Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Tuesday January 29 2019, @11:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the screwed! dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

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.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday January 30 2019, @02:28PM (1 child)

    by ElizabethGreene (6748) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 30 2019, @02:28PM (#794053) Journal

    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?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by Rich on Wednesday January 30 2019, @03:42PM

    by Rich (945) on Wednesday January 30 2019, @03:42PM (#794084) Journal

    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.