For those curious about the secret sauce methods behind the manufacture of gypsum board that is liquefaction for handlablity and spreading for forming I can provide some insights. Before all this there is actually a lot that goes on to make sure the gypsum particles are of the appropriate size. To do this you actually need to lower the plasticity that is increase the friction between particles. This is done by heating the gypsum to remove moisture. So that the mill will cause the particle to grind into each other making very small fairly consistent particles. After this the particles are a small powder called stucco or what I like to call rock flower. After this the water needs to be added back for workability. Adding liquid to the material works to lower viscosity but it weakens the end product so the amount of liquid is minimized with chemicals called plasticizers instead. They do this with less liquid because they are like "sheer" lubricants. They make the very small but sharp pieces of rock slip over each other more easily. In case you haven't figured it out yet theres something that does this that you have at home. It's called soap and thats why soap and water slips out of your hand so easily. So the secret is soap. Amazing :D There will also be two other additives among others including a drying agent to dry faster and a monomer to polymerize the end product increasing its strength and counteracting the plastisizer. Usually parts of both chemicals are used to accomplish this. For example the soap could have the monomer in it. The strength of the resulting polymer can also act to reduce the needed density or thickness of the gypsum board. So a third additive might be added to create air bubbles reducing the density and making the end product lighter yet maintain the same thickness which is very important to spec building. You wouldn't want to work with an odd thickness when trying to get your materials to line up. Most board is made like this because it also makes the board easier to sheer or "snap" while still providing relatively high strength. For spreading the secret sauce is a lot easier to understand and most of it is about mechanical processes rather than special chemicals. They use the properties of what becomes the surface paper on gypsum board to their advantage during the manufacturing process. The paper needs to be made to have exceptional strength, flexibility and anti-wetting properties. The paper will be scored and stretched on the edges to hold in the liquid just before folding. The liquids needs to have a high enough viscosity so that it "rolls" onto the paper causing it to spread to the edges. The paper feeds in continuously while the edges are scooped up and glue is added. But the glue and paper is then lubricated because the folding process has to cause very very little friction on the feed roller. Then that had to be carefully fed into a press and as one might imagine thats tricky to do without causing friction. Finally as a footnote the use of very high speed but finished width board was a very intentional process choice over say a much wider board that has to be cut twice to size. That choice is not principally efficient so it probably relates to a feature of the end products edges.
I worked in a drywall manufacturing plant as a co-op in college a long time ago. It was a great experience for a Mechanical Engineering student. Here is a basic explanation of the manufacturing process: - gypsum rock from quarry sent through ball mills where it is ground into powder (like fine baby powder) - powder sent through a calciner (rotating dryer) where water in the powder is "driven/baked" out - "dry" gypsum is routed to a slurry mixer along with other ingredients including water, sugar, fillers, fiberglass, etc. - this is the proprietary part. Each mfg has their own recipe which is different for each type of board. - slurry drops down on to the conveyor belt where there are two rolls of paper at the feed end; the face paper sits on the conveyor and the brown paper on the top/back - the slurry falls on to the face paper which then goes through a forming plate - the forming plates on each edge roll both ends of the face paper over to form the edges of the board (this forming plate is also tapered, to give us that "taper joint") - glue is adding to the back side of the rolled edges of the face paper - brown paper then passes under a flat forming plate where it attaches to the face paper and the formed board - the spacing between this forming plate determine the thickness of the board (like sending a board through a thickness planer) - at this point, the board is carried down the conveyor -- like what you see flying past Matt. While moving it generates A LOT of heat (exothermic) as the gypsum starts to turn back to rock - once the board is semi-solid it passes through two rotating cut-off knives where the board is cut to length - it then passes through a multi-layer/multi-story kiln where the board is "kiln" dried and essentially becomes "rock" again - at exit of kiln, one board is flipped on top of the other face-to-face - an edge banding/taping machine applies the tape (the stuff you have to pull off before you go to install it) - bundled boards are automatically stacked - stacks are moved by forklift to the warehouse for distribution Oh, and all during this process, an inking machine is printing the date of manufacture, shift, manufacturers name, product name, etc. on the back of the board once the board is solid enough to take the rollers pressure. Visual: www.awci.org/cd/pdfs/9102_d.pdf
Thanks for a great explanation. I sure wish they'd go back to the old formulations. Gold Bond really was the gold standard for rock, and I was always glad when I showed up at a house and found it was stocked with Gold Bond. It broke cleanly and predictably (no crumbs and knobs on the snapped edge), the core was just the right amount of "soft" to dimple really nice, it was flexible enough to rock large curves without using thinner material, you could cut it into strips narrower than its thickness, and the face papers were better. All this translated into cleaner, neater rocking and better speed. The new "lightweight" rocks are all trash, exactly the opposite of everything enumerated above. A harder, more brittle core causes much more fastener popping, and the papers delaminate from the core easily, to name a couple of problems. I'm not at all sure it was worth all that to save a couple of pounds a linear foot. Can't see the point of a "lightweight" 8-footer. If a DIY guy isn't strong enough to maneuver an "8" he probably shouldn't be rocking to begin with.
Well, basically a mix of gypsum and water is put into a "sandwich" of two paper rolls, paper gets folded in the conveyor and the long paper sandwich gets hardened and gets cut in boards, then it enters in an oven to get even more hardened
In the 80’s, I use to build shopping centers. The drywall Contractor would pre-measure the height of the walls from floor to roof deck for the firewalls and would special order the sheetrock. If the height was 14’-2”, he would order the sheetrock 4’ x 14’-2” instead of a installing a Standard 4x12 and cutting a 2’-2”. It made sense on a large project because the sheetrock came directly from the factory. He saves a ton of money by planning ahead. The plant didn’t charge him extra because of the quantity he ordered.
We cut all kinds of crazy lengths for manufactured homes. 13' 8" - 14' 2" - 15' 1" - 15' 1.5" - 15' 2" etc. They order what length the wall is and lay the drywall horizontal, two high, for 8' ceilings. Then they don't have to cut off any as well.
It goes about 3 to 4 belts long so about a mile so it can setup to form the actual board then its cut to size at a knife machine and fed into a huge oven like a pizza oven called a KiLN
wish USG would allow more inside views. I know they dont want National Gypsum to get trade secrets. really enjoyed working the jobsite at santa fe springs, CA 1989 (Durock line install). how many changes at Jacksonville over the years :)
Literally just found your channel through another of you videos. subscribed, then watched this COMMERCIAL with absolutely zero information and unsubscribed. Will not be back to get suckered again.
It blows my mind that it is moving that fast and knowing, at some point that it will be cut. How does anything keep up with stacking a fairly delicate product and not completely destroy it?!
robhimself79 - the blades used to cut and the racks used to catch the cut pieces all move along with it so it isn’t _”falling”_ much more than a mm or two and gently decelerated :)
The secret is in speeding the product up (to pull gaps between boards), then you can afford to slowly stop them before transferring a different direction or flipping them over. Once the board is cured out of the kiln it is surprisingly strong and can be pushed and evened by its edges/ends without getting dented or hurt.
The liquid form is made by mixing all the ingredients, like starch paper pulp and/or fiber glass depending on what is being made, in a mixer which spits out the mix onto the backside of the face paper (which is creased and cupped by guides) as the back paper comes down and has glue added to the edge to mate with the face papers now cupped edge. It travels around 500 feet (gives it time to harden up a little so it can be cut and flipped) to a knife that spins as it drops to keep up with the speed of the line while it cuts. This is also where samples are taken to check for starch, thickness and taper. Then it goes to a flipping table that flips it onto the back paper and send it through a multi level kiln. When it comes out it is flipped face to face in pairs and trimmed to length and taped together which is what you see in stores. That's all the stuff this "amazed" individual didn't say or show.
A few months ago I got to see a tour of Hunter XCI, polyisocyanurate insulation sheets and how the sheets are made. Yeah we weren't allowed to take video either. The cutter that moves at an angle calibrated with the fast moving conveyor is impressive.
What's wrong with the sheetrock company why would they not want us to see how they wrap their junk product down the road will help that's it. Like we're going to be able to go by and replicate that machine that area and have it all cut and taped come on sheetrock is terrible material
We acually care about drywall. How about giving us some information. I like how you taie credit for Putting ip millions of sqft of drywall, but i doubt you yourself have ever put up one full board.
Capacity is impressive, but still shake my head when Chinese dry wall showed up here in States about a decade ago post-Katrina, spreading widespread contamination of sulfur.
Tom Frymire- So was the Chinese drywall contaminating the sulfur in the environment with something? Or are you classifying the 5th most abundant element on the planet as a 'contaminant'?
As a professional residential rocker from about 1979-ish to 1992-ish, I did. During that time period the 3/2 suburban raised ranch was the common house type, and they contained about 7,000 square feet of board. My partner and I could hang one in a day, and did, many times. If scheduling worked out right we could do four or five houses a week, and did, many times. If I hung half the board in the house, times 4.5 houses a week, times 50 weeks, that's 787,500 square feel of board in a year. Through a decade that's upwards of 8 million square feet. We hung stuff that was smaller on a regular basis, and also stuff that was much, much bigger, but the above figure is representative of square footage we commonly hung in a day.
![โอ้เธอช่าง... - บี้เดอะสกา ft. ต๋อง เทวัญ (Prod. by ป๋าเพชร) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zbWhiLFmVL0/mqdefault.jpg)
So I’m guessing you didn’t get any info from them.
This video needed to be a LOT longer... you got the plant tour. We got basically a small advertisement to what should have been a real video.
For those curious about the secret sauce methods behind the manufacture of gypsum board that is liquefaction for handlablity and spreading for forming I can provide some insights.
Before all this there is actually a lot that goes on to make sure the gypsum particles are of the appropriate size. To do this you actually need to lower the plasticity that is increase the friction between particles. This is done by heating the gypsum to remove moisture. So that the mill will cause the particle to grind into each other making very small fairly consistent particles. After this the particles are a small powder called stucco or what I like to call rock flower.
After this the water needs to be added back for workability. Adding liquid to the material works to lower viscosity but it weakens the end product so the amount of liquid is minimized with chemicals called plasticizers instead. They do this with less liquid because they are like "sheer" lubricants. They make the very small but sharp pieces of rock slip over each other more easily. In case you haven't figured it out yet theres something that does this that you have at home. It's called soap and thats why soap and water slips out of your hand so easily. So the secret is soap. Amazing :D
There will also be two other additives among others including a drying agent to dry faster and a monomer to polymerize the end product increasing its strength and counteracting the plastisizer. Usually parts of both chemicals are used to accomplish this. For example the soap could have the monomer in it. The strength of the resulting polymer can also act to reduce the needed density or thickness of the gypsum board. So a third additive might be added to create air bubbles reducing the density and making the end product lighter yet maintain the same thickness which is very important to spec building. You wouldn't want to work with an odd thickness when trying to get your materials to line up. Most board is made like this because it also makes the board easier to sheer or "snap" while still providing relatively high strength.
For spreading the secret sauce is a lot easier to understand and most of it is about mechanical processes rather than special chemicals. They use the properties of what becomes the surface paper on gypsum board to their advantage during the manufacturing process. The paper needs to be made to have exceptional strength, flexibility and anti-wetting properties. The paper will be scored and stretched on the edges to hold in the liquid just before folding. The liquids needs to have a high enough viscosity so that it "rolls" onto the paper causing it to spread to the edges. The paper feeds in continuously while the edges are scooped up and glue is added. But the glue and paper is then lubricated because the folding process has to cause very very little friction on the feed roller. Then that had to be carefully fed into a press and as one might imagine thats tricky to do without causing friction.
Finally as a footnote the use of very high speed but finished width board was a very intentional process choice over say a much wider board that has to be cut twice to size. That choice is not principally efficient so it probably relates to a feature of the end products edges.
what is gypsum btw? a raw material, by-product/recycyle material or some man made product?
@@quoclien3343 It's a mineral
what about tbe fiberglass in the sheet. ir tapered edges
Nobody actually cares. We're bent at this tool with the hat. It's his movie.
Excellent job
I worked in a drywall manufacturing plant as a co-op in college a long time ago. It was a great experience for a Mechanical Engineering student. Here is a basic explanation of the manufacturing process:
- gypsum rock from quarry sent through ball mills where it is ground into powder (like fine baby powder)
- powder sent through a calciner (rotating dryer) where water in the powder is "driven/baked" out
- "dry" gypsum is routed to a slurry mixer along with other ingredients including water, sugar, fillers, fiberglass, etc. - this is the proprietary part. Each mfg has their own recipe which is different for each type of board.
- slurry drops down on to the conveyor belt where there are two rolls of paper at the feed end; the face paper sits on the conveyor and the brown paper on the top/back
- the slurry falls on to the face paper which then goes through a forming plate
- the forming plates on each edge roll both ends of the face paper over to form the edges of the board (this forming plate is also tapered, to give us that "taper joint")
- glue is adding to the back side of the rolled edges of the face paper
- brown paper then passes under a flat forming plate where it attaches to the face paper and the formed board
- the spacing between this forming plate determine the thickness of the board (like sending a board through a thickness planer)
- at this point, the board is carried down the conveyor -- like what you see flying past Matt. While moving it generates A LOT of heat (exothermic) as the gypsum starts to turn back to rock
- once the board is semi-solid it passes through two rotating cut-off knives where the board is cut to length
- it then passes through a multi-layer/multi-story kiln where the board is "kiln" dried and essentially becomes "rock" again
- at exit of kiln, one board is flipped on top of the other face-to-face
- an edge banding/taping machine applies the tape (the stuff you have to pull off before you go to install it)
- bundled boards are automatically stacked
- stacks are moved by forklift to the warehouse for distribution
Oh, and all during this process, an inking machine is printing the date of manufacture, shift, manufacturers name, product name, etc. on the back of the board once the board is solid enough to take the rollers pressure.
Visual: www.awci.org/cd/pdfs/9102_d.pdf
Thanks for a great explanation.
I sure wish they'd go back to the old formulations. Gold Bond really was the gold standard for rock, and I was always glad when I showed up at a house and found it was stocked with Gold Bond. It broke cleanly and predictably (no crumbs and knobs on the snapped edge), the core was just the right amount of "soft" to dimple really nice, it was flexible enough to rock large curves without using thinner material, you could cut it into strips narrower than its thickness, and the face papers were better. All this translated into cleaner, neater rocking and better speed.
The new "lightweight" rocks are all trash, exactly the opposite of everything enumerated above. A harder, more brittle core causes much more fastener popping, and the papers delaminate from the core easily, to name a couple of problems.
I'm not at all sure it was worth all that to save a couple of pounds a linear foot. Can't see the point of a "lightweight" 8-footer. If a DIY guy isn't strong enough to maneuver an "8" he probably shouldn't be rocking to begin with.
Can small businesses make their own drywall? Or is it only for large manufacturers
"Ever wonder how Sheetrock is made?"...well keep wondering because this video ain't gonna show ya. Lol
Don't want the Chinese stealing from them.
😂😂😂😂🎯
😂😂😂😂😂
Dudes got his crotch way too close to the conveyor!!! 😂😂😂😂😂
I still wonder how sheetrock is made
Currently work at a usg plant, ask away
@@joepytrykow6937 dude me too!
Lol
Well, basically a mix of gypsum and water is put into a "sandwich" of two paper rolls, paper gets folded in the conveyor and the long paper sandwich gets hardened and gets cut in boards, then it enters in an oven to get even more hardened
Please dont waste our time if they will not allow you to give out basic information on the manufacturing process .
Still wondering how sheet rock is made. Lol
In the 80’s, I use to build shopping centers. The drywall Contractor would pre-measure the height of the walls from floor to roof deck for the firewalls and would special order the sheetrock. If the height was 14’-2”, he would order the sheetrock 4’ x 14’-2” instead of a installing a Standard 4x12 and cutting a 2’-2”. It made sense on a large project because the sheetrock came directly from the factory. He saves a ton of money by planning ahead. The plant didn’t charge him extra because of the quantity he ordered.
We cut all kinds of crazy lengths for manufactured homes. 13' 8" - 14' 2" - 15' 1" - 15' 1.5" - 15' 2" etc. They order what length the wall is and lay the drywall horizontal, two high, for 8' ceilings. Then they don't have to cut off any as well.
I work there and do all those jobs. I love it, pays very nice, decent people but man there’s some real big boy work that goes on
Reminds me of working on a corrugater. Continual sheets coming out at 800+ ft per min. Was a neat job.
That’s awesome Matt. USG is all I use. From drywall, beads, joint compound and texture mud.👍🏻 I ❤️ Drywall!!!! 🤓
It goes about 3 to 4 belts long so about a mile so it can setup to form the actual board then its cut to size at a knife machine and fed into a huge oven like a pizza oven called a KiLN
You didn't showed us much!
wish USG would allow more inside views. I know they dont want National Gypsum to get trade secrets. really enjoyed working the jobsite at santa fe springs, CA 1989 (Durock line install). how many changes at Jacksonville over the years :)
Literally just found your channel through another of you videos. subscribed, then watched this COMMERCIAL with absolutely zero information and unsubscribed. Will not be back to get suckered again.
Pretty interesting that it's made sort of like an extruded pipe in a continuous run. Thanks for sharing this.
It blows my mind that it is moving that fast and knowing, at some point that it will be cut. How does anything keep up with stacking a fairly delicate product and not completely destroy it?!
robhimself79 - the blades used to cut and the racks used to catch the cut pieces all move along with it so it isn’t _”falling”_ much more than a mm or two and gently decelerated :)
The secret is in speeding the product up (to pull gaps between boards), then you can afford to slowly stop them before transferring a different direction or flipping them over. Once the board is cured out of the kiln it is surprisingly strong and can be pushed and evened by its edges/ends without getting dented or hurt.
That’s awesome. I have always suspected that there was a long ribbon of drywall in the factory.
Why did the chicken cross the road? Can’t tell you they won’t let me...this is the coolest joke ever guys
The liquid form is made by mixing all the ingredients, like starch paper pulp and/or fiber glass depending on what is being made, in a mixer which spits out the mix onto the backside of the face paper (which is creased and cupped by guides) as the back paper comes down and has glue added to the edge to mate with the face papers now cupped edge. It travels around 500 feet (gives it time to harden up a little so it can be cut and flipped) to a knife that spins as it drops to keep up with the speed of the line while it cuts. This is also where samples are taken to check for starch, thickness and taper. Then it goes to a flipping table that flips it onto the back paper and send it through a multi level kiln. When it comes out it is flipped face to face in pairs and trimmed to length and taped together which is what you see in stores. That's all the stuff this "amazed" individual didn't say or show.
How it's made... but not really....
Still wondering.
Matt sounds like the guy standing right next to you that has earplugs in and he's talking to you while you don't.
Surprised there is not a guard on the rollers?
if I remember they have a an aircraft cable that runs the length for line shutoff? the guards are normally on motors and such..
Usg is the best drywall out there..
Wow so informative! Gypsum comes in, they make it liquid somehow, then ??? And bam, infinite sheet rock slab flying by at an undisclosed speed
Hey, that's some really long stuff!!
Yeah, ok.
A few months ago I got to see a tour of Hunter XCI, polyisocyanurate insulation sheets and how the sheets are made. Yeah we weren't allowed to take video either. The cutter that moves at an angle calibrated with the fast moving conveyor is impressive.
You know it's a big production line when they have to build staircases over it!
Why the secrecy on the process if the product is already patented?
You’re like a kid in a candy store! Great video! I’ve always wondered how or who makes it.
And now you still wonder.
What's wrong with the sheetrock company why would they not want us to see how they wrap their junk product down the road will help that's it. Like we're going to be able to go by and replicate that machine that area and have it all cut and taped come on sheetrock is terrible material
Well keep on wondering then beotch lol..😂😂
Compete waste of time. How much did you get paid for this commercial?
Well yer gonna keep wondering how Sheetrock is made cause this video ain’t telling anybody.
We acually care about drywall. How about giving us some information.
I like how you taie credit for Putting ip millions of sqft of drywall, but i doubt you yourself have ever put up one full board.
So basically this plant has only made ONE sheet !
Technically, since it's only one sheet, they're not done yet. 😉
a video that tells you some vague facts cool
Bob vila has a pretty decent video of the same plant and they talk about how it’s made. They took a bike down the line.
Clickbait
Capacity is impressive, but still shake my head when Chinese dry wall showed up here in States about a decade ago post-Katrina, spreading widespread contamination of sulfur.
Tom Frymire- So was the Chinese drywall contaminating the sulfur in the environment with something? Or are you classifying the 5th most abundant element on the planet as a 'contaminant'?
WOW! another fake.
millions of sf?
yourself ?
really ?
As a professional residential rocker from about 1979-ish to 1992-ish, I did. During that time period the 3/2 suburban raised ranch was the common house type, and they contained about 7,000 square feet of board. My partner and I could hang one in a day, and did, many times. If scheduling worked out right we could do four or five houses a week, and did, many times. If I hung half the board in the house, times 4.5 houses a week, times 50 weeks, that's 787,500 square feel of board in a year. Through a decade that's upwards of 8 million square feet.
We hung stuff that was smaller on a regular basis, and also stuff that was much, much bigger, but the above figure is representative of square footage we commonly hung in a day.
Waste of time
Doesn't know much. I've been in one of these factorys and they told us everything. Ask for your money back bro.
Seem like patent trolls to me
Waste of data this video
they didnt show us anything....lame
i use lathe and plaster
Never mud, just use one sheet.
They have the best tapered edge