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A Tiny Screw Shows Why iPhones Won't Be 'Assembled in U.S.A.'
In China, you will also find one of Apple's most important markets, and over the last month the risks that come with that dependence have become apparent. On Jan. 2, Apple said it would miss earnings expectations for the first time in 16 years, mostly because of slowing iPhone sales in China. On Tuesday, the company is expected to reveal more details about its financial results for the most recent quarter and its forecast for the coming year.
In 2012, Apple's chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, went on prime-time television to announce that Apple would make a Mac computer in the United States. It would be the first Apple product in years to be manufactured by American workers, and the top-of-the-line Mac Pro would come with an unusual inscription: "Assembled in USA."
But when Apple began making the $3,000 computer in Austin, Tex., it struggled to find enough screws, according to three people who worked on the project and spoke on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality agreements.
In China, Apple relied on factories that can produce vast quantities of custom screws on short notice. In Texas, where they say everything is bigger, it turned out the screw suppliers were not.
Tests of new versions of the computer were hamstrung because a 20-employee machine shop that Apple's manufacturing contractor was relying on could produce at most 1,000 screws a day.
The company could face more financial pressure if the Trump administration places tariffs on phones made in China — something the president has threatened to do.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Rich on Tuesday January 29 2019, @02:15PM (13 children)
Writing from very current own experience. I have designed a "vintage-style" electronics product that now enters the small-scale manufacturing phase after I've hand-built two evolving prototypes. There's one particular PCB, eurocard sized, of which I need eight per finished device. It has slightly over 300 components, all through-hole (remember, it's "vintage").
There is in fact have an electronics asssembly company in my suburb (here in Germany), but they right out rejected the idea of having to build something like that. Astoundingly, there is another, smaller, electronics assembly company in the neighbouring suburb, who would have taken the job, no matter what, but in disarming honesty said it'd be expensive, because they'd have no idea how to bend the resistors and then, because of their workflow with usually only small through-hole additions would have to charge an average 50 cents per part placed. They recommended that I'd do all the logistics and pre-forming of the parts. Which I can understand, because they really don't have the resources for that - but neither do I.
Cue Shenzhen. Two inquiries with Gerber files and BOM spreadsheets for 10 boards each, E-Mail returns less than 12 hours later, including quotes for sourcing every part in the BOM, pcb manufacturing, and assembly. A couple of e-mails went back and forth because they really wanted to make sure they got the right capacitors (which I might have slightly underspec'd). The topic of any assembly difficulties wasn't even remotely touched (so far). I worked out their per-part placing price to be slightly below 15 cents. Which must already be sky-high boutique-pricing for China.
I would really like to work with the little local assembly shop next town, because I've grown to like them when I visited them. And for being able to put the "Made in Germany" badge on with pride. But right now that is a no-go, because it seems to be impossible to get resistors bent the right way in this country. If I could do that, I could do the logistics myself and hire someone for a little side job for placement with optimized workflow, and even match or beat the Shenzhen pricing. But that's at the expense of me doing all the back-office work. You'd do that because of pride, but not because of greed. If you're just in for the business, China is an e-mail away and will take care of your troubles.
BTW: Anyone has an idea how to bend 0207 axial resistors and DO-35 diodes leads for vertical mount with kinked snap-in in high-4, low-5 digit quantities?
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday January 29 2019, @02:28PM (2 children)
I have indirect experience (i.e. a colleague trying to get something built) that indicates similar level of diligence. I think the "China stuff is s**t" story is rather oversold in the West.
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Tuesday January 29 2019, @04:41PM (1 child)
You're likely to get crap if you don't have any power to get satisfaction for defects.
Personal relationships matter more there, so arms length transactions increase the odds of having trouble.
Quality though? High quality stuff can absolutely be made there, just not for pennies.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Tuesday January 29 2019, @05:41PM
In case of the Shenzhen prototyping houses, that power is the spread of word on the internet. If they deliver crap often enough, respected forum residents between eevblog and mikrocontroller.net will write about it and then they're done. On the other hand, if they've been around long enough (and reported screwups, if any, look like the customer's fault rather than theirs), I guess one can't go wrong with them with anything that's properly specified. The price for that is that prices approach western levels, as opposed to hinterland sweatshops. Also, the large Shenzhen houses will diligently coordinate with you where they source original components and where they use a budget house brand (that, at their level of exposition will have to be as good as the large brands anyway). I don't think they could cheat with cheaping out (beyond using same quality nightshift runs), because their reputation would be instantly done if a blogger puts up a picture story like "ElewayPCB in Shenzhen shipped these fake Bourns trimmers". You do pay manufacturer list price for originals, or even slightly more, though.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 29 2019, @03:34PM (1 child)
Like I said in another story (journal?), when the Chinese have ENTIRE CITIES devoted to manufacturing a product, they have the experience and the ability to fit your needs (in my example it was a city that made socks... EVERYONE there is focused on supporting the manufacturing of socks).
A plant in a regular city cannot hope to compete, unless it is a more niche product: but even then.... especially when people and the environment don't matter.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday January 29 2019, @09:11PM
We used to have cities like that. Detroit was one.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday January 29 2019, @09:16PM (3 children)
Can you send me a picture, pencil sketch is fine, of what the resistors and diode leads should look like? I would like the challenge of designing a machine to do it.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Tuesday January 29 2019, @10:05PM (2 children)
You can see a picture of a machine that does the job and a good diagram of the bent part in this datasheet:
http://www.renthang.com/dbase/upload/HRFT301FK.pdf [renthang.com]
I already mailed them about purchasing one of their machines, but they didn't respond.
I also thought about how I would construct such a widget for small scale runs. I was thinking more along the lines of lead forming pliers, as from companies like http://www.piergiacomi.com/ [piergiacomi.com]. Or something much more compact that "ratchets" over the part and could do a single part as well as being fed with tape.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday January 30 2019, @02:28PM (1 child)
Thanks, that looks interesting. It looks like three operations to me. The first is a set of pinch rollers that forms the kinks for holding it in the board. The second is the trickier bit, forming the 180 curve. Maybe 2 rollers for that? Last is cutting it to length.
Do you buy parts on reels or individual loose components?
(Score: 2) by Rich on Wednesday January 30 2019, @03:42PM
There are videos on YouTube on how these devices work. The RT-80FK can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bt_e99NQsU [youtube.com], your general search terms are "lead forming axial kinked". Cutting comes first, because with the tape still attached to the part, it would be hard to bend the lead over. It might be that the kinking process is done by the same rollers that do the cutting. The part then is transported on by sprockets holding the leads. 90 degree bends are easy by just having limiters outside the sprockets. Over 90 degrees can be done if the transporter sprockets are unequal sized, but I think for anything approaching 180 degrees, a lever pushes the remaining part over.
It's interesting that 90-degree ("U-type") cut&form cranks are on the net dime-a-dozen, while 180-degree ("F-type") are much more rare, with many producing crappy results. 180-kinked I've only seen from two shops, Renthang (RT-80FK) and Rkens (RS-907, motorized, overkill).
Also note that full 180-degree are not even desirable, because some spring loading is good to hold the parts in snapped-in position in the PCB.
What I had in mind would be sized, formed, and moved similar to receiver and silder of a Colt 1911. Much more space-friendly in my little workshop. E.g. the slider movement would first retain the part and lower two cutting blades, then position a bendguide and push the lead over that onto a two-sided kinking die, and finally squeeze both leads against the die, like the Piergiacomi pliers. Caution must be taken that the kinking does not exert pulling or pushing stress onto the part body. Bonus points for tape auto-feed with the sliding action.
I have both taped and single parts, but being able to work on taped ones would be good enough. While building such a machine might be a nice brain teaser, the ultimate goal is to bend about 1600 axial parts (about 40 different ones) per device for a small batch run of 12 devices, so one production batch will need 20000 parts bent.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday January 29 2019, @09:42PM
I worked in an electronics factory in 1987, there's a pneumatic driven anvil bender/cutter tool for that - drop in a resistor, press a pedal - bent and precut falls out, repeat for each part. $0.50 each sounds about right after you factor in wastage, true labor costs with overhead, etc.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday January 29 2019, @09:46PM
When we visited a little local assembly shop here in Florida, we were pretty shocked to learn that 95% of the staff only spoke Romanian.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @11:52PM (1 child)
Complacent I think is not quite the right word (close though). More like not enough competition. What you experienced from Shenzhen is competition. You could ring up 20+ guys who would do the same thing. They know that. Where you are at it sounds like there are maybe 3. Silicon Valley used to be like that. Now it is just software.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Wednesday January 30 2019, @02:37PM
Well, first, I'm not a native speaker to pick it, and already was aware that it didn't perfectly fit, but even if I was, I couldn't find a word that exactly fits. I had a look in the thesaurus and there was none.
I therefore propose a new word: "satignant". It is a contraction from latin "satur" (stuffed, full) and "ignavus" (lazy, cowardly, inactive).
Examples:
During a production planning meeting for an electronic device:
Engineer 1: They would outright reject our manufacturing inquiry, because our PCB had a dozen THT parts.
Engnieer 2: They're a totally satignant shop, they only do what they can easily run through their pick'n'place.
During a joint US/Russian air meet, while watching an air display.
Young US pilot: Look at these huge turns, they're not pulling proper G-forces.
Young Russian pilot: Too many colonels. Is same in Russia. Become satignant.