Handbook of Manufacturing Processes
How Products, Components, and Materials are Made

Market/Audience

This book is intended for Manufacturing and Process Engineers, Manufacturing Managers and all staff members with manufacturing responsibilities, as well as individuals who interact with manufacturing operations, including Salespersons and Sales Managers, Consultants, Government Regulators, Purchasing Agents, Quality Control and Maintenance Personnel. Also appropriate for anyone with interest in how products are made. Public and college libraries should have this book in their reference collections.

General Purpose and Description

Far more ambitious than any similar reference, the Handbook of Manufacturing Processes is an in-depth compilation of the workings of more than 1500 manufacturing processes in the metalworking, chemicals, textiles, plastics, ceramics, electronics, wood, and food industries; as well as a wide-ranging presentation of how more than 600 important products, components, and materials are made. Logically organized in two sections - a process section, and a products section - it describes clearly and succinctly the operations performed in the world's factories. Heavily illustrated, it is an extraordinarily comprehensive source of technical manufacturing information. Manufacturing and process engineers, factory managers and supervisors, and anyone who has an interest in or needs to know about manufacturing operations and how products are made - including those who are not technically trained - will find in this book a treasure trove of useful information.

Distinctive Features

* Practical, understandable explanations, even for complex processes
* Clear, jargon-free descriptions of how each of 1500 current and recently developed manufacturing processes work, what they do to the material or workpiece that is worked on, what the results are, and where these processes are used and why.
* Precise explanations of how 600 products, components, and materials are made.
* Text entries that are coded as in an outline, with these alpha/numerical designations carried over to the related illustrations for easy cross-referencing.
* Related processes that are grouped together; and sequential operations that are covered in order.
* Contributions from an Editorial Board of 24 experts.
* More than 600 line drawings and photographs.
* A detailed table of contents and very extensive index.

Table of Contents

Section I: Manufacturing Processes - 14 chapters covering processes for Casting, Metal Forming, Machining, Plastics, Glass and Ceramics, Woodworking, Assembly and Fusion (or Joining), Finishing, Paper and Printing, Textiles, Chemicals, Foods, Electronics, and Advanced Manufacturing Methods.

Section II: How Products, Components and Materials are Made - This section identifies the materials used, and describes the operation sequence and manufacturing methods for many important products, components, and materials. Notable products such as aircraft, automobiles, computers, musical instruments, eyeglasses, firearms, jewelry, perfume and shoes are among those included. Components such as lasers, integrated circuits, metal cans, cartons, auto airbags, gears, jet engines, locks, electric motors, solar cells and superconductors are covered. This section also describes the manufacture of many foods including cereals, cheese, spices, and beverages (including alcoholic types), and materials such as plastics, metals and alloys, and important chemicals.

This book is published by, and can be ordered from,
www.IndustrialPress.com.

It can also be ordered from www.amazon.com or www.BarnesAndNoble.com

This is your part of this web site. Please enter your comments and questions. Particularly, if you know of some product, component or material, in which you would like to know how it is made in production, just ask us and we will endeavor to research the question and tell you.

If you know how certain items are made and want to tell the world how it is done, this is your chance to do so. If you have other comments, gripes or complaints about the state of manufacturing in the world, or your part of it, particularly the operations within the factory, this is your chance to blow off steam. We want to hear from you!

UPDATE: Due to excessive spamming, we are eliminating the forum in favor of a simpler eMail system. If you wish to post a comment or ask a question, please send me an eMail. My eMail address is "Jim" at this domain (which is "HowTheyMakeThings.com")

So the eMail address would be: "Spammer@HowTheyMakeThings.com", except replace the word "Spammer" with "Jim". [Sorry to be so obtuse about this, but I have to disguise my eMail address to keep the spammers at bay.]

Do You Know What You Are Eating?

by Jim Bralla

November 22, 2008

Some common prepared foods include some interesting ingredients, whose source we may be unaware of. Are you a candy freak like me? Do you eat M & M's or jelly beans? Do you chew gum?  All have major ingredients that, if they were served individually, you probably wouldn't want to eat.

Jelly beans and M & M-type candy have a harder surface over a soft interior. Both have sugar, flavorings and a few other ingredients in that surface coating. But they include one other major constituent: “food grade shellac”! Shellac, as can be learned from page 749 of the Handbook of Manufacturing Processes, is made from a secretion of a particular tropical beetle, dissolved in alcohol. So, when you are eating jelly beans or M and M's, you are eating a bug's secretion! The material, though, has proven to be quite safe for human consumption. Then there's the synthetic or natural rubber in chewing gum, (page 653). Some candies include mineral oil, a by-product in the production of gasoline. Others have carnauba wax, the same wax you use when you polish your car, but that wax is fully natural, its source being the leaves of a tropical plant. Some fruits and vegetables are coated with wax for appearance and protection. Plant waxes are usually used, but one is paraffin, another byproduct of petroleum refining.

Please post a comment or ask a question: Send an eMail to "Jim" at this domain "HowTheyMakeThings.com"

How They Make Things - Alkylate
Another Reason for High-Priced Gasoline

by Jim Bralla

February 16, 2008

Alkylate, a chemical mixture that is a by-product of petroleum refining, may become much more widely known in the next few months. Its manufacture is discussed briefly on page 467 of the Handbook of Manufacturing Processes. Its notoriety will come from several factors: When used as an additive in gasoline, it raises the octane level (anti-knock properties) of the gasoline, and it does not have the potential undesirable environmental effects as does the more common octane-raising additive, MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether). MTBE is a carcinogen and can be absorbed into water. In some areas, it has been found in ground water, raising safety concerns. Alkylate, and its key ingredient, isooctane, are not water-soluble and do not have this problem. For that reason, in summer months, alkylate replaces MTBE as an octane-controlling element in the blends of gasoline shipped from refineries.

However, alkylate, is presently more expensive than MTBE. Its manufacture requires a large and expensive refinery unit and the use of sulfuric or hydrofluoric acid as a catalyst. This acid must either be made at the refinery or transported to it. The whole process requires a substantial investment and the planning and construction of the necessary equipment can take considerable time. As a result of all of this, some gasoline refineries do not have the capability of producing alkylate and must purchase it for their summer blends. This supply/demand situation that has resulted in high market prices for alkylate, compared to MTBE, and this will probably be reflected in higher gasoline prices, in addition to the cost effects of 90 to 100 dollar barrels of crude oil. Your wallets will probably suffer and there is no short-term fix!

Please post a comment or ask a question: Send an eMail to "Jim" at this domain "HowTheyMakeThings.com"

The Ubiquitous Glycerin
by Jim Bralla
June 20, 2007

If consumers knew, or took the time to read the fine print list of ingredients in common household products such as toothpaste, mouthwash, shaving cream, skin and hair products, drugs, cough syrups, foods (candies, cakes, cheese), animal feeds, soaps and paints, they would know that glycerin (sometimes called glycol) seems to pop up everywhere. Even less noticeable to the consumer is its major use: as a raw material in the production of alkyd plastics.

It is used in the consumer products because it has the desirable properties of absorbing and holding moisture, acting as a sweetener, solvent or softening, filling or thickening agent.

It has been in the news recently because unscrupulous Chinese manufacturers have substituted the cheaper diethylene glycol for glycerin. Besides being cheaper, diethylene glycol is toxic to humans and over 100 people died in Central America when they used a cough syrup that contained dietheylene glycol. And recently, toothpaste containing this dangerous ingredient has appeared in the United States. Manufacturers were able to make the substitution of ingredients because the common test used in identifying glycerin in a mixture of materials registers the same whether the ingredient really is glycerin or diethylene glycol. The Chinese government, in defending it own industries, has stated that diethylene glycol is NOT poisonous, but there is no doubt that it is.

Glycerin can be made in a number of ways. Originally, it was obtained as a bi-product in the manufacture of soap from vegetable and animal fats and about 40% is still made this way. The major production involves petroleum, in which it is synthesized from propylene (C3H6)or allyl alcohol (C3H6O). Another method utilizes the catalytic reaction of hydrogen and sugar at high pressure and temperature. It can also be made with a fermentation process.

Diethylene glycol, on the other hand, is strictly a petrochemical. It is a bi-product in the production of ethylene glycol which is used extensively as anti-freeze. Ethylene glycol is made from ethylene oxide which, in turn, is produced from the gas, ethylene. (The production of ethylene is discussed on page 668 of the Handbook of Manufacturing Processes.)

Please post a comment or ask a question: Send an eMail to "Jim" at this domain "HowTheyMakeThings.com"

Materials in the News
by Jim Bralla
April 25, 2007

Three materials that we didn't previously hear much about have been in the news lately. They are ethanol, wheat gluten and melamine. Ethanol is another name for ethyl alcohol, which is sometimes also called grain alcohol. It is the alcohol that is contained in beer, wine and other alcoholic beverages. With the name ethanol, heard lately from President Bush, it is a substitute for gasoline and can be a means for lessening America's dependency on crude oil and the products, such as gasoline, made from it. The manufacture of ethanol is discussed on page 623 of the Handbook of Manufacturing Processes. It is made from the fermentation of sugars and starches. When not used in an alcoholic beverage, it must be "denatured" by law to prevent its use as a beverage. See page 623.

Wheat gluton is used as a food additive to provide more protein in vegetable-based foods. One common use is in pet foods and it made the news recently because contaminated gluten found its way into a number of commercial pet foods. Wheat gluten is made from the germ of wheat and manufacture is described on page 488.

Melamine is most common as a major ingredient in melamine-urea plastic. The plastic is thermosetting and is perhaps best known when used to make "Formica" counter tops. It is also used as a coating and in handles, knobs and dinner plates. Melamine, when reacted with formaldehyde in making plastic, is highly inert, and, in the unreacted state is not classified as being hazardous to humans but apparently it can be to some animals, and, when used in pet food to simulate proteins, caused problems. Melamine production is found on page 771 of the handbook.

Please post a comment or ask a question: Send an eMail to "Jim" at this domain "HowTheyMakeThings.com"