Assembly Line

Melting and smelting

Heat turns a solid into a liquid. In smelting, a chemical reaction also strips the metal away from the oxygen or sulfur it is bound to.

73 lines that use it

3D printer filament 6 stations · 13 raw sources Adhesive 8 stations · 7 raw sources Aluminum 5 stations · 6 raw sources Beeswax 5 stations · 1 raw source Brass 6 stations · 12 raw sources Bronze 5 stations · 6 raw sources Bronze bell 6 stations · 8 raw sources Bubble wrap 5 stations · 3 raw sources Camera lens 6 stations · 10 raw sources Candle 7 stations · 18 raw sources Carbon black 5 stations · 3 raw sources Cast iron pan 6 stations · 11 raw sources Chewing gum 8 stations · 13 raw sources Chromium 6 stations · 13 raw sources Cobalt 6 stations · 9 raw sources Copper 6 stations · 4 raw sources Cotton candy 9 stations · 17 raw sources Crayon 7 stations · 18 raw sources Deodorant 7 stations · 23 raw sources Die-cast toy car 8 stations · 24 raw sources Fiberglass 6 stations · 10 raw sources Fiberglass insulation 6 stations · 8 raw sources Flute 9 stations · 12 raw sources Flying disc 7 stations · 15 raw sources Foundation makeup 6 stations · 24 raw sources Glass 5 stations · 10 raw sources Glass bottle 8 stations · 11 raw sources Glass marble 5 stations · 10 raw sources Gold 6 stations · 7 raw sources Gold bar 6 stations · 7 raw sources Gold ring 8 stations · 12 raw sources Golf club 10 stations · 27 raw sources Iridium 6 stations · 8 raw sources Lead 6 stations · 6 raw sources LEGO brick 6 stations · 9 raw sources Lipstick 7 stations · 13 raw sources Magnesium 5 stations · 4 raw sources Manganese 6 stations · 7 raw sources Mascara 6 stations · 13 raw sources Metallurgical silicon 8 stations · 3 raw sources Naphtha 5 stations · 3 raw sources Neodymium magnet 8 stations · 6 raw sources Nichrome 8 stations · 15 raw sources Nickel 5 stations · 4 raw sources Optical fiber 6 stations · 12 raw sources Pacemaker 7 stations · 24 raw sources Phosphoric acid 5 stations · 6 raw sources Pig iron 6 stations · 4 raw sources Plastic bag 6 stations · 17 raw sources Plastic bottle 5 stations · 8 raw sources Plastic wrap 6 stations · 11 raw sources Platinum 6 stations · 6 raw sources Polyester 6 stations · 8 raw sources Printer toner 7 stations · 9 raw sources PVC pipe 5 stations · 9 raw sources Silicon wafer 6 stations · 8 raw sources Silver 6 stations · 8 raw sources Smartphone cover glass 5 stations · 12 raw sources Solder 6 stations · 10 raw sources Stained glass 10 stations · 24 raw sources Stainless steel 7 stations · 15 raw sources Styrofoam 5 stations · 4 raw sources Sulfuric acid 6 stations · 3 raw sources Sunscreen 8 stations · 17 raw sources Tin 5 stations · 2 raw sources Titanium 5 stations · 9 raw sources Toothbrush 7 stations · 14 raw sources Turbine blade 8 stations · 20 raw sources Vanadium 6 stations · 14 raw sources Vinyl record 9 stations · 24 raw sources Window glass 7 stations · 13 raw sources Zinc oxide 5 stations · 4 raw sources Zip-top bag 6 stations · 17 raw sources

What it looks like on the line

  • Carbon blackPreheat the heavy oil. Heavy oil left over from refining or ethylene cracking is warmed until it flows easily. The more aromatic the oil, the more carbon black it yields.
  • FluteAlloy the tubing metal. Student flutes are commonly nickel silver, an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc that contains no silver at all. Better flutes use sterling silver, and gold and platinum are used too.
  • MagnesiumHeat it in a vacuum tank. The mixture is heated from outside in a sealed reduction tank under vacuum. Magnesium comes off as a vapor, while the calcium ends up as calcium silicate.
  • GoldMelt it into bars. The recovered gold is smelted in a furnace and poured into rough bars, which still hold some other metals.
  • Bronze bellMelt the bell metal. Copper and tin are melted together in a furnace to make bell metal, a hard bronze that rings clearly.
  • VanadiumSmelt the magnetite. Titaniferous magnetite is reduced with coal to make iron. Most of the vanadium in the ore goes into the slag, which can hold up to 25% of the metal and is kept for the next step.
  • IridiumSmelt the host ores. Platinum ore from South Africa's Bushveld, and copper and nickel ores from places such as Sudbury and Norilsk, are mined and smelted for their main metals. A trace of this metal comes along, with crustal rock averaging just 0.001 ppm.
  • Plastic wrapMelt in the extruder. Pellets feed into an extruder, where heat and the turning screw melt them into an even plastic melt.
  • CobaltReduce it to metal. The oxide is reduced to metal by an aluminothermic reaction, in which aluminum takes the oxygen, or by carbon in a blast furnace.
  • AdhesiveMelt in a heated kettle. The heavy steel kettle warms to mixing temperature, and the thin ingredients, tackifiers and waxes or oils, melt first. One patent preheats its kettle to about 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • DeodorantMelt the stick base. Waxes and fatty alcohols are heated together in a jacketed tank until they melt into a clear oil. This is the base that holds everything else.
  • Gold ringAlloy the gold. Pure gold is too soft, so it is melted with other metals to the chosen karat. The mix of gold with copper or silver sets the color and hardness.