came right
out of the field, basically.
How long does it take
to unload one of these?
MAN: 45 minutes to an hour.
- About an hour?
- Yeah.
First, the potatoes
are inspected
to make sure they're big enough.
They're looking for a potato
that is 2 to 3
inches in diameter.
- This would be good, right?
- Yeah.
Okay.
Now, Jim Green is the
purveyor of potatoes.
You've been here from the
very beginning. Is that right, Jim?
- That's right.
- How many years?
27.
What kind of potato do you use?
What comes in the door here?
Well, Brian, I can't tell
you the exact variety.
We use a special kind of potato.
Is it that you don't think
I can handle the truth?
I'm not sure I can trust
you with the truth, Brian.
UNGER: Wow.
What Jim will tell me is that,
of the hundreds of different
varieties of potatoes,
Kettle has been using the
same one for more than 25 years.
This particular kind of spud
has lots of natural sugars...
The key ingredients to
producing crunch and flavor.
Explain for me, Jim,
why a high sugar content
means better potato flavor?
It's the naturally occurring
sugars in the potato
is what we're looking for.
It's when you cook those
sugars, they caramelize.
So, like you would caramelize
something on your stove at home.
That's right.
If you cook sugar in
a pan in your home,
you see that it darkens
and creates a lot of flavor.
When heated, all those
natural sugars harden,
giving kettle chips more crunch
than if they'd use
the average potato.
Before becoming chips,
the potatoes are
carried along on rollers
that help knock
off dirt and sticks.
Then these spuds go through
a kind of vegetable car wash
where even more
grime is cleaned off.
And on these rollers,
the potatoes are
scrubbed with water.
They are also looked at
and inspected for size
and shape and color.
The ones that are too
big are sort of cut in half.
Bad potato.
A potato like this
gets discarded.
This is a sign that
things on our planet
aren't going as well
as they should be.
Potatoes that make the grade
are grouped into batches
of several hundred pounds.
So, here are the potatoes
that have just been washed.
All the soil has been removed.
The skin is still on them,
and they're being dumped
into these big grinders,
where they will drop into
big, round cutters, right?
This is the last time
they're whole potatoes.
So, at this stage, our
potatoes become chips.
And for that, we
are suited up in our...
What? deep-fryer clothes?
Your cook overalls.
My cook overalls.
This guy, clearly, had been
fired a couple of days ago,
thereby giving me his suit.
It is now time to
dump a lot of potatoes
in a lot of oil...
Safflower oil.
They use safflower oil
because it has a neutral taste,
allowing the potato's
flavor to shine through.
Inside these two cylinder
like metal structures
are spinning blades
guillotining the potatoes.
In some of these, there are flat
blades, which make a flat chip,
and in others, there are
sort of a serrated blade
that makes the crinkle-cut.
Kettle chips are cut
thicker than regular chips,
and it's a simple equation...
More chip to chew
through means more crunch.
Javier and I are going to man
this double-wide tankerful
of safflower oil and chips
with just our sheer
brawn and a garden rake.
After trying out
different tools,
kettle decided to use a
rake because the tines
keep the slices of potatoes
from sticking together.
You just have to kind of
pick them up and just...
UNGER: Oh, wow.
As the oil heats up,
the natural sugars are
released and begin to harden.
UNGER: And the reason
there's so much steam around us
is because the
potato is 80% water.
So, as it evaporates,
the potato is essentially
absorbing all the safflower oil.
The result is a mini sonic
boom every time you bite.
About how long does it take
to cook a big, giant vat of chips?
Roughly, it takes about 5
minutes to cook a batch.
So, as you can see,
this batch is done.
The oil on this side, empty...
moving the rest...
The cooked chips...
Up our incline conveyor.
At Kettle Chips, they
don't have conveyor belts.
They have shaker conveyors.
Shaker conveyors move
the chips by vibration,
and the constant motion thins
them out into a single layer
so that each one
can be inspected.
So, Jim, this is where
the river of chips
flows into what you
call an optical sorter.
GREEN: That's right.
That's this big
machine behind us here.
That's right.
This machine is sort
of hard to believe.
In essence, it's
got a camera in it.
And it's basically able
to tell the difference
between a light
chip and a dark chip.
And in that
instance, a blast of air
knocks the darker
chip off the belt,
and then you collect
them in this bin.
All that has to
happen very quickly.
In a split second.
In the end, there is no
substitute for the human eye
to catch any imperfections
in these potato chips...
In these kettle chips.
So, in this final inspection,
we're looking for chips
that might be dark, like this,
and we reject them.
Or we put them in
our pockets to eat later.
We also look for misshapen
chips, like this guy.
This also gets rejected.
Or eaten... later.
And, finally, if naked
chips aren't enough for you,
how about some flavor?
Kettle's custom-made
flavors are sprinkled on
inside these huge drums.
As the chips cool,
the seasonings settle
into tiny cavities, where
they bind with the oil.
Kim Sheridan is
a flavor architect.
Yes, that's a real job title.
She shows us how chips
hold on to their taste, crunch,
and freshness in
specially designed bags.
What's the bag made of?
It's made of a lot
of different materials
to create a light barrier,
an oxygen barrier,
a moisture barrier,
and be able to seal.
Wow, sounds like
a diaper, almost.
They've worked so hard
to produce a big crunch,
we want to preserve it.
A blast of nitrogen will
keep out the oxygen,
which would make a chip stale.
And it also provides a
cushion that protects the chips.
After less than five
hours, what was a potato
is now a crunchy chip
bursting with flavor,
ready to be shipped
anywhere in the world.