When wifi becomes a necessity of life, routers have become an important cornerstone of human civilization. Almost every household has one or N routers working silently. In the face of the existence of routing, which is similar to the "wife of trash", it is estimated that many people will be very curious about their production process.
A few days ago, the author successfully "infiltrated" the production line of 360 Route P1. It was rare for a manufacturer to open the production line for a visit. Curious dogs also took some photos of the process of the routing production line. Because the agent of 360 Route is Leike, we actually visited Leike's factory in Dongguan, the world factory.
PCB production
The first step of route production is SMT (circuit board processing), which is also the most precise and highly automated part of the entire production process. Because the production machine needs a constant temperature and humidity environment, even for a visit, change into anti-static clothes, hats and shoe covers before entering, and pass through the air shower room. If you want to touch the sample, you must also wear anti-static gloves.
As a big village, what is more novel is the shoe cover box. After stepping on it, the shoe covers are put on with a snap.
Take turns to enter the air shower room to remove static electricity and dust.
The production site is quite exaggerated. The 14 parallel production lines and related detection areas are all located in a production building with a large area and constant temperature air conditioning. The scale alone is shocking.
The first step of circuit board processing is to detect every solder joint on the circuit board by an automatic screen printer through optical scanning, and then "print" the circuit board with solder paste.
The printed PCB board will pass through three Yamaha mounters in parallel to complete the mounting of the original microcircuit.
A close-up of the inner part of the mounter, you can vaguely see the circuit board inside.
Tiny circuit components are packaged on a plastic strip similar to a cassette, and then imported into the mounter through a tool called flying shear, and then the mounter "sticks" the components to the preset position of the PCB board. The left side of the plastic belt is the hole for positioning, and the right side is the circuit element of "Xiaofeitian".
After that, the full-automatic reflow welding lathe will complete the patch welding work, and the waste gas generated by the machine welding will be sent out from the pipe straight up to the ceiling.
The welded PCB board shall pass AOI inspection (automatic optical inspection) to check the missing sticking, false soldering, broken wires and other problems of components.
The inspected circuit board is placed on a special shelf for further inspection. Because the PCB of the router is small, the production process is to complete the placement of four routers on one board, and then cut them into four pieces.
The circuit board that has completed the inspection is sealed and waiting to be transported to the next plant.
Large circuit components will also be checked here, Manually put the component into the test instrument with tweezers for testing.
Some components also need to use X-ray detector.
Slogans often seen in factories and schools.
After 14 production lines, there are parts allocation and various inspection areas.
At the last end are workers' cup storage area and water intake area.
The production line also happened to meet another small production line. The equipment that the technician was welding should be a wireless network card.
DIP plug-in
The less mechanized production work was arranged to another workshop, which has 6 plug-in production lines and wave soldering equipment.
Before starting processing, PCB circuit board shall be checked manually for points prone to problems (the circuit board has been coated with insulating paint for protection).
Large capacitance, network cable/power interface and other large and irregular components are manually inserted into the circuit board. The workers' hands wear something similar to an electronic watch, which is used to lead away the static electricity on the human body to prevent the components from being broken down by static electricity.
After the components are in place, the PCB board then enters the wave soldering machine, which is also a fully sealed automatic welding.
After the circuit board comes out, manual inspection and strengthened welding shall be carried out immediately.
The worker carried out the power on test, and there was actually a power line under the technician's right hand (which was just blocked by dislocation). Its hand speed is very fast, one hand is inserted into the power interface, and the power lamp of the machine lights up to prove that the circuit board can be powered on normally.
There is also a "performance appraisal tree" for workers on the workshop site, which is fresh but primitive in shape. I wonder if anyone will change it manually with a pen? (￣_,￣ )
In the process of transferring to the last production plant, we will pass through the warehouse. There are various slogans and requirements on the wall. We also saw that Leike (the agent of 360 Route) has packaged its products ready for shipment.
Testing and assembly
The circuit board that completed the previous process is transported to another workshop hundreds of meters away for the next IQF test (wireless WIFI, network RF signal and other network tests) and final assembly.
The test instrument is connected to the circuit board through the thimble for power on detection and firmware burning.
After that, the machine is put into a special shielding box for wireless power test, adjust the transmission power of the wireless chip, and write the transmission frequency value into the chip. The processing process of this circuit board is basically completed.
Workers assemble heavy blocks for the housing base.
Install the antenna.
This is a network picture
The legendary patented "PCB+brass vibrator" antenna has been produced in other factories, and only the finished antenna can be seen here.
The circuit board is pasted with a heat dissipation silicone pad and a heat dissipation pad, and "flows" on the conveyor belt of the production line together with the assembled base.
Feeder pad, with network picture on it
Like many peers, the two antennas still need manual welding. The legendary patent has been used in this process to enhance stability.
After closing the front characteristic aluminum alloy plate.
After the assembly is completed, enter the wireless shielding instrument for running test and signal conditioning.
Finally, the high voltage and thrust test of the whole machine power supply is carried out. Various component parameters (mainly used to test inductance, capacitance and resistance) are measured through the LCR detector "body check".
The rest is the packaging work. The workers here fold the packaging carton on the site, while the workers on the opposite side are sticking labels and films.
Put a lot of produced power adapters into the packaging box one by one.
The box cover is too plastic. After packing, the route can wait for shipment.
summary
Routers are basically not broken, and they have been used for several years. They really have no sense of existence, but there are some surprises during the visit. First of all, even domestic manufacturers such as Leike need a lot of manual operation in their production process, which is in sharp contrast to the production of PCB boards with extremely high degree of automation.
Secondly, Qiduo's inspection project, despite the conscience of the manufacturer, is actually a way to save costs. After all, the inspection of each component, even each processing step, can prevent subsequent processing resources from being wasted on inferior products.
Of course, the most impressive feeling is that Party A with its own factory is really rich
