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The shadow mask is inserted and removed each time one of the color phospers is placed on the glass panel.
After the phospers, a black matrix material is applied, next the glass panel is placed on an aluminizer machine, a table with a rubber gasket, the interior of the panel is brought down to a vacuum in about 90 seconds, then a small pellet of aluminum is vaporized by an electric heating coil.
The superheated aluminum vapor "condenses" on the glass panel.
Vacuum pump is closed, air is let in the table, glass panel is removed, placed on conveyer belt, next.
The same shadow mask has to be kept with the same glass panel, they used to travel down the line together.
In the 70's, many operations of assembly were done by hand in a production line in batches of 7000 each.
Phillips had a very modern almost totally automatic assembly line to make 32" tubes in Europe. Robots and equipment run by computers, they must have spent close to a billion dollars on machinery. The plant closed last year.
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