A Blog About Life… Isn't That Unusual?

Starting off with the first in the series, and probably the more unique and interesting: I worked in a toner manufacturing facility. I started out in the production department, where toner is actually created, and then worked in the warehouse, where it’s stored and moved to packaging, loaded in trailers and shipped out around the world.

Maufacturing

Starting this position, I knew very little about toner. I knew it was a particle that could be electrically attracted to a drum inside a printer. I knew this information because of my college schooling for being a system administrator, and computer technician.

So, not knowing much, and learning how it was actually created was fascinating, because not many people know the process or what kind of expenses are put into creating this stuff. It’s outrageously expensive for a reason.

Raw Materials

It all starts with what actually IS toner on a material base. Well, it’s mostly just plastic resin and a few other ingredients that make it give the resin a positive charge. While, I can’t tell you the exactly materials used, or what quantities, I can say that there was a precise recipe that needed to be followed in order to ensure the materials didn’t interact with each other and mess up the consistency of the mixture.

Yes, we mixed all of these materials in giant batches. We used industrial mixers that could hold a decent bit of weight, and could mix at RPMs up to 900. We made toner in batches, making the process more repetitive, but also, if in the event of a mishap, the loss of money put into Raw Materials wasn’t as large.

After all of these materials were mixed in this specific order and everything was within specification, we then moved the materials in large bins known as totes in the industry. In order to move these materials from one step to the next, we used fork trucks (or reach trucks depending on who you talk to ), and pneumatic controlled tote tilts.

More Mixing

Currently, the material looks like pretty fine gravel, with many sparkly RMs (Raw Materials) showing through. We need to get this mixture to a more consistent, and finer particle. Those two things are done in two separate processes, first, let’s get this mixture more consistent. For this, we used giant kneaders. We would feed the material in, mixing it with the kneaders, while heating it up into a goopy paste, and extrude onto a press roller. The press roller would lay the material flat onto a conveyor belt, which was cooled so the material could be broken back into “gravel”. The cooling belt dropped the material into a series of hammer mills and screens, pulverizing the plastics until they could fall through a screen which lead to a pipe that would pneumatically convey the materials into a hopper.

The finer side of things

Getting this rough gravel like material into a fine powder is no easy task. This is where the machinery used get even more ridiculous. One of these grinders we use would costs between $750,000 and $1,500,000.

This isn’t a conventional grinder that you’re probably thinking of, this is an air mill grinder. It uses compressed air to pick up and smash this gravel plastic into each other, and take it away.

Once the material is small enough to be pulled up by a precise vacuum we keep within the grinder, the material would come to a spinning wheel with a bunch of slots in it. Depending on the speed of the wheel spinning and the size of the slots on the wheel, we could control the size of the powder going through the grinder and onto the next process.

You see, the wheel would “catch and fling” any larger pieces and they would fall back down to be ground again, and repeat this process until it was small enough to slide through the slots on the spinning wheel. There are specific sizes of powder that we would have to maintain.

But we’re not done with the step, yet. After being ground down to a powder, we had to go through a process called “classifying”, where we would remove the outliers of the first grinding step. The classifying process worked in a similar way, using a vacuum force to keep material moving, while spinning wheels separated what could stay of what material needed to get recycled/thrown away.

Two wheels aligned with each other would spin very quickly, but at a different rate of speed to allow either too large or too small particles to go and be recycled, while the material that did not get pushed through the slots on the two wheels would travel through another air conveyor, or tote, and be moved onto the next process.

Please note: I am leaving out a mammoth amount of information here for confidentiality purposes, as well as a small lack on knowledge of how these things actually worked. I am no engineer after all.

So, after both grinding and classifying the material, we had to keep a spec of particle diameter, as well as how much of the material in under a certain diameter. If the powder would be too fine, the final print out of the printer would get dirty, as the powder would stick to the drum over time. Same vice-versa.

What’s this? More mixing?

Oh, yeah. We have some more mixing to do. Here, the ground and classified material would be put into batches again, and more RMs would be added and mixed together. We have to add these RMs into the mixture for a few reasons:

• These RMs would interfere with the RMs added at the start of the process
• These RMs give the toner it’s final clean, shiny look on paper
• These RMs keep the powder from clumping together and making a mess inside the printer. Toner flows very similar to water, if you’ve ever held a cup of it.

Again, this process is done in batches to eliminate any whoopsies, contaminating the still viable toner, as well as not require ludicrous sized machinery, as what we are using was large enough as is.

We also put the RMs in in a certain order to avoid having the RMs interact with each other in an unintended way, just as we did in the beginning. This mixer, once completed with the batches, releases the toner into the totes to allow for the next, and final manufacturing process.

Screening

I’m not talking about any tests, although we do that too. Nah, what I’m talking about here is a really cool sifter of sorts. Material would come out of the tote, and into a table feeder, where it would then slowly be placed onto a screener, and fall through back into the finished product tote.

This screener vibrates very very fast. Fast enough that the first time I looked at these things, I was having a really hard time trying to read the labels on them as well as even identifying the actual shape of them. The screener’s screen within it also vibrated, using a transducer to make the metal screen dance.

We screen the toner to remove excess RMs that were done in the previous mixing process, as well as remove any foreign particles that could have been added into the toner mixture between kneading and screening. As it turns out, toner production can cause a lot of metal to corrode or break apart in some of these processes.

We would test the product in this stage three times: at start, middle, and end of a tote. Verifying that all material though the process was within spec. After all of these processes, you have toner. This toner has yet to be put into the plastic cartridge that gets boxed and shipped to retailers.

Lets talk about some issues

If you have any knowledge of working with grains, sugars, powders, or basically any milled product, you will know one of the largest, and most scary things that a toner manufacturer faces: dust explosions.

Keeping everything clean is huge priority in both safety, and non-contamination. We moved toner using totes, which have gaskets and some small protections for keeping the dust from escaping.

The biggest hurdle of making sure we never had any dust explosions was keeping everything grounded, This was crucial. All bins, totes, conveyors, augers, any all machinery was to be grounded at all times. Even the containers that collected the run-off from the screener were grounded, simply because there was still dust from it.

Now, working in a factory such as this, accidents do happen. Sometimes a tote leaked, and you’d have a toner streak along the floor. We’d vacuum it up and use a floor scrubber to get any of the excess that we missed with the vacuum.

Other times, a larger issue would occur. Say someone forgot to close a port on a mixer, or forgot properly place a tote under a piece of machinery. This would mean there would be a large amount of toner floating around in the air, dusting every surface imaginable, as well just hanging in the air for a long time. This would happen from time to time.

Procedure when something such of that would occur was to:

1. If you aren’t wearing one already (it wasn’t mandatory except for certain steps) put your respirator on.
2. Notify anyone in the area a spill has occurred
3. Leave the area
4. Segregate the area from any spreading (there were large doors we could close to keep toner contained to one room)
5. Wait for dust to settle (this could take up to 30 minutes depending on severity of the spill)
6. Clean using the proper methods. (I.E. Vacuums, Mops, Scrubbers.)

Toner manufacturing is an incredible process, and I am happy to have been a part of figuring out how it all works. Of course, this is the mechanical way to product toner. There are also ways to do the same thing using chemicals, and large bathes, but that was not the process of this plant.

Why so $$$$?

Why is toner expensive? If case you haven’t been paying attention, this is a lot of machinery that I’ve been talking about: Kneaders, press rollers, conveyors, hammermills, baghouses, grinders, classifiers, blows, augers, scales, mixers, screeners, screens. Compressed air is one of the main tools we used at the plant, and we used a LOT of it. The compressors used in the plant were sometimes as large as a bedroom, and there were multiple.

The other large expense to the plant was electricity, because you have to power all of that machinery. There was once a trail that we were running on getting a new line set up to make toner. We had to test the grinder, and make sure it was running the way it was intended. Because of the contract that we agreed on with the electric company, starting that grinder for 15 MINUTES, costed us an extra $20,000 to $50,000 that month. I know that is a large range between there, but I don’t really remember the exact number. I know that the typical electric bill for the plant was around $100,000 a month.

In order to keep up with a specific ISO safety stander that we wanted, we once has to spend $2,500,000 on some safety valves. So if that doesn’t put into perceptive why toner isn’t cheap, I don’t know what will. The stuff costs so much for a reason. You are paying back for the amount of machinery used, power consumed, as well as QC to ensure you are receiving the same results time after time.

I’m going to end this post here, partially because I know this post is already an unorganized mess, and there are many more things I could talk about. But I also want to hear from you. Do you have any questions about toner productions? Obviously, I am willing to talk about some things, but I cannot release many other things, as there are trade secrets that I do not intend of giving away. While I haven’t agreed to any non-disclosures with that position, I do want to respect the company I worked for, and keep it as much of a secret from the strangers of the internet as possible.

So, what are your questions? Are there details that I need to explain further about these processes? What do you want to know about? If you comment, I will compile a list of the questions and answer them the best I can.

I will gladly admit that it has been one hell of a past few weeks for America as a country. We’ve had three (we have had more, but these three are the most covered) mass shootings: Gilroy Garlic Festical, El Passo Walmart, and Dayton Downtown.

At the risk of sounding like an asshole, which I do not mean to, I want to put my opinions in on these matters. You should know that my opinion is mine, and while you may disagree, you cannot deny my opinion. I can respect what you believe, and I only expect you to do the same. There is no argument to be made here.

Firstly, these mass shootings simply shouldn’t have happened, can we all agree on that? No one is happy about a bunch of people getting massacred. If you do find it funny, or courageous what these shooters did, I ask you to kindly and quietly to leave here.

On the subject of Trump

I have no problem admitting that I do have a problem with Trump. I don’t believe he is the President that America needs at this time, but he’s what we’ve got until election time. I can deal with that, as long as I don’t see the man become power-hungry, and start wars in order to get elected for a second term. Do I believe he can be held responsible for these shootings? Hell no. At least, mostly no. If these young, impressionable minds found something Trump had said to be a nod in acceptance of going out and shooting people on a massive scale, you might be right. But, did Trump actually mean go out and commit murder? Of course not! Trump may be an idiot, but I don’t think he would be dumb enough to persuade American citizens to start killing others– citizens or not. I believe Trump is trying to do right by the country, but is far too inexperienced to be in a position of his power.

On the subject of racism

Does racism play a part in these shootings? Yeah, to some degree. Racists exist, and they, for intents and purposes, have always existed. Do I push direct blame on racism for these shootings? Again, no. While it may have played a role, it certainly was not the sole reason behind the shootings. This country has once legally allowed racism, slavery, and segregation, and back then we still weren’t producing these mass shootings. It doesn’t take a scientist to come to the conclusion that racism isn’t the only issue here, and in some shootings, not the issue at all.

On the subject of mental health

This one is tough, knowing my history of struggles with mental health (still ongoing, but better, yay).

Does mental health play a role is these mass murders? Ab-so-lutely. If you possess the ability to plan, prepare, and carry out an attack on a scale such as what happened at these three locations, you are mentally fucked. There’s no doubt about that. To throw away any what ever self preservation you have left in order to commit murder on this kind of level, you need help.

As always, this is not the sole excuse for a shooting. To be honest, there will never be just some simple explanation for someone carrying out an attack like this. As far as mental health goes, these people are not weak-minded. It takes a lot of mental ability to keep your mind calm while going through the processes of planning and committing to these attacks. The mental deficiency is one that lacks very basic and common empathy. These people do not care about others, they hate and kill with little to no bias. These people are angry, hurt, or upset to the point of exploding in this violent manner. To spot these individuals should be relatively easy, there are reports of red flags on all of these occurrences.

So, yes. Mental health plays a significant part in every event like this. Where my issue is, is how to go about investigating these red flags. I’m sure that if every red flag would be looked into, we would see that there is a heavily unbalanced ratio of real to not real signs of impending violence. You see, it’s human nature to imagine and think about horrible things, because it acts as a sanity check for ourselves. When you cross the line into actually believing it’s okay to act on those thoughts is where the issue lies. The problem with that, is only the person who is thinking and assessing themselves really knows when they’ve crossed that line. Others can speculate, but they’ll never really know. I only wish that mental help was more accessible and affordable for everyone, as I do believe that would help decrease the amount of violence on this scale.

On the subject of firearms

Are firearms to blame for mass shootings? Is that a question?

No, seriously, did you just read that paradox and think nothing of it? If so, please read the next sentence very slowly: Firearms are an essential tool in mass shootings.

I own multiple firearms. I enjoy shooting my firearms. I think that firearms are fascinating, truly. I do not want to give up my firearms because I am a responsible owner, who knows gun safety in both storage and shooting. It would suck to have to give all of our guns up because a certain percentage of people lack this same knowledge. I understand there would be outrage if it came down to that, and I agree, I would be upset. But, if I have to give my weapons up to prevent these atrocities, then I fucking will. Because that is what is right. It’s how discipline works in humans, if you can’t all share and get along, none of you get the [BLANK]. Remember your childhood? (Sorry all of you single children, maybe you remember daycare?)

If you have experienced that discipline before, you also have seen what happens further down the road… You might actually get the thing back, under certain terms. So, this means if we gave up our guns right now to immediately remedy the rampant gun violence we have, then we can work to create a better solution on how to handle gun ownership in America and begin reintroducing them back into society. I understand this is an extreme method of going about this, but I do believe we are nearing this point in our nation.

I understand that there will still need to people who require firearms, such as police, military, and others, and I know that firearms will still be accessible in those means. That means that gun violent will still occur, and possibly on a large scale yet, but the frequency of these attacks should drop dramatically.

Let’s think about this from a different perspective. Hypothetically, lets say all of America’s gun are replaced with grenades. What is the likely hood that grenade related massacres occur? I’d say very likely. Now, how much of a push for removing grenades from the hands of citizens do you think would appear? I would say about a shit load. This hypothetical is extreme, but the theory behind it is solid. People would want the grenades gone, because there’s nothing more scary than someone having the ability to throw a “rock” into a crowd and murder a bunch of people indiscriminately. Guns are able to do the same thing, they just require a human companion to achieve this. Why not just get rid of them for a while?

Well, really, this all comes down to politics and money. The guns stay because the NRA, and the huge piles of cash that flows in favor for the availability, accessibility , and persistence of firearms. Politicians can be bought, as studies have proven, and it sucks. People can be persuaded and dissuaded into something with just simple cash, albeit usually a large sum. Politicians should not be consumerism for governing a country, cause that’s how you get America, and inherit it’s problems. Politicians should be politicians because they can stand on moral principles and full-heatedly believe what they believe. If people agree with them, that’s how they should win elections, not through money, or really any tangible thing. They should only use their wisdom, beliefs, and the trust built over years of experience with people.

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Sorry, I wen’t off on a small tangent there at the end. I just had to add a few extra thoughts on guns because it’s probably the most controversial of all of these topics.

I’d also like to put in a few more words about mental health that didn’t really have a place up there. Specifically, my own mental health.

I am good, so don’t worry about me, but I wanted to let you know where I’ve been mentally. In no particular way, I was abused as a child, and it caused be a lot of stress, depression, frustration, and anxiety about many things, and for a very long part of my life. I also was unable to develop a solid coping mechanism for a very long time, and still have plenty of work to do.

So, at a younger age, when I was hurting and had no one to tell, talk to, or any other form of venting, I wrote in a notebook. I still own this notebook, and really don’t like reading through it, because it brings the hurt child in me back to the foreground. In this notebook is mainly a bunch of comics. I drew short cartoons, many of them included awful things, like racism, sex, and violence. There are some seriously awful things in that notebook. I don’t want to even tell the world this, it’s so bad. If someone saw that notebook today, I’m sure I would be setting off a shit-load of red flags, and I honestly couldn’t blame whoever found them for telling me to get help, or thinking of me very differently. But, I was young, and it was the only thing that seemed to help me at the time.

So, yeah, I have in my possession, something that if I were ever to commit a violent crime on a large scale, that would be pretty damning to my personal image. I do not intend on ever harming anyone in any manner, but I also am not going to try and judge anyone on some of the content that they may have created while in a dark place in their life. Chances are, that content was the only thing that was keeping them from committing these crimes earlier on. Maybe it also manifests into what causes a mass shooting, I do not know.

To end this, I just want to reiterate, if you disagree with my opinions, I don’t need to hear any arguments against me, unless done so in a positive, and constructive way, as that is how we would solve this whole issue to begin with. If you can agree to those terms, I will be happy to have a real meaningful discussion about this. If you can’t have an opinion and respect mine, I will simply ignore you, because I understand that you will not even attempt to have a civil, useful, maybe even helpful, and positive discussion.

Also, if you’ve actually read all of this, I feel the need to applaud you and thank you for taking the time to read it all.

One laaaast thing! On the subject of video games
Video games don’t make people violent. Get the fuck outta here with that shit.

Over the last six years, basically as I began my decrease in writing these blog posts, I have has some fascinating job experiences. Although I do not wish to disclose exactly what these places are that I’ve been working at, I will talk about each one of them.

In no particular order, over these last couple years I’ve worked in:

• Manufacturing
• Retail
• Food Service
• Telecommunications Engineering
• Logistics
• Customer Support

Overall, I’ve loved all but one of these positions, and I’ve only moved onto the next one because life changes, or certain situations arise at these jobs that I saw potential for some very negative changes.

Today, I’m not going to talk about any position in particular. I just wanted to give a small list of these positions, and revisit them when I feel like there is a good reason to talk about each one. Perhaps if something in my day happens to make me remember one of the things I’ve learned from a previous or current position.

I’ll be writing about these experiences soon…