Escalator and Wheelbarrow Do You Know?

# There are lots of things

# All around us

# Exciting things

# That surround us

How does it work?

# Do you know?

How is it made?

# Do you know?

# Things that go up

# Things that go down

# Things that go pop

# Things that go round

# With special cameras

# To show you inside

# It's going to be a big surprise

But how does it work?

# Do you know?

How is it made?

# Do you know?

# Do you know? #

Let's find out!

Hello, I'm Maddie, and today I'm out and about doing some shopping.

Do you like to go shopping?

This shopping centre is full of shops, but some of them are

on the floor below and some of them are on the floor above.

And there's a clever way to help people get up and down.

Do you know what this is?

That's right, it's an escalator.

A moving set of stairs.

But do you know how an escalator works?

Let's find out.

Have you ever been on an escalator?

I'm going to take this one to the floor below.

To get on an escalator safely, you have to wait for a step to appear,

hold on to the handrail and then quickly step on.

Let's go.

Now, can you see that I'm stood still, but I'm somehow moving?

That's because the escalator is moving downwards and

it's carrying me to the floor below.

You should never play on an escalator,

but I've got special permission to take a closer look.

Can you see how the steps just disappear here at this metal,

yellow edge? It looks a bit like a comb, doesn't it?

The steps go underneath and disappear, but

where do they go and where do the steps come from?

Well, to find out, we need to look inside and underneath an escalator.

Inside an escalator, the stairs are linked together in one big loop.

It moves round and round.

The stairs are attached to two sets of wheels called gears,

one at the top,

and one at the bottom.

The gears at the top of the escalator

are pulled round by chains.

They look a bit like a bike chain.

The gears at the bottom run along a track, like a train.

TRAIN HORN

The gears have teeth on them, and when they turn,

they pull the loop of stairs around with them.

Each step has small wheels on it.

When a step reaches the top, the chain pulls the wheels around

the gear until the step is flat again.

It stays flat until it gets all the way back to the bottom,

ready to go around again.

Aren't escalators interesting?

This is an escalator workshop and we've got special permission

to be here, so that we can see what the underneath of a real-life,

working escalator looks like.

I'm going to use my special camera and light to look underneath

the escalator and see what we can find.

Let's start by reminding ourselves what the steps actually look like.

The curved bit is the side of the step and then the flat bit is

the top, but now, let's move underneath.

This escalator is switched off, so I can safely put my camera underneath.

Here, you can see the underside of the steps that you stand on.

Can you see the curved side and the flat bit on top?

And if we can see even further underneath, right here,

that is where the steps are lying flat, ready to make their way

back to the gear to be looped around.

So, we need to see the gear, don't we?

And this is the gear at the top of the escalator.

It looks a bit like a giant bike chain, doesn't it?

This escalator is set to move people downwards,

so the gear will pull the steps all the way round from their

flat position underneath to their shape as a step we can stand on.

I want to see what this escalator looks like when it's working,

so I'm going to put two special cameras underneath

and then we can turn it on.

Let's go.

The first one will help us see the underside of the stairs

as they move along.

The second camera will help us see the big gear at the top in action.

Right, the cameras are in place, I'm stood well away

from the escalator, so it's time to turn it on.

MECHANICAL RUMBLE

Whoa! And there it goes.

Did you hear that?

That was the sound of the gear kicking into action and

it's beginning to pull the steps round - but I think it sounds

a bit like a spaceship taking off. MOTOR WHIRS

So, you can see how the steps are being spun around the gear.

They start off flat and then they unfold and become

the shape of a step.

Escalators can go in two directions - they can go down

or they can go up.

This escalator is going down, but shall we see it move the other way?

RUMBLING STOPS

RUMBLING RESUMES

There's the sound of the spaceship again.

So, this time, the steps are moving upwards.

This time, they start as a step and then they get pulled round the

gear and they move all the way down,

underneath the escalator, to the gear at the bottom.

Amazing!

What was your favourite bit about seeing how an escalator worked?

Do you remember what you call the two big wheels that

pulled the steps around?

That's right, they're called gears.

Did you hear the sound of the gears made when they started moving?

MECHANICAL RUMBLE

And did you see the way the steps get flipped upside down

and turned to the right way up when they come back round the loop again?

So, the next time you see an escalator like this or go on

one yourself, you'll know just how it works

and what's going on underneath.

Escalators are great for helping us move up and down inside

a building, but, sometimes, we need to move heavy things around.

There's something really useful that helps us to move

things around outside.

Do you know what it is?

That's right, it's a wheelbarrow.

Wheelbarrows have a great big wheel at the front,

two handles and a large container called a pan.

It makes it really easy for me to move all of this

from one place to another.

And then, when I'm ready,

I can tip up the wheelbarrow and pour it all out.

Wheelbarrows are really useful,

but do you know how they're made?

Let's find out.

This is a wheelbarrow factory and inside are a lot of robots.

All these robots are making different parts of a wheelbarrow.

It's like they're doing some kind of dance, isn't it?

But not everything is made by robots.

People and robots have to work together.

When a wheelbarrow is made, it starts off like this,

as a sheet of metal called steel.

Steel is really strong and it's used to make all sorts of things -

like bridges, cars, even pots and pans.

First, the sheet of steel is fed into this machine.

CLANGING

A huge weight presses down on the sheet and folds it around a mould.

When the metal comes out at the other end,

it's starting to look a little bit like a wheelbarrow.

And now, it's time for the robots.

This robot picks up the pan and passes it to another machine.

It cuts around the side of the pan.

The robot then collects the bits that are left over.

It's a little bit like the bits of leftover pastry

from when you use a pastry cutter.

I love all these yellow robots and watching the way they cut

the metal pan and swing it to the next machine.

They know exactly when to pick it up and where to put it.

The pan is put in this machine, which makes four holes in it.

These holes will be used to attach the wheels and handlebars later on.

In here are lots of long poles. They're made of steel, too,

and they're going to become the wheelbarrows' handles.

But how does something long and straight become two handles?

LOUD METALLIC CLANGING

Well, that's thanks to some more robots.

And they're very noisy!

CLANGING CONTINUES

The first robot bends the ends of the pole

to make a small, curved shape.

Then it bends the whole thing in the middle to make a larger curve.

And you end up with something like this.

It's a funny shape, isn't it?

But if you hold it in this position,

you can see it's a pair of handlebars.

I'm going to put one of my special cameras on the robot

to see what it's like when it's working.

Here goes.

The robot is programmed like a computer to know exactly what to do.

Look how that robot arm picks up the handle and knows

exactly where to put it.

Let's see what happens next.

To connect all the bits of our wheelbarrow together,

we need to use these. They're called fittings

and they help fit things together,

but we need to attach these to our handlebars.

Come with me and I'll show you how they do it.

FIZZING AND CRACKLING

Whoa!

This is called welding and it's a special way of attaching

two pieces of metal together.

That white spark is really, really hot and it melts the metal,

so that they glue to one another.

Woo!

With all those sparks flying around, I have to stand well back.

Look how bright that is!

Can you see the sparkles? It's like a firework.

It sounds like a firework too, doesn't it?

FIZZING AND CRACKLING

It's time for the finishing touches and the wheelbarrow handles

are going to be given a coat of paint inside this machine.

And here they are, coming out the other side.

They've been sprayed with a powdered, grey paint,

But before it's finished, they go into the oven.

The oven bakes the paint

so it goes shiny.

Here they come. Don't they look shiny and new?

Ready to be fitted together.

But we're still missing one thing.

Can you guess what all these wheelbarrows are missing?

It's a wheel and it needs to be fixed to the wheelbarrow.

Let's see how it's done.

The handlebars are fixed to the pan by putting bolt through

the holes that the robot made earlier.

Next, the wheel is attached using a fitting.

RATTLING

And there we have it -

a brand-new, shiny wheelbarrow.

What was your favourite bit about seeing how a wheelbarrow was made?

Do you remember what you call the metal that the wheelbarrow

was made from?

That's right, it's steel.

Did you hear the sound that the welding made?

FIZZING AND CRACKLING

And did you see my special camera when I put it on the robot?

We got to see everything the robot sees when it's busy working.

So, the next time you see a wheelbarrow,

you'll know just how it's made.

And when you go on an escalator, you'll know how it works and

how it carries people from one place to another.

Right, I'm off to do some gardening, so from me and the robots...

ELECTRICAL WHIR See you next time.

# There are lots of things

# All around us

# Exciting things

# That surround us

How does it work?

# Do you know?

How is it made?

# Do you know?

# Do you know? #

Let's find out!