Awesome Factories

We’ve seen how they make disco balls in the last American mirror ball factory; now see how they do it in Japan. Nissho Co., Ltd. makes shiny spheres by bending sheet metal into domes, screwing them together, hand-cutting and gluing hundred of round mirror tiles then filling the gaps with grout. Note that the tiles are different sizes depending on their placement.

Tortilla chips are Mexican food, so it’s a little strange to see a Japanese factory cranking out chips by the millions. Process X visited Koikeya to see how they turn corn kernels into deliciously crunchy snack foods. After boiling corn, machines mash it up into a doughy paste, cut that into triangles, bake and fry those before adding seasonings and packaging.

Jared Owen presents another fascinating animation of a complex machine—or, in this case, multiple machines working together. In this video, he walks us through the automated donut factory, which you can find at many Krispy Kreme locations. These machines can crank out up to 3000 donuts per hour. Our favorite part is the glaze waterfall.

Electric vehicle maker Tesla takes us on an updated tour of Gigafactory Berlin. The drone’s-eye view of the factory puts viewers as close as they’ll ever get to metal stamping presses, industrial robots, and other massive machines. Tesla expects the facility to crank out hundreds of thousands of its Model Y crossovers and millions of battery cells.

We like to make our own sandwiches. But a store-bought sandwich might have to do when you’re in a pinch. This video from How It’s Made takes us inside a factory that cranks out sandwiches, where humans and machines work hand-in-robo-hand to create lunches for thousands every day. Yep, there’s a robot designed solely to apply mayonnaise.

It’s all ball bearings nowadays. Given the ubiquity of these smooth-spinning widgets, it’s interesting to see how they’re made. Process X takes us inside the JTEKT Corporation, Japan’s highest-volume ball bearing factory. Watching millions of steel spheres rolling their way through the automated production line is reason enough to hit play. Turn captions on.

Most saw blades are made by machine these days. But the Daedong Saw factory in Korea still makes them by hand. Mega Process takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility to see how skilled craftspeople cut, punch, and sharpen every tooth of every blade with care and precision.

This machine is moving so quickly that it’s hard to believe how much it is doing. The high-speed blow molding system can crank out and quality test roughly 45,000 bottles per hour – that’s 750 bottles per minute. We need The Slow Mo Guys to stop by this factory with their high-speed camera.

Robert Zhang and Chris Lee won LEGO Masters season four. As part of their prize, they got a behind-the-scenes tour of LEGO’s highly automated factory in Billund, Denmark, and Chris shared some exclusive footage of the visit on his YouTube channel, including some unique Ninjago parts being produced. They also got to check out the amazing LEGO Idea House.

Whether or not you think the spatial computing tech in the Apple Vision Pro headset will take off, it’s an impressive piece of hardware. Apple gives us a rare glimpse into the modern manufacturing techniques used in crafting the device, including custom-cut and bent glass, an engineered fabric band, and a precision-machined aluminum bezel.

There aren’t many products that can be made by the millions, but hardware like screws are one such item. This video from SatisFactory Process takes us inside a facility in China that cranks out mass quantities of screws every day. Machines straighten coils of steel wire, cut, shape, then thread the screws before they’re heat-treated for strength and washed.

Zinc carbon batteries are the cheapest kind of batteries you can buy. Alkaline and lithium batteries last longer, but that doesn’t make this factory video any less fascinating. Miracle Process took their cameras inside a Chinese factory that uses an army of machines to crank out millions of zinc-carbon batteries each year. Turn on captions.

Ten years ago, we visited Stern Pinball in a small suburban Chicago factory that made up to 100 pinball machines a day. Since then, interest in pinball has grown substantially, and they’ve moved twice. Between the two buildings of their new factory, they now have almost 250,000 square feet of space and are the largest pinball factory in the world.

This factory in Pakistan cranks out thousands of toy horses a day. The process starts by grinding up plastic scraps from the prior day’s work and melting them, then using that to blow-mold the horse’s body. Workers then attach accessories and mold and cut out the wheels before final assembly. It’s not the most modern factory line, but they get the job done.

While a handful of restaurants make their own ramen noodles, many turn to companies like Sun Noodle to make high-quality noodles to serve their guests. Eater takes us inside family-owned business that produces more than 300,000 portions of the chewy Japanese noodles each day, delivering them to dining establishments around the nation.

We’re always fascinated by the ways different products get manufactured. In this video from Process X, we take a tour of a factory in Japan that cranks out plastic balls for kids to play with. While the start of the video makes it look like they’re making cake mix, we can assure you that PVC isn’t edible.

We never really thought about it before, but some hammers are made with other hammers. This video from Process X takes us inside a small tool factory in Japan to see how a skilled blacksmith makes various traditional hammer heads by forging steel and shaping each one using a pneumatic power hammer and hand tools.

It’s been a long time since we needed floppy disks to store data. But we still enjoyed watching this retro factory video posted by StirlingEngineering, which shows how they used to produce 3.5″ floppies. It’s a satisfying 5-minutes sequence of mechanical ear candy.

When we’re dragging, one of our go-to snacks is peanut butter and cheese sandwich crackers. They offer a savory mix of carbs and protein and help us power through. Science Channel’s How It’s Made goes inside the Lance factory to see how they’re baked, cut, and assembled, and where that orange color comes from.

While the use of physical currency continues to dwindle, there’s still a need for coins to be produced. Process X takes us on an in-depth tour of Japan’s only coin factory for a look at how they make coins. The Osaka mint produces six kinds of coins, from aluminum 1 yen coins to the copper, nickel, and zinc 500 yen coins shown in the video.

Take a look inside the Vincent Bach factory, where they handcraft premium brass instruments. In this video, you’ll see craftspeople transform stamped sheets of brass into a variety of precision trumpets for professional musicians. Along the way, you’ll learn about how a trumpet works, too.

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are found everywhere these days, so they must be produced in mass quantities. Scotty Allen from Strange Parts scored a tour of China’s World Semi factory for a fascinating look at how they crank out millions of RGB LEDs that can be programmed to change colors. The automation used in the process is truly incredible.

Japan’s Sigma Corporation makes all kinds of camera lenses. Process X takes us on a factory tour for a look at how their interchangeable lenses come together, from polishing glass to assembling tiny components and even hand-painting the dial markings. Production requires precision and cleanliness from start to finish. No wonder lenses are so expensive.