8 ms·
Japanese manhole mass production process [video]
- artem_dev 4y agoWhy some parts are blurred in the video??
- jweather 4y agoProbably brand names. The Kiva Robotics logo on the robots were blurred for example.
- owlninja 4y agoDon't treat nickels like manhole covers :)
- bobsmooth 4y agoThe most amazing thing about this video is that everyone is wearing respirators.
- evan_ 4y agoOr hearing protection.
- Symbiote 4y agoI'm not sure that's weird. I worked temporarily in several factories in England one summer, and in general everyone used the safety equipment. When you can hear how loud it is through the ear defenders, why would you remove them?
- fastball 4y agoI was more impressed that they never do any lifting at all – always have a hook thing to help them flip / handle the covers.
- vl 4y agoThere is moment when a guy rolls a manhole out of the holder by hand.
- vincnetas 4y agotake in to account that they know that they are filmed. this is not a secret camera. also this video is obviosly checked by company afterwards, because some parts of it is blured.
- nier 4y agoJust like someone else wasn’t particularly amazed of the process how lightbulbs were being made in the 21st century, I’m pretty de-sensitized when it comes to the wearing of masks or respirators in Japan. For me, it would be remarkable if masks or respirators weren’t worn.
- Scoundreller 4y agoMeanwhile the New York City sewer grates: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/nyregion/26manhole.html https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/nyregion/26manhole.html
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- out-of-ideas 4y agonice: 2007! that was a time when some good music and some not so good music was made, too
- nielsbot 4y agoIs this factory dedicated to just making manhole covers? Are they using scrap metal? Why are certain parts of the video blurred out? So many questions…
- semireg 4y agoHard to believe it could be some IP. Perhaps the blur is a customer or internal reference UUID that would distract us from the essence of the video.
- dylan604 4y ago>Are they using scrap metal? Did you have the captions turned off during your view? I don't know how captions were turned on (is that now a default thing for YT), but there's a line that says it is scrap metal.
- nielsbot 4y agoyeah--no captions.
- softgrow 4y agoThe company https://hinodesuido.co.jp https://hinodesuido.co.jp makes a whole bunch of cast iron things, e.g. bridge panels, bridge expansion joints. The fire hydrants (manhole covers) are quite nice with a much more ergonomic removal tool than I've seen elsewhere (See green box on home page for a video).
- bdowling 4y agoToday I learned that painted manhole covers with cool, unique graphic designs for each city/customer are a thing in Japan. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/japanese-manhole-covers https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/japanese-manhole-cover...
- radnor 4y agoThere are even Pokémon themed lids! https://local.pokemon.jp/en/manhole/ https://local.pokemon.jp/en/manhole/
- jsnell 4y agoThanks, that answered a bunch of questions that popped to my mind while watching the video. One of those being just how much these cost. > Typically, a designed manhole cover, which weighs more than 80 pounds, excluding the frame, costs approximately $585—a five percent premium over the cost of a plain cover. The color, however, is applied carefully by hand, and nearly doubles the price of a manhole to more than $900.
- ehnto 4y agoThey are really ubiquitous in some cities, and travelling there I took pictures of one from each city I visted. It felt like collecting challenge coins or something. Not much more to add except that I felt cities in general were very good at self-awareness, branding and collectiveness at a face value level.
- Thlom 4y agoReminds me of a Norwegian rock band that is selling manhole covers as merchandise. For around $500. https://fanwear.no/products/the-dogs-kumlokk?variant=13600219562077 https://fanwear.no/products/the-dogs-kumlokk?variant=1360021...
- Symbiote 4y agoThey aren't painted, but Copenhagen has custom manhole covers too: https://cphpost.dk/2018-10-20/history/drain-spotting-for-manhole-cover-junkies-who-like-their-art-underfoot/ https://cphpost.dk/2018-10-20/history/drain-spotting-for-man...
- tkgally 4y agoThe linked video is on a Japanese YouTube channel called Process X [1]. A couple of similar Korean channels are All Process of the World [2] and 프로세스 케이 Process K [3]. For the last couple of months, I’ve been watching a lot of these videos. It’s interesting to see how products are manufactured today. The processes range from fully automated and robotized to skilled handiwork, with most being semiautomated and including a surprising (to me) amount of what looks like low-skill hand labor. The YouTube channels themselves are a mystery to me. It’s not clear who is making the videos or what the financial relationship is between the video producers and the factories covered. When I started watching Process X, I thought the channel might be backed by a Japanese government or industrial organization that wants to promote understanding of skilled manufacturing (monozukuri in Japanese). But normally such backing would be declared openly. Now I wondering if it’s just a small group of YouTubers doing it for the ad revenue, with the factories participating for the publicity. If anybody knows, please let us know. In any case, the videos are very well made and fascinating to watch. [1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChZgikssAJkmiQOv_sO-ngQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChZgikssAJkmiQOv_sO-ngQ [2] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSNIT8Z40XgB4RKk9Vhf1eA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSNIT8Z40XgB4RKk9Vhf1eA [3] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoah0FMpaTxHpZlF09kqQmg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoah0FMpaTxHpZlF09kqQmg
- progfix 4y agoI guess manufactories are just proud of what they are doing and want to show the world how it is done. That's what I got from going to factory tours myself when I have the opportunity.
- jamal-kumar 4y agoI'm going to guess they realized multiple revenue streams to everyone's benefit! I took a bunch of photos of these back when I was a kid on an exchange trip, the artistry on them was really notable. Very beautiful stuff.
- level3 4y agoI tried searching to see what I could find, and it seems like the channels are run by a Korean living in Japan. (I suppose it could be multiple individuals) For example, here's an article by a company that collaborated with Process X: https://www2.niigata-nippo.co.jp/ibuki/11453/ https://www2.niigata-nippo.co.jp/ibuki/11453/
- semireg 4y agoI always think about what machine made the machine, because if you're melting metal inside a metal bowl... then what metal cast the metal bowl? Or is that where the sand comes into play? Or... Turtles all the way down!
- cwillu 4y agoThat's the sand, yep: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_casting https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_casting
- wahern 4y agoSand is common for casting, but containers (crucibles[1]) for heating and holding molten metal are often ceramic (historically, clay) or at least lined with a refractory[2] material. Refractory materials may include sand, but I don't think sand alone (even compressed, as when used for molds) is strong enough for a crucible. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucible [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refractory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refractory
- Lio 4y agoAs others have pointed outed out, casting is often done with wooden blanks, sand and ceramic crucibles even today. If you can chip stone tools you can use them to shape and finish soft metal. Metal has the wonderful property that you can change it's properies with just heat, chemicals and a hammer. So you can work it when soft and then harden it to take an edge sharp enough to cut other metal. With basic metal working in a forge, casting, filing, hammering, riveting or grinding with stone, you can make a lathe. The lathe is known as at the king of machine tools for a reason. With a lathe you can you can do turning, facing, boring, threading and milling operations on metal. Et voilà! You have a machine that can make other more specialised machines from "nothing".
- germinalphrase 4y agoNow, where’s the video where we see a lathe made from rocks to a threaded bolt? Give the people what they want.
- spaceman_2020 4y ago[flagged]
- jamal-kumar 4y agoYou know these things work really well, right? https://getfirefox.com https://getfirefox.com https://ublockorigin.com/ https://ublockorigin.com/
- frosted-flakes 4y agoThese videos wouldn't exist without those ads. For better or for worse. These types of channels live on ad revenue.
- bagels 4y agoWhat is your alternate proposal? Other services don't deliver as high a quality, and not all content on youtube is available elsewhere, in my experience.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- fastball 4y ago1. Ads are great because they allow anyone to watch videos around the world. Video delivery at this scale obviously can't be wholly free, and if you charge for it then you are pricing out low income people all over the world. Speaking of charging for it... 2. You can pay for YouTube Premium if you dislike ads this much. If you pay for Premium, they don't show you ads. 3. Do you have an alternative platform in mind that has an equivalent experience to YouTube, but without ads and is free? 4. I don't actually see any ads on YouTube because I use Brave.
- userbinator 4y agoI'm surprised that with all that automation, they're still manually colouring them. That would be something ideally suited to CNC.
- hcrisp 4y agoLooks like they are using an Andromat manipulator [0] to handle the hot forged castings. Operates via skilled manual controls not automation, I believe. [0] https://www.andromatusa.com/klocke/manipulatoren/ https://www.andromatusa.com/klocke/manipulatoren/
- geenew 4y agoI thought the same thing. A couple of things that might account for that - From other shots in the video later in the process, it looks like the majority of the manholes produced don't have colouring applied -- The volume of manholes requiring colouring might be too low to justify the expense of automation - Automated control of a fluid with high viscosity and a tendency to dry/accumulate would be much more difficult than, say, the grinding operation shown earlier. At the very least, the nozzles would require more maintenance I fully agree though, that it is quite interesting that that step is being done manually. I find most videos of this kind to have the same type of surprise - steps which, to a layman, at least, appear like they could be automated, but are not, despite other steps in the process being automated. I imagine a manufacturing engineer's curse is being able to see a perfectible process but not being able to justify the expense.
- swader999 4y agoColoring is the fun part. Probably a perk for employees.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 4y agoI noticed one of the workers was consulting a color map on how to paint it. Maybe there are a significant number of different designs where it is easier to have a flexible human than bother with programming robots.
- LeoPanthera 4y agoIt's amazing how automated some steps are, and how automated some steps aren't. Also, do manhole covers really need to be replaced that often? That's a lot of manhole covers. Surely they don't make that many every day.
- woodruffw 4y agoNYC alone buys about 3,000 manhole covers a year (from the NYT article linked downthread) for just electricity and steam operations (not including sewer, gas, or water). Japan has around 14x as many people and is substantially more urbanized, so it's not inconceivable that they run production daily, especially if they're selling to other markets.
- pySSK 4y ago> especially if they're selling to other markets. I would imagine they do that a lot. They seem to have YKK'd the manufacturing of manhole covers and I can't imagine that anyone else could do it better or cheaper. Edit: if anyone didn't get the YKK reference, look at any zipper you own. Chances are it says 'YKK' on it. YKK of Japan has perfected zipper-making and dominates the market.
- pySSK 4y agoSome of these seem to be new installs since they're also making the mating ring that goes around it. That mating ring is embedded in concrete. Also, since they seem to have the concept of painted manhole covers, I would imagine that they would replace slightly more often than we do to commemorate special events. Manhole cover theft is a problem too (as part of general scrap metal theft as the cost of iron and other metals has risen) but I would imagine it's less of a problem in a society like Japan. Edit: this link says this company makes 200 a day: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/street-art-japanese-manhole-covers/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/street-art-japanese-manhole-cov...
- shoelessone 4y agoSorry if I missed it, but is the color material some sort of epoxy type product? When I've seen these in the past I sort of assumed it was either epoxy, plastic, or some sort of ceramic that was put through a kiln. But I didn't see any curing or finishing process. Anybody happen to know?
- pySSK 4y agoYes, looks like it's an epoxy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJJAY377AhU&ab_channel=%E5%A1%97%E6%96%99TV%E3%80%90%E3%83%9F%E3%83%89%E3%83%AA%E5%95%86%E4%BC%9A%E3%80%91 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJJAY377AhU&ab_channel=%E5%A...
- yellow_lead 4y agoThey look a lot like cast iron pans to me. I wonder if you could use a non-painted one as a cooktop during a disaster
- pySSK 4y agoYep. Scroll down to "Manhole pancakes made to order" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/street-art-japanese-manhole-covers/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/street-art-japanese-manhole-cov...
- yellow_lead 4y agoHaha, that's awesome. Thanks for sharing
- vl 4y agoNobody asked yet why manhole covers are round? Another curios question since most of the common answers are incorrect.
- bombela 4y agoBecause it cannot fall through. Next time just post the titbits and avoid the downvote.
- mattlondon 4y agoThere appeared to be some curious things blurred out - e.g. when preparing the molds it looks like the fixtures holding the mild were blurred? I get it for brand names etc, but I can't see there being many Coke or Nike logos in a foundry?
- blahyawnblah 4y agoProbably some proprietary part of the process
- maverwa 4y agoFor me it at least some of the blurred parts looked like labels. Maybe something related to customers and orders?
- graderjs 4y agoAfter I saw that a few times I thought it was just industry factory smudge on the camera lens. Seemed no rhyme or reason to the blurring
- gorgoiler 4y agoFascinating how few people are involved. It would be nice to get a sense of the number of employees who work at the control software company and the semi-automatic steel smelting robot companies too. It’s so exciting to see real human progress like this in my lifetime — jobs getting better for everyone, we hope. What’s not getting better is iOS accessibility! Am I missing something, or does iOS 16 still not support closed captions on full screen videos?
- pbhjpbhj 4y ago> It’s so exciting to see real human progress like this in my lifetime — jobs getting better for everyone, we hope. That sounds like pie in the sky (wishful thinking). Usually the benefit of automation goes only to owners; the poor get job losses and an increasing wealth gap. If this is state-owned then it's not so bad, but still the brunt of job losses would seem to be for low-skilled workers. Distributing the benefit of increased automation to me is a good argument for things like 4-day week and universal basic income (UBI).
- csours 4y agoI've previously worked around automation in an automotive assembly plant, and the thing that stuck out to me was the grinding being done in a robot cell. Grinding aggregate is very destructive of precision machinery (which is ironic when you consider that the highest precision machinery produced with grinding processes).
- kleiba 4y agoNote: this is about producing manhole covers.
- graderjs 4y agoThe achingly heartbreaking noble dignity of human industry is epitomized by this video of Japanese manhole cover creation accompanied by "sad Autumn walk through the city park" music. If someone had done an interview with one of the workers where he talks about his simple work, daily struggles and hopes for his family, I'm sure I would have burst out crying and been inconsolable for a half hour at least. Somehow analogically contained within this video microcosm is a narrative of a whole nation.
- canadianfella 4y ago[dead]
- SturgeonsLaw 4y agoFor anyone interested in more of this, there are a ton of How It's Made clips on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@howitsmadeofficial1334/videos https://www.youtube.com/@howitsmadeofficial1334/videos
- mikeponders 4y agoI have to say this is a very clean process. You can watch any video of a person trying sand casting and see how they fail most of the time trying to get it right. These guys do it brilliantly and with very few hands touching the product. Not many facilities have this much attention to their process, especially when they produce something as crude as a manhole cover.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- swader999 4y agoA manhole cover is the fastest object ever created and likely the first manmade object to leave earth. https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/fastest-manmade-object-manhole-cover-nuclea-test/ https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/fastest-manm...
- WJW 4y agoIt's not the fastest anymore! That manhole cover topped out at around 55 km/s, while the Parker solar probe achieves up to 700 km/s at the point in its orbit closest to the Sun. Also, depending on how you define "object" the clumps of particles we assemble and shoot around the ring in the Large Hadron Collider at 0.99c are much faster than both.
- swader999 4y agoOk, fastest thing on earth!
- forinti 4y agoIn the Strange Parts Youtube Channel (the guy who made an iphone in China), the presenter goes to India to make a manhole cover and they kick him out of a factory because he is an industrial spy. I found it hilarious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqMUuBHChxk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqMUuBHChxk This guy has videos in China walking into electronics factories where they just showed him around and explained everything and then these people in India inside very precarious facilities think he is going to steal their IP.
- sudhirj 4y agoMore like they thought he was a safety or pollution inspector there to ask for bribes / shut them down.
- bloomingeek 4y agoSo that's what happened to Bender! Next March when we're visiting Tokyo, I'm gonna look for him by taking a picture of all the covers I see. I wonder what district I'll find him in? :)
- affgrff2 4y ago"Heute zeige ich Ihnen die Herstellung von Mannlöchern" (subtitle in German of the first scene). I am being childish here, but that is not how that is to be translated.
- LeanderK 4y agoIteresting mix of manual and automated. Some things look like they haven't changed at all the last 50-100 years and others are highly automated. I always thought that automation is not a continuous process because you can't easily mix humans and robots and therefore have to design the whole process around the robots. Am I wrong an automation is actually a continuous process where task after task get's more automated? Do they have a yearly budget they can invest in automation?
- jjk166 4y agoYeah, automation is practically always done in a progressive manner. The issue isn't the robots, it's the humans.
- akiselev 4y ago> Am I wrong an automation is actually a continuous process where task after task get's more automated? Yes, for the same reason that software development methodologies like agile/scrum/whatever are better than waterfall development. You can't know what to automate until you're actually doing the thing that needs automation.