Introduction

About the Series

Welcome to How Products Are Made: An Illustrated Guide to Product Manufacturing. This series provides information on the manufacture of a variety of items, from everyday household products to heavy machinery to sophisticated electronic equipment. You will find step-by-step descriptions of processes, simple explanations of technical terms and concepts, and clear, easy-to-follow illustrations.

Each volume of How Products Are Made covers a broad range of manufacturing areas: food, clothing, electronics, transportation, machinery, instruments, sporting goods, and more. Some are intermediate goods sold to manufacturers of other products, while others are retail goods sold directly to consumers. You will find items made from a variety of materials, including products such as precious metals and minerals that are not "made" so much as they are extracted and refined.

Organization

Every volume in this series is comprised of many individual entries, each covering a single product. Although each entry focuses on the product's manufacturing process, it also provides a wealth of other information: who invented the product or how it has developed, how it works, what materials are used, how it is designed, quality control procedures, byproducts generated during its manufacture, future applications, and books and periodical articles containing more information.

To make it easier for you to find what you're looking for, the entries are broken up into standard sections. Among the sections you will find are the following:

  • Background
  • History
  • Raw Materials
  • Design
  • The Manufacturing Process
  • Quality Control
  • Byproducts/Waste
  • The Future
  • Where To Learn More

Every entry is accompanied by illustrations. Uncomplicated and easy to understand, these illustrations may follow the step-by-step description of the manufacturing process found in the text, highlight a certain aspect of the manufacturing process, or illustrate how the product works.

A cumulative subject index of important terms, processes, materials, and people is found at the end of the book. Bold faced volume and page numbers in the index refer to main entries in the present or previous volumes.

About this Volume

This volume contains essays on 100 products, arranged alphabetically, and 15 special boxed sections, describing interesting historical developments or biographies of individuals related to a product. Photographs are also included. Bold faced terms found in main entries direct the user to the topical essay of the same name.

Contributors/Advisor

The entries in this volume were written by a skilled team of technical writers and engineers, often in cooperation with manufacturers and industry associations. The advisor for this volume was David L. Wells, PhD, CMfgE, a long time member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and Professor and Chair of the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department at North Dakota State University.

Suggestions

Your questions, comments, and suggestions for future products are welcome. Please send all such correspondence to:

The Editor
How Products Are Made
Gale Group, Inc.
27500 Drake Rd.
Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535