How a mobo is made [video]

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Kharn

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I have just found this on youtube and thought it was VERY interesting to see how much work goes into creating a mobo from the PCB up, much more manual labor than I thought with the through board components mostly added by hand (USB ports, Ethernet ports, PCI-E slots, etc), and although it's only quickly shown the quality control area is manual for alot of the solder joints etc.

It's about 10 minutes long and in English, but I will warn you that the guy's who recorded it are French and sometimes the odd word is not pronounced 100% correctly but it's still more than understandable.
 
That high-speed chip-placer was just insane. Videos like this always fascinates me. They make it look so effortless yet very complex. It's also interesting how the machines that are making these modern motherboards look like they're from the 80s with that infamous beige.

MoM, they showed different models during the video but mostly for the G31M-ES2L and X58A-UD3R.
 
Strangely, I don't understand why they don't do what Hitachi does... Even the LARGE components like ports/caps/slots are ALL added by machine, workers just load several dozen trays an hour to feed the automated machines...

Plus, for SOME reason, I feel they don't show that it's really only machines that make the boards, as that's how most all motherboards are made for everything, unless it comes to a ridiculously sized capacitor or something way too strange in shape/size for a machine to efficiently handle. Most factories refuse to ever let people see fully automated processes, as most every factory uses different methods/machines to get there product efficiently and it is considered a "trade secret" -.-

Yes, I know this, because I have worked in quiet a few factories here in the states that actually manufacture motherboards, though, none where for a typical PC, almost always for car computers or highly proprietary systems that run factory machines.

Just some interesting things I learned while working in a factory that used VERY similar solder paste machines, and SMD (though the ones in the video are actually rather old). The solder paste machine almost always goes down twice a week, in all the factories I have worked in, it's far more complicated than what the video shows, FAR more. Also, the solder paste must never be warm, it has to stay around 28-34F for it to actually work, other wise it's too liquid like, and the machine goes down for god knows how long.

Also, factories that use these machines don't spend any money what so ever on backup power systems to keep the machines going, it's not because of the HUGE power draw that the wave solder machine pulls, it's because even a brown-out will cause ALL the machines to forget it's programming. This is why most factories employ there own sub-station, to try and get power as stable as possible, took three days for someone to reprogram the 18 machines that produced a SINGLE motherboard design, and I worked those 3 days, packing tray upon tray of components. Normally at one factory on a bad day we pushed 100 boards an hour, that cost around $1200 EACH, on a GOOD day, around 600 an hour, on one line, out of several lines.

Was really funny seeing a guy that loads SMD chips into the SMD machine come back with a for the most party, empty reel, that was the wrong part, (why the machine accepted it as the right part upon scan, which is prior to splicing the new into the old, still hasn't been figured out, it's a safeguard in the machine programming) each board used 3 of that capacitor, there was 10k on that reel, you do the math on how many boards was rejected because one person loaded the wrong part, and how much money Hitachi and Nissan lost.

I noticed in the video, virtually everything is capable of being placed by the newer SMD machines, why they don't purchase one of those, and get rid of the dozens of employees is beyond me, guess it's because the labor is SOOO cheap.


I never in my life, will work in one of those factories again if I have to load solder to the wave soldering machine, a single box weighed at 100 pounds, and that was for 6 bars of solder, we had to use a forklift to carry a pallet that looked like NOTHING (had like 12 boxes on it) from the first floor, upto the second floor where the control unit was. xD Never had I thought how much grunt work it was to work in such a place, and be paid min wage, while people ON the line that basically did NOTHING except press a button once in a blue moon was paid $30 an hour... Probably why they used a mostly fully automated system....
 
@ MoM - it's a genric vid, not following a single board from etch to ship.

@ b1gapl - Yea that freaks me out, I know it's done but damn it's freakey. to see it done.

@ c0ro0sive - I think it's more a case of keeping what works going as long as you can, I know some places that still use DEC equipment because it works really really well, some places always lag behind technology wise but have fantastic quality. Hell the oldest PC mag I own has a bit about checking your new 486 board for soldering machine defects or crappy solder joints, thats from December 1990.

I am just shocked that there is still placement carried out by people at all, I could understand for small shop's that do limited runs OR really high detailed work for stuff that MUST WORK. Hell I have seen a vid from China on a ebay auction for a Arduino that used a machine for placing components and the solder work, and that's on a small scale hobby PCB, the QA was still done by hand.

But I still feel it's a interesting video.
 
It is interesting, but from a very high production stand point... It is a waste of money/labor to have that many people on a line, then again, maybe that's why America has crap employment, everything is automated xD
 
Good and crap comes out of every place, That's why I am 100% sure the human body was designed by a civil engineer because only they could put the fun park right next to the sewage outlet.
 
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