>> ^GenjiKilpatrick:

That's pretty much the same reaction I had with my first experience with moving stairs.
Yay for learning!


I thought doubly so when I first saw the flat conveyor belts in airports. On further thought both do serve some purpose beyond pure convenience for the lazy. They both speed up the flow of a crowd in the area as well. When things are really crowded, stairs and narrow hallways slow to the speed of the slowest in the herd, and this helps.

That said, yeah, 99% making life easier for the lazy masses.

He's like, "Why? We have legs.. just use them!"

Meanwhile some 400lb'er lumbers by in slow motion, gasping, and rides the escalator up as the gears squeak under the strain of the weight.. wondering why conveyor belts don't cover all the straight-a-ways longer than a few meters.

Even if it is a glass tabletop, I don't think this is possible with the way fluids work. I think the tabletop is chilled, so any liquid becomes semi-frozen, at least at the bottom, so the plastic edge can easily slide underneath and pick it up without cutting into the ice crystals on the tabletop. Which is probably why the metal blade they showed didn't work; it cut into the ice and just pushed the stuff around.

Edit: However, watching this video of the same technology (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ0PqzX8Ey0) just confused me more. Like someone said above, it looks like a rapid conveyor belt action instead of a blade.

>> ^dag:

I think I'm seeing a little conveyor belt on the "blade" of the tool - especially in the last shot. I think the material on that belt is the key. Looks like teflon or something similar.


Yeah, I think the point is that the material on top of the blade never really moves. It just sort of spins around the edge as it's fed from the bottom. So it really is sort of "picking up" the condiment and getting underneath it. It's a tough action to describe but it's not unlike a conveyor belt. Pretty ingenious although like Zifnab said, who knows how the hell the need came up.

EDIT: The site I just read said that it was designed for bakers ini order to handle bread, etc. that's too soft or can get messed up by sticking to a person's hand. It really makes perfect sense.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I think I'm seeing a little conveyor belt on the "blade" of the tool - especially in the last shot. I think the material on that belt is the key. Looks like teflon or something similar.

Basically, the steel rolling process starts with a huge slab of steel about 20-30 feet long, which is heated up to a few hundred degrees in a giant oven. Once it exits the oven it's sent on a conveyor through a series of rollers with smaller and smaller gaps between them, going from around 200mm tall to 2mm tall, o More..ver a distance of a few kilometers. As a side effect from this, the slab gets extremely long (larger plants can end up with sheets over 200m long), and moves extremely quickly.

The reason it has to move so quickly is that the compression elongates it, so the exiting material has to be moving faster than the entering material, or you'll get a nasty 400 degree, 20 ton traffic jam.

The conveyor it travels on is essentially a series of rollers spaced around 1-2 feet apart, and when it's rocketing along like in the video, the leading end will bounce slightly as it hits each roller. On very rare occasions that leading end will bounce high enough to catch on something, or even curl over of its own accord, causing what you see in the video, where it looks like the sheet has hit the front end of the roller.

I'd say no to the asphalt because those guys are wearing jackets and if there was any kind of asphalt (a heated material) it'd be steaming. Plus there's no room for a hopper and conveyor system for it, and easiest way to get it into the machine would be dump truck..which again there is no space for it.

I think what is holding the bricks as they come out of the machine is the thickness and weight of the bricks, the angle they are being dropped at and the slow speed. There's one shot where the camera is under the machine, you can see some wires hanging down...the machine is mostly hollow....I think the height is just so they can have a buffer of bricks so they can keep moving and still have time to structure it.

Wonder how much of a bitch it is to pick up and move to another section.


>> ^MarineGunrock:

I would think there's a thin layer of asphalt under the bricks. What else would hold them together as they come out of the machine? I'd say that bricks pressed into asphalt would hold up quite well.

That's in the Amazon warehouse, it's how they power the conveyor belts. Turns out it's the collected works of Stephen King on a Kindle.

>> ^mxxcon:

>> ^rich_magnet:
Engineering information can be found here:
http://cyberwalk.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/
Basically, it's a conveyor belt of conveyor belts.

that's a cool and interesting solution.
what was so special about crossing legs or not crossing legs?


My guess, Breaks the illusion, and can potentially cause injury. I don't think that thing doesn't read how fast you're moving (i.e. you walk at a consistant 5 mph in whichever direction you face) and should you fall the conveyor belt would keep moving til you're off.. and then continue until someone stops it.

>> ^rich_magnet:

Engineering information can be found here:
http://cyberwalk.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/
Basically, it's a conveyor belt of conveyor belts.

that's a cool and interesting solution.

what was so special about crossing legs or not crossing legs?

Engineering information can be found here:
http://cyberwalk.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/

Basically, it's a conveyor belt of conveyor belts.

http://lyrics.wikia.com/Pink_Floyd%3AThe_Post_War_Dream

''"...a group of business men announced plans to build a nuclear fallout shelter at Peterborough in Cambridgeshire..."
"...three high court judges have cleared the way to..."
"...it was announced today, that the replacement for the Atlantic Conveyor, the container ship lost in Falklands conflict, would be built in Japan. A spokesman for..."
"...moving in. They say the third world countries like Bolivia, which produce the drug, are suffering from rising violence..."''

Tell me true, tell me why was Jesus crucified
Was it for this that Daddy died?
Was it you? Was it me?
Did I watch too much T.V.?
Is that a hint of accusation in your eyes?

If it wasn't for the Nips
Being so good at building ships
The yards would still be open on the Clyde
And it can't be much fun for them
Beneath the rising sun
With all their kids committing suicide.

What have we done? Maggie, what have we done?
What have we done to England?
Should we shout? Should we scream?
''"What happened to the post war dream?"''
Oh Maggie, Maggie what did we do?

Just wait until North American airport workers see this. They'll go on strike until conveyors are placed in front of every window.

The Cracks- The chicks falling off the equipment are not systemic cruelty but poor handling. It could even be argued that Vegan Camera Person is being more cruel by just videotaping its suffering rather than killing it. I wonder if they turned off the camera and walked away, tutt-tutting while it writhed on the floor.



ABSOLUTE lovely comment. in fact thats exactly what the camera man did, because vegans are fucking pussy's I can say that because I was one as I explained in the thread. that fucking wiener took the camera seen the scalded chick, said OH MUH GAWD, did a little tear then went on to look for other photogenic situations. A civil human would of smashed its head, would of thwacked it against the metal conveyor belt, whatever. the thing was just alive and suffering and any normally operating and thinking human would of done the humane thing. call me a hypocrite but vegans with there pointless save the world everything has feelings shit just isnt right. maby in 500 years. thats if humans last that long.

well, good talkin to myself. i'll have a drink for ya.

the luggages on the conveyor made me laugh more than the comedians, is that normal?