Inside the factory, station by station

The SMT floor places and solders parts onto your boards. Each line runs paste printing, placement, reflow and inspection in one flow. The same lines handle a short prototype run and a production batch with the same process settings, so what you learn on early builds holds in volume. The floor has 8 automated SMT lines with automated changeover, and the high-speed lines place up to 150,000 components per hour, down to 01005 parts. 3D solder paste inspection checks every board before a part is placed, so a paste defect is found while it costs little to fix. Nitrogen-capable reflow ovens run a thermal profile set for each assembly. Every reel is scanned at the line, so each board carries a full parts history from reel to finished unit. When a part goes short, that history shows which boards used which lot.

The lab tests your units and writes the results into the stage report you receive. Quality engineers run failure analysis, stress tests and functional checks. 3D AOI checks the solder joints on every board, and X-ray checks the hidden joints under BGA and QFN parts on the advanced route. In-circuit and functional testers run on fixtures built for your product, and 30+ ICT/FCT test stations work in the factory. At PVT the stations run the production test firmware, and results are kept for each unit by serial number. Environmental chambers apply heat, cold, humidity, vibration and drop to find field failures before your users do. The factory holds ISO 9001, ISO 13485, IATF 16949, AS9100 and ISO 14001, and the lab keeps the records those audits ask for.

The molding floor takes a part from CAD to first shot in the same building. The in-house tool room sits next to the 30+ injection molding presses, so a mold change does not leave the site either. The presses run small inner parts and large outer housings in ABS, PC, TPE, nylon and engineering resins, chosen with your engineer for strength, heat and finish. The tool room builds and maintains steel molds, and production molds are cut after DVT closes the design, so steel is cut once. Ultrasonic welding, pad printing, heat staking and EMI shielding finish the housing before it goes to box build.

Box build joins boards, parts and cables into a finished product. Each station is set up for one product, with digital work instructions and quality checks built into the flow. Technicians route harnesses and build cable assemblies, load the firmware, set the product settings and pair the radios. Every unit gets a full system test before packing, then serialization, labels and retail packaging. This is where firmware meets the finished unit for the first time in volume, so the test station checks the firmware release against the one recorded on the golden sample.

Every part is stored and issued by barcode, and each reel is logged when it leaves for a line. The store holds everything from a single resistor to a processor under temperature, humidity and ESD control. Moisture-sensitive parts are handled to J-STD-033, with bake ovens and sealed barrier bags. The inventory system enforces first in, first out. Parts come from 350 audited suppliers, and buffer stock and end-of-life planning are agreed with your team before production starts.

The clean room runs the assembly steps that dust would spoil. It is an ISO 7 (Class 10,000) room inside the Shenzhen factory, and staff enter it gowned. Your engineer decides during the DFM review which steps of your product need it, so clean assembly is planned into the process rather than added late. If your product needs it, ask to see the room on a visit.