Despite de crisis, not everything is manufactured out Spain.
Of course, by the moment I can tell you about three things manufactures here: Cars, hams and tiles.
Spain is the fourth country in the world in number of vehicles per capita. And here, we manufacture the bodywork of many cars.
The first step for manufacturing a car is estirer a steel sheet from a roll.After that, each sheet is cut, to the extent necessary. So, they get each piece, depending of its objective; for example: doors, roof, reinforcements…..
If you want to watch the video of the tv program, from where I have gotten the information, please click down here:
http://www.rtve.es/television/fabricando-made-in-spain/
The Team Leader presses Line says that the steel plate is modeled by the center to create the car roof; the press applies a weight of 1000 tons. At the end, each roof will has a weight of 22 kg.
At the same time that the roof was manufacturing, other pieces, like doors, sides, hood…..were manufactured. All of that will be named “Carrocería” (Bodywork).
The Production Superintendent explains that, once you have the car floor, you have to solder all the pieces and move on to the stage where the floor meets the sides of the car.
So, you can see the result, that is: a floor, with roof and sides. Now is the time to put all the pieces, each other.
Now, the car is ready for being painted; but before that, you have to apply a coat of paint different. It is named “Fosfatación” (phosphatisation). The Phosphatistion is a protective anticorrosion treatment , applied to the bodywork; its aim is that color stay intact for many years.
The Production Superintendent says that the colors most in demand are: Black, Silver and White. The White is the most economic color, because the metallic colors have a plus in the final price; therefore, the White is the most color in demand .
The next step in the painting is to apply a layer with clearcoat.
After painting, the car goes into a furnace in which the car will be at 150 degrees for 15 minuts. This phase is called "curing", which is where the paint dries.
The next step is the assembly where you will put the car wheels, steering wheel, seats .....
Pedro Espinosa, Maintenance Operator, explain that inside the dashboard, you can find the radio, the air conditioning, the wheel…..To do that, the robot needs much free space; so, the workers have to remove the doors.
Now, they put the seats into the car.
After that, they join the motor exhaust.
An important thing is the “Par motor”, that means: the force of the motor.
The last phase is to place the wheels.
At least, the car is finished. Concretely, this one shall go to France. But Monica says: “What the owner of this car does not know is that I am going to brand the new car”.
The next “Repor” is about “Janomes” (Hams).
The video says that Egyptians and Romans enjoyed this part of pork.
One of the five hams that we produce in Spain, is sent out of here.
Ham is so precious that one day someone paid 4000 Euros for a ham.
At the beginning of the video about hams, you can hear in that room, there are more than a hundred of hams. In that room, the temperature conditions are very good. There are 4 rooms as we have 4 Seasons (Spring, Summer, Autum and Winter).
The live of a ham start here: in a pasture.
Again, about temperature of ham, we have to know that it must be among zero an seven degrees.
Hams must be without hair.
In the factory, there is a machine that take all the hams and let that each one fall down, depending of its weight and its fat.
The man responsible, who is talking about hams, says that the important thing, in an Iberian ham is the genetic and feeding.
Also it is said that in a room, they have to get that all hams have the same temperature, in order that they take salt very well. Salt is the only preservative that is added to the ham. Manolo is the responsible for salting the hams. He says that the hams are under salt, depending of their weight; he says that it is calculated so: “One day for one kilogram of ham”.
After that, they take the hams to brush them, blow them and wash them, in order to remove all the salt.
The salt is left is mixed with new salt for reuse.
After salting, they start the healing phase. Here they reproduce the 4 seasons.
In the room of “Winter”, the temperature is among 1 and 3 degrees. The hams have already the salt, but it has to go in to the bone. Here those hams will stay 4 months more or less.
Matías Castuera explains that hams have to beat them, so that the fat back into place, after losing form in "The tinillos." The tinillos are some metal crates, where they are put salt. Some of the tinillos are put top of each other and at the end the hams lose their shape, so they are battered. Here they take each ham, one by one.
The next room (Phase of Spring) has 8000 hams. The responsible explains that fat is falling down; therefore, the shoes are are hitting the ground. So, the hams are loosing their weight. Throughout the entire healing, the hams lose around 33 per cent of their weight.It is named “El Merme”.
This responsible says that in Spain are produced 47 million of hams, each year.
The last phase is the named “Cellar phase”. Here the hams are around two years old. When this phase has finished, Justi (El Maestro Calador” ( the man who penetrate the hams), in order to say how is the quality of each ham.
Justi (Jose María Justiniano) says that the ham has 3 critical points: “El Codillo” (the knuckle), la “Vena Femoral” (The femoral vein) and “El hueso de la cadera” (hip bone). The cove is a cannon bone of the cow. He click on the knuckle, smell and see that the smell is wonderful - it says -.
Now, the ham must be cut. The factory has a machine that let to cut 1200 slices in one minute. But before, they have to remove the bone from the ham. When the bone is out, they have to remove the fat. This fat is used in Cosmetics.
After that, you put the ham in a press, that will mold it. So, it will be abble to be cut in slices. All the slices will be with the same size. The machine, that cut the ham is abble to cut 1200 slices per minute. And it also put a little paper among two slices.
When the slices are cut, they are taken inside a little bag, where the oxygen is taken out and is put an inert gas, in order to better preserve the ham, in spite of the several changes of temperature.
Now I am going to talk about “Baldosas” (Tiles). It is thought that the first tiling appeared on 9th century before Christ, in Babylonia.
Enric tells us the process to make tiles. He says the star of a production process of manufacturing tiles start in “Los Silos” (The Silos), where you can find the raw material. Here you can see “Feldespato” (Feldspar). It is like fine sand and it helps us to make a paste.
Also, there are many tiles, which were defective and, then, they are crushed before cooked, to be used, like new.
They store feldspar, waiting to be needed to make more tiles.
Feldspar mixed with water to make a paste, which they call "Barbotina”.
To grind the “Barbotina”, they use stones, rotating in the machine.
The factory is as big that some workers need to move on bikes themselves. For example, one of those workers is the responsible of preparation of compounds. This factory has a size of 35.000 m2, that is the same than 35 Soccer stadiums.
The liquid that result goes from the mill through a pipe to rafts where the liquid rests, for all well homogenize. Then, this liquid is sent, through another pipe, to the atomizer. It is very very big….here, they can evaporate 14.000 liters each hour.So, the water goes out.
We now turn to the press zone and glazing, where the tiles will be decorate.
Miguel Rubio shows us the press number 14, where the paste arrives.Then, the press make a charge and put the paste on the mold; the top of the press makes a pressing and so one tile goes out of the mold. After that, they have to dry the tile. The material go inside crude and goes out without humidity, dry and strong.
After that, they make the design and they paint and decorate the tile. The designer explais us how he start a design, from an image.He shows an imitation of sheet, rusty tin.
He also can show us a imitation of wood.
The next phase is to take the tiles to the oven, operating at 1200 degrees. This oven measures 109 meters long. But before goig to the oven, the tiles need to be wet, because if you do not do that, they can be broken, in the oven. The tiles should have some cracks. After being in the oven, the piece is glazed. That is what Manuel Fortuño (responsible of Glaze) tells us. He is 30 years working here.
When the tile is glazed, it pass under a roller, in order to be cleaned on its face.
After that, the tile goes to a printer.You can see the different colors: Cyan, Magenta, yellow, black….At the end, the tile goes out with the design that the workers tought , at the beginning. The result, in this case, is an imitation of wood.
Now, the tiles are taken to the boxes, where they will be taken to the oven. There are several special ovens, that have a great capacity of production. Here are the ovens which measures 109 meters long, and operating at 1200 degrees. When the piece goes out of the oven, it has a luster that had no prior. When the piece goes out of the oven, it is cooled.
Now, they go to the room named of “Tonificacion” (Toning). Here they will test that all the tiles have the similar color. When all is well, they do the last phase: Packaging and Palletizing. Here the warehouse has a capacity fo 100.000 pallets and around 5 millions of meters.
Till soon, kind regards,
Luis.
Sponsored by Costaluz Lawyers.
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