50 Fascinating Facts About The Machinery and Equipment That Keeps Industries Running

1. 1. 1. The first conveyor belt was invented in 1892 Manufacturer and inventor Thomas Robbins designed a conveyor belt system to transport coal and ore for Thomas Edison’s Ore-Milling Company. His invention won the grand prize at the Paris Exposition World Fair in 1900.
   1. 1. On the western edge of the Sahara Desert, a 61-mile-long white line cuts across the sand. This conspicuous line is the world’s longest conveyor belt system, which traverses Western Sahara’s desert from the Bou Craa phosphate mine to the coastal town of El Marsa near Laayoune. 
   1. 1. The term “preventive maintenance“ was first used in the early 20th century by the U.S. Navy, which sought to reduce the frequency of breakdowns and improve the reliability of its ships.
   1. 1. The largest warehouse in the world opened on April 7, 2022, is Tesla’s Gig factory, with over 10 million square feet of factory floor along the Colorado River.
   1. 1. Tesla’s Fremont Factory located in Fremont, California opened in 2012 with the launch of its Model S car. This facility is 5.3 million square feet on 370 acres.
   1. 1. Boeing Everett Factory in Washington State has a floor area of over 4.3 million square feet and is used to assemble Boeing’s 747, 767, 777, and 787 aircraft.
   1. 1. The world’s largest crane is the Taisun crane in China, is the strongest and most powerful crane in the world and holds the record for the three heaviest lifts ever – 20133 tons, 17100 tons, and 14000 tons.
   1. 1. The world’s fastest elevator in the world is the elevator is the Shanghai Tower, from the ground floor to the 118^th floor at the top you are going at speeds of 40 miles an hour, and it takes 55 seconds.
   1. 1. First, Eugene Clark at Clark Material Handling Company in Kentucky developed the first seated counterbalanced lift truck in 1917 called the “Tructractor.” Although often referred to today as the first forklift, it actually did not have forks. But by the 1920s, lift truck manufacturers added hydraulics and a vertical lifting mast.
   1. 1. The world’s largest industrial forklift is the Kalmar DCG720-10LB forklift which is primarily used for loading and unloading heavy and oversized cargo. With a lifting capacity of up to 72 tons and a maximum lift height of 4 meters, this forklift is suitable for a wide range of heavy-duty applications.
   1. 1. The Alcoa 50,000-ton press is a heavy press operated at Howmet Aerospace’s Cleveland It was built as part of the Heavy Press Program by the United States Air Force.
   1. 1. China’s 80,000-ton hydraulic press is 10 stories tall, it’s the largest and strongest in the world and can press diamonds into flour.
   1. 1. It’s been reported Waldrich Siegen of South Africa built the largest lathe in 1973 at 126 feet (38m), weighing 485.6 tons, the same weight as a jumbo jet aircraft, and capable of handling a workpiece up to 330 tons.
   1. 1. The KUKA KR 1000 titan was named the world’s strongest industrial robot by the Guinness Book of Records. It has a total of nine motors and features a steel base frame and a new drive concept. 
   1. 1. In late spring 2023, the Rock Island Arsenal will become home to the largest 3D metal printer in the world. The Jointless Hull Large Format Tool will have the capability of printing large parts for military ground vehicles. It is expected to be fully operational in the spring of 2023 and will have the capability of printing metal 30 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 12 feet high.
   1. 1. The world’s first and largest 3D-printed building is a two-story office building in Dubai, which was printed using a 3D printer that measures 20 feet high, over 120 feet long, and 40 feet wide. The entire structure was printed using a giant cement printer, then assembled on-site. Printing took 17 days and was installed in 2 days.
   1. 1. The world’s largest geared compressor rotor, with a first-stage impeller measuring 1.8 meters, was engineered and tested by Siemens at its Duisburg, Germany, facility. The impeller was balanced at a speed of 3,970 rpm, with the outside diameter of the first-stage impeller rotating at 1,350 km/h.
   1. 1. Kobelco is the largest gas compressor in the world. Kobelco is the most advanced oil-free screw gas compressor supplier and has the world’s largest capability: up to 110,000 m3/hr (65,000 cfm).
   1. 1. The largest non-powered hand drill measures 15.15 m (49 ft 8 in) long and the handle is 10.3 m(33 ft 9 in) wide. It was created by Miljenko Mustapic (Croatia).
   1. 1. The world’s largest excavator is the Bagger 288 in Germany, which can move up to 240,000 cubic meters of earth per day and is used in mining and construction applications.
   1. 1. The world’s largest tunnel boring machine is the Bertha in Seattle, which is over 17 meters in diameter and was used to dig a 2-mile tunnel for a new highway.
   1. 1. The world’s largest steam locomotive is the Union Pacific Big Boy, which is over 25 meters long and was used to haul heavy freight trains across the United States. 
   1. 1. The world’s largest industrial shredder is a LYNXS unit capable of handling 450 end-of-life vehicles an hour.  
   1. 1. The world’s biggest 45-ton electric dump truck relies almost exclusively on energy produced by its own breaking system, requiring only minimal recharging. The ‘eDumper’, the world’s largest electric vehicle is actually a converted Komatsu 605-7 HD dump truck the diesel engine of which was replaced with an electric motor and a giant battery.
   1. 1. The world’s largest excavator is currently Caterpillar 6090 FS. The weight of the Cat 6090 FS mining excavator reaches an incredible 1,000 tons. The goliath is equipped with two Cummins QSK60 engines, rated at 3,360 kW/4,500 HP in total. The 52 m³ shovel has a payload of 93.6 tons.
   1. 1. Taisun is the world’s biggest gantry crane with 133 meters in height and 120 meters in span which is even bigger than a soccer field. It has 20,000 tons (over 44 million pounds) of incredible lifting capacity that holds the “Guinness World Record” status for “heaviest weight lifted by crane”.
   1. 1. ABP Induction has recently supplied the largest and most powerful coreless induction furnace in the world rated at 65 000 kgs capacity and powered with a 42 000kW converter.
   1. 1. The world’s longest golf cart measures 31 feet 6.74 inches (9.62 meters.) The world’s longest golf cart was built on an EZ-GO golf cart frame stretched with a custom truss system. It sits on 49-inch tires that are mounted on 20-inch wheels.
   1. 1. Largest wastewater treatment plant. New Delta Treatment Plant is being developed under the supervision of the Engineering Authority of the Egyptian Armed Forces and is due to be open in 2023.  The facility will be treating around 5 mn cubic meters of water from the Bahr El Baqar basin every day. The 155-feddan facility has four treatment lines, each with the capacity to process 1.25 mn cbm of water each day.
   1. 1. DC Water’s Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant is the next largest plant of its kind in the world. On an average day, the facility treats close to 300 million gallons of wastewater and has the ability to treat over 1 billion gallons a day at peak flow. Wastewater flows in from the District of Columbia and from Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland and Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Virginia.
   1. 1. 2800 Polar Way is a cold storage facility located in Richland, Washington, United States, where it dominates the northern landscape. It is both the largest refrigerated warehouse and the largest automated freezer on Earth. The facility is capable of storing about 350 million pounds of frozen food. 2800 Polar Way is the largest refrigerated building on earth by usable volume.
   1. 1. The Prophet’s Mosque is one of the world’s largest air-cooled chiller installations. It requires 20,400 TR (71,700 kWR) of cooling which is accomplished with six Titan 3,400 TR (12,000 kWR) chillers. 
   1. 1. The T-Series is the largest Allied Commercial split air condition system, with sizes up to 20 tons.
   1. 1. Solar Atmosphere Pennsylvania facilities have over 40 vacuum furnaces and are the home of the world’s largest commercial furnaces.  In Western PA, there are three 24-foot vacuum furnaces and a soon-to-be-installed, 36-foot-long furnace with a loading capacity of 150,000 lbs. 
   1. 1. The world’s largest industrial autoclave is the ASC Process Systems autoclave, which can reach temperatures of up to 740 degrees Celsius and is used in the aerospace and composite manufacturing industries. 
   1. 1. The biggest drum mixer in the world belongs to a gelatin producer. A 25000 liter has a maximum batch volume of 25,000 liters and a batch weight of approximately 20 tons. The industrial mixer is used for the homogenization of powders and dry bulk particles.
   1. 1. The world’s smallest pumps are barely visible to the naked eye. They feature nanotechnology and can be used in the body to pump medication.
   1. 1. The world’s largest pump is the Pentair Fairbanks Nijhuis HP1-4000.340 has a capacity of 60 m3/second (60,000 liters/second). To crank this much water per second, it offers a horsepower of 5,364.
   1. 1. The largest electric bus depot has a capacity of 478 buses, and was achieved by The Ministry of Transport and The Public Works Authority – Ashghal (both Qatar), in Doha, Qatar, on 16 October 2022.
   1. 1. The KE 800 from KraussMaffei Berstorff is the world’s largest single-screw extruder. It is used whenever large quantities of plastic are continuously polymerized and extruded.
   1. 1. The Valmet CFB is the worlds latest boiler has a fuel output of 167 MW and is the world’s largest boiler for waste incineration.
   1. 1. The loudest steam whistle belongs to the New York Wire company and is 134 dBA and heard over five miles away.
   1. 1. The world’s oldest pharmaceutical factory has been in operation in China since the year 1600.
   1. 1. The largest data warehouse is run by IBM and has 3 petabytes (3,000 terabytes) of raw data, at the IBM Technology Campus in Dublin, Ireland. That’s enough space to store approximately 600,000,000 different mp3s!
   1. 1. Mechanical, Inc., a mechanical contractor headquartered in Pewaukee Wisconsin, has reached the milestone of working one million man-hours without a lost-time injury.
   1. 1. The world’s largest oil refinery, located in Jamnagar, India, has a processing capacity of 1.24 million barrels per day.
   1. 1. The first candy-making machine was invented by a pharmacist, Oliver Chase, in 1947, to crank out medicated candy lozenges.
   1. 1. The name of the world’s strongest adhesive is DELO MONOPOX. This is a modified version of the high-temperature-resistant DELO MONOPOX HT2860. This epoxy resin forms a very dense network during heat curing.
   1. 1. The largest factory was built in 1967 for the Boeing 747 and has since been expanded several times to accommodate new airliners, including the 767, 777, and 787 programs. At 4.3 million square feet and 272 million cubic feet, it’s the largest warehouse in the world by volume.
   1. The world’s longest linear barcode label, measuring 40m long was constructed using the classic Code 128 linear barcode symbology to say ” HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY BARCODE! ” in machine-readable format on self-adhesive label material.

Maintenance Management

The concept of Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) started in the 1960s, when math-based systems were designed to help document, standardize, and verify manufacturing processes. The first CMMS systems appeared around 1965 and were limited to the largest manufacturing firms, those with the biggest computers.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, the machinery and equipment used in industries are fascinating and have undergone significant changes over the years. However, maintenance management plays a crucial role in keeping them running efficiently. With the help of advanced tools such as Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS), maintenance managers can keep track of the health of the equipment, schedule preventive maintenance, and reduce the risk of unexpected breakdowns. As technology continues to advance, it’s exciting to imagine what the future holds for the machinery and equipment that keeps industries running and the ways maintenance management will continue to evolve to support them.

From simple machines to complex systems,

the evolution of equipment has been impressive.

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Please be informed that the facts presented to you are the most recent as of my knowledge cutoff date of May 2023. However, with the rapid pace of technological advancement, it is highly likely that new records will be broken and new information will become available. Therefore, please keep in mind that these facts may become outdated in the future as new technology emerges.