All language subtitles for Tomorrows.World.Today.S04E02.The.Power.of.Air.720p.WEBRip.x264-KOMPOST_track3_[eng]

[narrator] Welcome.

On this episode
of Tomorrow's World Today,

we visit the world of innovation

to learn how innovations
in compressed air

and a math equation
from the 1700s

are being used
in modern manufacturing.

Our field reporter Greg
brushes up on his ABCs.

And we celebrate the first
ever national pneumatics day.

From Inventionland
world headquarters,

here's our host, George Davison.

Throughout history, we've used
the air we breathe to power things

like blow guns,

which date back
as early as 429 AD.

You know, a blow gun
is simply a long narrow tube,

that you shoot something
like a dart out of.

They're surprisingly powerful,
they're accurate,

and they can shoot upwards
of 100 yards.

- [blows]
- [glass breaking]

And you've probably seen
bellows used a fan of flame.

When the boards of the bellows
are separated,

air rushes into the chamber.

When the boards
are brought together,

the valve closes,

and air will rush out
through this nozzle.

This is one of the very
first uses of compressed air.

Today, compressed air is used
over and over in our everyday lives,

like when the dentist's
uses it to clean our teeth,

or when we're filling up
our tires when the air is low.

We're gonna head over
to the woodshop now

for a demonstration.

- Hi, Stu.
- Hey, George.

- Well, are you ready for the demo?
- Absolutely.

Take a look at this.

- All right.
- So this is the Bernoulli grip

worked off
Bernoulli's principle.

You can see here,

- we have a compressor in the other room.
- Okay.

It's blowing high speed air
with these blue arrows here.

And it creates
a low pressure field,

- right in the middle with the yellow arrow.
- Yes.

Which works like a vacuum.

- Ah!
- So the outside air pressure

holds whatever material
you want,

right up to the base of it,
and it won't even touch it.

Well, that's really interesting.

Let me make sure
I understand this.

So, in the other room
in this illustration,

there's a compressor running
that's filling a tank.

- It's forcing high speed air out of that head, right?
- Yep.

When it does that,

it's creating a vacuum
right here in the middle.

- Is that right?
- Exactly.

And you won't even be touching
your part.

It creates almost like
a little hovercraft in there.

That's nice. So no damage
to the part of it,

it's really a sensitive piece.

- Exactly.
- Very nice.

You know what,
this is one of those times

where science feels like magic,

you know,
hairs blowing out of this

but it still...
it creates that vacuum

with the the outside air pushing
it right up in there. It's amazing.

- It seems surreal. Really.
- Yeah.

- You want to take a look?
- Of course, Stu.

- [laughs]
- All right.

[air whooshing]

Wow.

I can see through it.

Yep. It's not even touching.

Right.

There it goes.

That's amazing, Stuart.

- Thank you for the demo.
- Absolutely.

To learn more about
how compressed air

is helping to innovate
the world of manufacturing,

we're going to be visiting SMC

who invented an air
cylinder actuator in the 1970s.

An actuator is simply what's responsible
for moving or controlling parts.

They've got some great lessons
and experiments in store for us

that are going to help us
to understand

the science
behind air compression.

I've sent Greg to SMC
headquarters in Indianapolis

to get more information.

Let's catch up with him on site.

You know you've made it

when you've got
your own road named after you.

I'm here at SMC

where they're using
their actuators

and compressed air

to help support
the automation process

in manufacturing.

We're gonna meet with John
Halvorsen and Amanda Wease.

They're going to give us a little
more information on the science

behind some
automation necessities.

Hi, Amanda. Hi, John.

Really great
to meet you two today.

I understand we're going to be
doing experiments all day long.

This is going to be so cool.

Yes, it's gonna be
very exciting, Greg.

John and I are going to show
you three different demonstrations

to show you SMC's version
of the ABCs.

The ABCs?

That's right. Let's go see.

So Amanda, I'm gonna need you to
explain a little bit more about these ABCs.

Of course, Greg.

Today we're gonna be
talking about air recycling,

Bernoulli's gripper
and the compact wireless.

[John] Let's start
with air recycling.

You're familiar
with pneumatics, right?

I am. Anything with a pneumatic
component uses compressed air

as its energy source.

So everything from nail guns
to roller coasters,

they all use compressed air.

Exactly.
You've done your homework.

I try.

Very good. Let's go look
at the first demo.

Sounds great.

So Greg, in addition to
nail guns, and rollercoasters,

pneumatics is commonly used
in a variety of industries.

SMC is a company that's
helping those manufacturers

reduce their carbon emissions
through our technologies.

Well, that's great.

So the demo that I have here

is a standard pneumatic actuator

and our air saving
pneumatic actuator.

[air hisses]

When I extend
and retract the cylinder,

I'm putting air pressure on either side
of the piston to move it back and forth.

Right, but that means you're
wasting air in both directions.

That's correct. Every time
I cycle this actuator,

I'm actually releasing the
used air back to the atmosphere

versus in this air saving model.

- [air hisses] - I can extend the
cylinder using compressed air,

but when I retract the cylinder,

I'm using the same air
from this chamber.

So you're saving half the air.

Exactly. We're saving
approximately half the air,

which results in half
the air compressor runtime

and half the electricity
and half the carbon emissions.

[Greg] That's great.
Amanda, what's next?

The Bernoulli gripper.

All right, let's see the B.

- So Greg, are you familiar with the Bernoulli grip?
- I am.

The Bernoulli grip allows you
to have the air pressure

and the speed inversely related.

So when the speed of the air
increases, the pressure decreases,

which allows us
to pick up the objects.

Right. So that's
basically the reasons

why birds can fly and we can't,
it's about the shape of their wings.

When they flap, they generate a lot of pressure
underneath and it gives them that lift.

I can flap my arms all day long,

and I'm never gonna take off.

Exactly. So right here is
our Bernoulli gripper.

It allows the air to move
very quickly through the holes

in the bottom of the gripper,

which creates a suction
in the middle.

But what's really interesting
is the fact that

it doesn't actually
have any contact

because there's a thin layer
of air above the object.

That is interesting.
Let's see it in action.

[pressurized air hissing]

The design is also
a high lifting force,

so you can pick up a little
bit heavier objects, too.

[Greg] And it's not actually
touching the product.

- Exactly.
- That's pretty fascinating.

So this is
a little bit different

- than these ones here.
- Okay.

Because these are suction cups
that use a vacuum generator.

So this is our ZK2,

which saves about 90%
of the air consumption,

because once it reaches
a certain pressure,

it just pulses the air

so it maintains that pressure rather
than continuously supplying the air.

Okay, so that's basically how birds
stay up in the air once they're up there.

They only flap their wings
every once in a while,

and yet they stay airborne.

Exactly. Because that sounds
like a lot of work.

The vacuum products will
allow you to actually reduce

some of your repetitive motion.

So it's actually easier
for us as well.

The very first cup that we're
going to look at is this FDA cup.

It's blue because it's not
naturally occurring in nature,

which makes it ideal
for food applications.

So it could be used
for potato chips

or cookies or picking up
different things like that.

- Just picking things up, moving it a different area.
- Exactly.

Well, let's see it work on our
little bag of fake blueberries there.

- Perfect.
- [air hisses]

[Greg] Awesome.
Very interesting.

Now, as I look along here,

these all seem to have
a fairly similar shape

but this one is pretty interesting
to me, because it's pretty heavy.

It's about
a half a ball bearing,

it's got a little bit of heft
to it.

I want to see
if this will pick it up.

No problem at all.

Now, one thing I'm noticing is
that these shapes are similar.

And these two in particular
look exactly the same.

What's the difference
between these two?

So if you notice, this is a thin
film whereas these are bellows.

- So that's why you can pick up this heavy round object.
- Okay.

These two are
a little bit different

because they're
different material type.

This is a nitrile rubber,

which is really good
for general industries.

So you can pick up
the glass there, cardboard,

or even automotive hoods.

Okay, but this one
would be better in some...

maybe some heavier duty
or applications?

- Things like that.
- Exactly right.

- Okay.
- So I know we had a lot of fun here,

and I know we want
to probably keep going,

but John, what we have next?

Yeah, let's get to the C,
our compact wireless system.

We've looked
at our actuators and vacuum

and how we can
reduce air consumption.

Now let's look at a way that
manufacturers can increase their uptime

and simplify machine design.

-Sounds great. Let's take a look.
-All right, let's go.

So Greg, most manufacturers
rely on 24X7 operation.

And what we found is
in their machine designs,

one of the biggest problems
they run into

is communication cables
and losing communication.

That can be the weakest link
in a machine.

And I imagine along with that,
you have to worry about

protecting that cable, depending
on the environment that it's in.

You have to look at
how flexible it needs to be,

how far the information has to
travel, how quickly that has to happen

and what happens
if that cable fails.

Right. And there's all that
labor to do the cable installation

to repair the cables.

And think about all the landfill
waste on the broken cables.

Man, that looks like the back
of my entertainment center.

Yeah, so let's just do that.

And we have a simplified way
to deal with that.

Here we have
our EX600 wireless system

that takes
one communication cable

from the controller
to our base unit,

we have this base unit
communicating wirelessly

to this remote unit

and we can have
up to 127 remotes,

including our
new compact version.

This compact remote can be
used in a packaging machine

where they want
to have a really small profile

and just keep their overall
machine design small.

Now, I can't imagine though,
that you're just gonna walk

into a manufacturers office,

plop this stuff down
on the desk and walk away.

You've got to have
some way of training

and educating them
on how to use it.

Exactly. So although these are
very complex products,

if someone's willing to learn,

we have a training facility
just for them.

Great.
I'd really love to see that.

- All right, let's go meet Beth.
- Okay.

[Elizabeth] That's there.

And we're here.

- Hi, guys.
- Hi!

So we've been
talking about actuators.

So let's think about
what you know about actuators.

- What are your movements?
- Linear.

[Elizabeth] Linear, very good.

Give me a second movement
of an actuator.

- Uh, gripper.
- [Elizabeth] Gripper.

Give me a third movement.

Rotating.

[Elizabeth] Rotating. All right.

Let's talk about how do I pick
valve that goes with the actuator

because the actuator is going
to be picked by my application.

In this case, we've
already picked our actuator.

We've picked
a double acting actuator.

So let's start simple. Let's start
with the most basic valve we've got,

which is a 2/2.

Air comes in.

Air comes out.

And now I have to figure out
how I want to move my valve.

We're gonna start
with returning it.

The easiest way
to return it is a spring.

So I put a spring in.

Now there's a lot of different
ways I can move the valve.

I can move it manually,
I can move it mechanically,

I can move it
with electro pneumatics,

which is what
we're going to choose

because that's what a lot of
industries are going to pick.

I'm going to send a signal, when
I send my signal, I shift my valve,

my air goes through,
send my actuator out.

When I stop sending my signal,

my valve is going to shift back

and we would anticipate
the actuator come back.

Even if we had the method
to send it back,

there's no place for it to go.

We can't send our air out.

2/2s don't work.

So we're going to add a port.

I'm just changing
the internal construction,

I send my signal,

my air's allowed
to travel through,

my actuator goes out.

When I stop sending my signal,

I have a path
for my air to leave,

which I didn't have with my 2/2.

But I still don't
have a spring in this

so I don't have a return method.

We're going to get to a 5/2.

Five ports, two positions.

One, two, three, four, five.

Five ports on both sides.
My air comes in

and I'm gonna change
how I have it plumbed.

Air on both sides.

Now if we look my air
is pushing it back,

I have a path
for my air to leave.

When I send a signal,
when I shift my valve,

my air goes up,

my actuator goes out,

my air goes through.

When I shift it back,
my air comes back,

my piston goes back

and my air is allowed
to evacuated.

So what we're going to do is we're going
to go look at the production simulator

and look at some applications
and some examples

of those different valve
and actuator combinations.

All right,
so now we are at the FMS.

What does FMS stand for?

Good question. FMS stands for
Flexible Manufacturing System.

[Greg] Okay.

And so what this is,
is a mock up

of what you would see
in industry.

So it has a lot of different
combinations of actuators.

So we've talked about
how we have linear actuators

and how we have rotary actuators

and we have grippers.

And on this particular
station, we've got all three,

- and they all work together for one purpose.
- Okay.

So in this case, what we're
going to do is we're going to have

this station install a bearing
into the body.

So now that it knows
that it's here,

we're gonna have our linear
actuator go out and push the bearing.

Now gripper and rotary are
going to pick up our bearing,

move it to a second station

where that station is going
to take a linear actuator

- and measure how big our bearing is.
- [Greg] Okay.

And then we're gonna have our
last rotary and gripper combination

pick up our bearing

and install it in the body.

[Greg] Okay, now this whole
situation looks as though

it's a simulation
of an entire production line.

Yes, it does.
It has all of the pieces

and all of the sequencing
that you'd see in industry,

but to understand
how it actually works,

let's go look at a bench and look
at some actuators and air up close.

- Let's do it.
- Let's go.

- This is almost done.
- Let this finish this up right here.

- How you guys doing?
- Oh, hi, Beth.

[actuators clicking]

- Nice.
- Okay, so tell me what we're looking at here?

What we're looking at here
is a close-up

of what you would see
on the bench.

So now we're looking at
two actuators

that are working in sequence

to have a core single idea.

Okay.

So before we were using sensors

that said,
"Hey, where's my actuator?"

Now we're using
these valves to say

where's our location.

So those two talk
about this one,

and those two talk
about that one.

Now how they get their
information for each other?

- Air, and actually, the other valves.
- [Greg] Okay.

[Elizabeth] So this valve right
here is controlling that information.

And it's saying, "Hey, I got
this information from this valve."

We're gonna move that actuator.

Same with that one.

So it's all about information.
It's all about air.

So this whole thing
is just pure pneumatics.

Nothing but air.

I think John and Amanda
have a surprise for you.

- Let's go check it out.
- Let's do it.

- Hey, guys.
- Hey.

Hey, so, students are gone.

So I'm done for the day
but I don't think you are.

So it's been fun.
I'll see you guys later.

- All right, Beth.
- Thanks a lot.

So what is this surprise
I'm hearing about?

Well, John's gonna head over
to Inventionland with you

to help kick off the festivities

for National Pneumatics Day
on April 27.

And we're trying to keep
it a secret from George.

- So if can you keep it quiet, that would be great.
- [Greg] Ah.

I'll do my best. It's tough to
keep anything from that guy.

- But I'll see you back in Inventionland, all right?
- Awesome.

- Sounds good.
- I'm taking these wheels because this place is huge.

And I need to wheel
on out of here.

So off we go.

- Bye, Greg.
- See you, Greg.

[bicycle bell ringing]

[Greg] To Inventionland
and beyond.

- [Amanda] Bye, Greg.
- [John] See you, Greg.

What is all this in my office?

- What in the world--
- Hey.

- Hey, George.
- Oh, hey, John, how are you?

Good. Good to see you.

I couldn't help but notice
that you found our surprise.

- Is that what's under there, a surprise?
- It is.

So I'll go ahead and unveil it

since you've obviously found it.

I worked
with your staff on this.

We'd like
to award the first ever

Sustainability
and Automation Award

to Tomorrow's World Today.

- Wow!
- For helping us

to share our message
with a wider audience.

Thank you very much, John. It's
very kind of you and your operation.

We were happy to do that.

Actually, today is also
April 27th, right?

Which is
National pneumatics day,

a day dedicated to
sustainability and automation.

You know, John, I don't know how you
pulled that off, but that's a good idea.

Great.

So tell me what else
has been going on over at SMC?

Yeah, well,
thanks for sending Greg over.

We had a chance to look at
some demonstrations

and we taught him
about the ABCs of pneumatics.

A for air recycling cylinder

that consumes 47% less compressed
air than a standard cylinder.

- Wow.
- B for Bernoulli gripper

and C for
our Compact Wireless System.

Our Compact Wireless System
eliminates wires

between a base unit
and multiple remote units

allowing for
industrial communication

between two points wirelessly,

eliminates cables and helps
our customers with uptime,

so they don't have
cable breakages.

No cable breakage, nothing
going out to the landfill. That's great.

That's right, yeah. In addition
to reducing operating cost

and energy consumption,

we can also just
reduce materials altogether.

We also had an opportunity to
put Greg through some training.

- He actually sat in on one of our classes.
- Oh.

We bring in students,
you know, as paid employees,

and train them
on pneumatic technology

and other industrial technology,

so then they can go out
and help our customers

to implement this new technology

- and improve their sustainability.
- Wow.

So what are you going to do
with the award, George?

We're going to put that up
in the main hall

and we'll be able to tell the story
of pneumatics and technology

and, you know, where
it's going in the future.

All right, well, hey, I'm
happy to have left this behind,

-and I'll see you later. Take care.
-Thank you, John.

[narrator] To learn more about
the content in today's episode,

visit us online
at www.tomorrowsworldtoday.com