How its made

How Pencils are made

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Pencil making process

The writing material inside of a pencil is known as lead. This lead is made from graphite and clay. The graphite and clay are mixed together in the required proportions in the presence of water. The workable lead is then moulded into long thin cylindrical shapes. These thin leads are then dried and fired to reach the required toughness and strength required for writing without breaking.

Typical lead of a pencil is gray to black in colour. Coloured leads can be made by mixing the graphite, clay, and colour pigments together during the lead making process.

After the leads have been prepared, the next thing is to enclose them inside the specially prepared wooden material.The leads are sandwiched between 2 sets of grooved flat and thin woods.

Grooves are cut into a long flat thin wood that can take up to 10 pencils. (10  grooves). Next glue is applied to the surface of the groves. Then the pencil leads are inserted into the grooves. Similarly a long flat thin wood similar to the bottom wood is then used to cover the leads. The leads are sandwiched between the upper and lower wood casings. Pressure is then applied to ensure that the upper and lower wood casings are  fused together holding the sandwiched leads in place.

The wooden sandwich leads are then fed through a cutter which cuts and separates into single pencil units. 

The pencils are then engraved, coloured, and eraser inserted at their back end before packaging and distribution to sale outlets.

How glass is made

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glass making process

Glass is made up of sand, soda ash and limestone. These constituent materials are mixed together in required proportions and heated up to about 1260°C ( 2300°F). The mixture is molten at the above named temperature. The molten mixture is then placed into mould then pressed and or blown as required to take the shape of the mould.

The hot glass is then removed from the mould and polished to give a smoother and finer finish. Next the glass is then tempered by letting it pass through heat to give it more toughness. Finally the glass is allowed to cool down and packaged.

One of the reasons why glass is cheap is because the raw materials are readily available and broken glasses can be recycled.

How instant coffee is made

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Instant coffee granule in cup

Instant coffee is coffee flavour mixed with hot or cold water, add sugar & milk to taste, and it’s ready to drink. You do not need to filter anything as it is done with fresh coffee.  So how is instant coffee made? Below is a summary explanation of the process.

The coffee beans are first of all roasted. Then using high temperature and pressure, the roasted coffee flavour is forced out of the coffee beans using water.

The water itself is then forced out under high pressure leaving only a pasty coffee flavour. 

This coffee flavour paste is then frozen under a temperature of about -40°C and still in that frozen temperature, broken into granules.

The coffee granules are then processed inside a system that removes the remaining water inside them, producing coffee granules that are absolutely dry. The granules are then packaged for sale.

Coffee: How it’s made at home

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Roasted Coffee beans

Coffee tastes great. Freshly brewed coffee tastes much better than instant coffee. This article briefly explains how you can process and make fresh coffee at home.

There ar e about 5 process involved in the prepare fresh coffee:

Harvesting the coffee cherries:

Coffee cherries

A ripe coffee cherry is red in  colour. A newly planted coffee tree can take up to 4 years before it can produce seedlings.

Removing the outer skin of the coffee :

Hand machine that removes the outer skin of coffee cherries.

 A special milling machine will do this for you. It will remove the outer skin of the coffee cherries and revealling the coffee beans.

Spreading the coffee beans in the sun to dry.

Drying wet coffee beans

Spread the wet coffee beans under the sun to dry. It can take 2-3 days for the beans to completely dry

Removing the parchment: 

Remove parchment by slight blending
Using a blower to remove parchment

This can be done using a coffee blender. Grind the beans lightly and then use a blower to remove the parchment.

Roasting the coffee beans.

Roasting coffee beans

You can do this with a frying pan. Make sure you keep stirring the beans while roasting

Blending the roasted coffee beans.

Blending coffee beans

blend the roasted coffee beans using a coffee or similar blender.

Prepare your fresh coffee.

Preparing coffer