Mechanical Machine Factory

Worker: I wonder how people in the Old World lived without these devices?
Supervisor: A lot more sophisticated. We should have paid more attention back in those days.

— A conversation in the Mechanical Machine Factory

Location

The Mechanical Machine Factory is located in 3 12, one Zone away from City Hall.

What They Produce

The Factory creates machines that are mechanical in nature. The two machines they produce that they are well known for are a coin sorter and Dry Ingredient Measurer.

Where Are The Devices Bought?

Both devices are sold by a supplier of business equipment in Zone 4.

Coin Sorter

The coin sorter, of course, sorts coins into separate six tubes and counts the value of the coins. The maximum number that it can count up to is 99,995 NS. These tubes can be individually removed. When a tube gets full the sorter has the ability to slip the coins into a side tray, to be retrieved later.
The Coin sorter measures 25cm (9.8in) tall by 50cm (1ft 7.61in) wide and 25cm (9.8in) deep. The device itself is hand-cranked. One of the levers on the side can hold the number as well as resetting the number, back to zeros.
These devices are mainly used in Banks and Businesses as the device is heavy and costly. Citizens will find that the money they are counting or sorting doesn’t warrant the purchasing of the coin sorter. If sorting is required they will use other containers such as the canisters from powdered drinks. Instead of using the method in the Old World of having only one container for all coins. Citizens of Birdencaster, prefer to sort their coinage into separate canisters manually and often keep funds in case of Disasters and Lockdowns.

Production

A disk before going into hammer press. by James Woodwright

As part of the process of producing the coin sorter, it has two brass discs that move the coins to be sorted through the machine. Once the sheet of brass has been shaped into a disk the size is checked along with if it travels true otherwise it could stop or get stuck while being rotated in the finished product. The disk is inserted into a machine. The machine drills 12 holes of 1cm (0.39in) and one hole in the centre, which is a differing diameter at 5mm (0.20in), for a gear to be inserted. After the holes are drilled the metal disc is deburred and annealed to make it easier to be worked. It is then put into a hammer press.

An example of one of the Female halves. by James Woodwright

The bottom and male half of the hammer press has metal poles that go through the holes on the disc which are the twelve holes the coins will go through in the final product. The top half of the female half goes on top of the disc. As the female half reaches the male half to meet, they cannot meet. Not because there is a metal disc in the way but because the female half has teeth that will go through the metal and end up into the male half of the hammer press, where there are holes. [Black Image left] The two halves as the name suggests are hammered until there is no gap in between the halves and the disc. They are then separated and then filed revealing that each of the 12 holes is a dashed line that goes around each of the 12 holes when the remaining metal is removed. The 12 holes change diameter from 1cm (0.39in) to 5.5cm (2.17in). The reasoning behind using the hammer press is to not stress the metal, which leads to a superior product. A small gear is inserted into the central hole once ensuring the gear is level, it is soldered to the disc. The two discs are inserted into the main case with backing so the coin doesn’t fall through the machine and get lost. Unless the coin is the right size to fall into a tube or is being received by the second disc.

Dry Ingredient Measurer

The Dry Ingredient Measurer is a recent addition in technology and is a hand-cranked machine used by bakers and other food-related businesses. They are used to measure dry ingredients before the mixing stage. The ingredients are dropped into a hopper, the user puts a bowl in the machine and cranks the handle. This in turn moves a belt. On the belt are cups, each of the same size, which picks up the ingredient and deposits it into the bowl.
The cups themselves are removable so they are able to be changed to different sizes although all cups have to be changed to the same size. The cups range from 25g (0.88oz) to a kilogram (2lbs 3.27oz). The cups only come in metric amounts. To prevent the ingredients from falling through the machine there are metal plates in between the cups.
Both cups and plates come in kits, so the machine comes as a stand-alone and the purchaser needs to buy the relevant kits for the measurements they require. As 100g (3.53oz) of sugar will be differently sized to 100g of flour, the kits come in two different versions, one for flour and one for sugar.
The Dry Ingredient Measurer is able to be opened for the reason of changing the cups and plates, of course, this is done when there are no ingredients in the top hopper.

Production

A plate after coming out of the machine
press by James Woodwright

Production - Plates

For the plates, the brass sheet is loaded into a machine press which cuts the plates out of the main sheet of metal ^{[Image left]}. The plate that comes out of the machine press is further processed to make the plates more flexible. Flexible in this context means going from sheet metal ^{[image Left]} to something that resembles a section of track tread.

Production - Cups

The cups themselves are a little more difficult. As with the plates, brass sheets are loaded into a machine press and formed into hemispheres, which are cut out of the brass plate.
The next step is to put the hemisphere into a jig that puts the hemisphere, convex side up. The jig is closed. On the top of the jig of which is metal is a hole. In the hole is inserted a tube which will allow the cup to be put onto the belt of the machine. The tube is soldered in place; it is the jig that allows the tube to be soldered in the right place every time.

After Production

Once the cups and plates have been produced they are counted and the precise amount is put into a box for that particular kit. The boxes are then put into a Crate ready to be sold at the Warehouse.
This is the same for the coin sorter and the Dry Ingredient Measurer, in which they are put into their own crate and sold to the Warehouse.

Article Contents

Further Resources

Machine press - Wikipedia

References

CAD images were made by using blockcad3d.com

Acknowledgements

RPGDinosaurBob
Twitch
RPGDinosaurBob's World Anvil Author Page

SableAradia
Sable's World Anvil Author Page
Twitch

WriterGreg
Twitch
WriterGreg’s Website
WriterGreg First Draft - Twitch VOD Replay Channel
WriterGreg - Primary Channel
WriterGreg’s World Anvil Author Page