With the launch of the iPhone 8, the Apple industry chain automation equipment market is also welcoming demand
In response to the mass production of the iPhone8, Apple's procurement demand for automation equipment has increased significantly (close to doubling year-on-year). It is estimated that from the beginning of the iPhone8, Apple will have more changes in mobile phones, and it is expected to be related to automation in the next two to three years. Equipment is old.
Laser technology is increasingly used in the smart phone industry, including laser marking, laser cutting, surface treatment and PCB processing. The equipment application market has increased by more than 40% annually.
The mass production of the iPhone8 will drive the rapid development of the domestic OLED industry. OLED is a major trend for LCD replacement, and the related automation equipment (such as rear channel module equipment, curved screen inspection equipment, and hot bending machine) has great market potential. Many domestic enterprises are trial-making hot bending machines, and the yield needs to be improved. It is expected that the future hot bending machine market will be significantly larger than the fine carving machine.
At present, the metal shell is still the mainstream in the next few years, and it is difficult to be completely replaced by glass or ceramic backsheet. Even if some models use glass or ceramic back plates, metal frame is still needed, and the processing requirements are significantly higher than that of metal shells. The demand for CNC related equipment will remain high in the future.
70% of the production capacity of smartphones has been transferred to mainland China, in large part because many jobs cannot be automated. At present, there is still a lot of labor in the assembly and test sections, and the automation demand is very strong. For example, the CNC robot loading and unloading market is very large.
Application of laser in mobile phone industry chain
Smartphones are now more and more widely used and more convenient. The structure of the smartphone is probably a PCB motherboard, camera, battery, top cover, antenna, bottom cover and so on. Look closely, there are chargers, headphones, all need a lot of laser processing equipment.
(1) Laser marking
Nowadays, there are very fine marking LOGOs on consumer electronics products, as well as the standard parameters. Currently, they are all done with laser, which is very clear. For example, this kind of aluminum-magnesium alloy, in addition to the laser can also mark on the leather, the effect is very good.
(2) Laser cutting
The laser can not only print a variety of marks, but also cut. Plastic molds, there will be some distribution lines, very fine burrs, it is very convenient to use laser, and it is very accurate.
(3) Surface treatment
The product can produce different colors or contrasts through different laser parameters, such as the logo on the metal surface, and can also display various logos on the paint and plastic. The color depth can be adjusted by laser parameters. This is a color laser engraving, which can produce a lot of colored hollow on a specific material. For example, it can be blue and purple on stainless steel, because the local temperature of the laser is well controlled, blue or black appears in a few Baidu cases. , you can control the laser parameters to adjust the color change.
(4) mobile phone camera processing
Because the pixels are getting higher and higher, more and more fine, and smaller, so it is difficult to operate by hand. Many places need laser to do it, such as the decorative line of the lens. Especially sapphire, because sapphire is very hard, second only to diamond, grinding with diamond is very fast and the cost is very high, so now it is laser processing. At present, the processing technology of this product is very mature, and laser can be used in large quantities. Come and do it.
(5) Mobile phone circuit board processing
For example, some surfaces are electrically conductive to make them non-conductive, non-conductive to be conductive, and easy to process by laser. There are also stickers on the PCB board, the paper strips often fall off, sometimes when the temperature is too high, if the price of high temperature tape is higher. Now the laser marking effect is very good. It can be marked before the motherboard comes in. It is equivalent to giving an ID number. Which boards are bad during the operation, and which board has any problems can be recorded and tracked.
(6) In addition, the laser can also treat various films and surfaces to increase wear resistance.
Laser market growth rate
There is no exact number of capacity in the entire market, but the increase is very large, and the laser market has an annual growth rate of 40%. Production is increasing every year, but prices are also falling.
Localization of laser generator
At present, domestically produced laser generators are still concentrated in the low-end field, and high-end, high-power equipment is mainly dependent on imports.
Smartphone assembly test
>>>>Assembly part
Each module of the phone is basically standardized. From front to back, from the outer casing, to the outer frame, to the lithium battery, to the LCD backlight module, the glass cover above, and some key components, like the camera, the back end, such as laser with a logo on the back, to the factory paste The film, to the key screw lock inside, to the waterproof performance test, to the microphone, battery module assembly, to the camera assembly, to the welding of some accessories, to the side button, home button installation, to the front cover film press The whole constitutes a smartphone assembly process.
>>>>Test section
In fact, any part of the test part is crucial because it is directly related to quality. There are many tests that are process tests and terminal tests. Everyone is very familiar with mobile terminal testing, there are MMI tests, in fact, there are many parts, such as audio, RF, etc., as well as the appearance of the size of the test, it will affect the overall texture, waterproof performance, and flatness. There are also LCD lighting, there are spots, there are dark spots, these need to be tested.
>>>>Key core components
The first is the glass panel. At present, the glass panel of the smartphone has gradually evolved from 2.5D to 3D. The direct demand for 3D glass is the hot bending machine, the five-axis engraving machine, and the 2.5D and 3D inspection equipment. It will be very hot.
The second is LCD and OLED. What is the biggest difference between LCD and OLED? The LCD back light source module is labeled, and the OLED is self-illuminating. OLED will inevitably replace LCD, which is a big trend.
The third is PCBA and FPC. In fact, there is a long process between the two. Nowadays, many mobile phones are mostly FPC soft boards, and there are PCBA before. In fact, their process, the front-end chemical process is very complicated, in fact, the automation equipment that can be done is just loading and unloading, or the transshipment, the automation of the SMT segment of the back end, the demand for standard equipment and auxiliary loading and unloading. bigger.
There is also a key device called PSA, called soft board attachment equipment, which will be a very hot demand behind, as well as dispensing, baking, laser cutting, and inspection equipment. The testing equipment mainly detects the golden finger, and there are some warping. The more important thing is that the cockroach needs to be detected. Now it is still used by a large number of people for re-detection. The follow-up may be a relatively large demand point in this piece.
The fourth is the lithium battery. Is there any innovation behind the lithium battery? In fact, it will continue to be innovated, and the battery life has always been a short board of mobile phones. The back like graphene may be a direction. In fact, it is related to new energy sources of automobiles. Like the next generation of fuel cells, many of them are used in automobiles. There is no difference between the power battery and the lithium battery of the mobile phone, that is, the size is different. Like the traditional 18650 battery, the lithium battery pack will be replaced later. Nowadays, many lithium battery packs are large, and they are the same as the mobile phone battery. They are packaged one layer at a time, and the ear soldering is actually the same.
The fifth is the casing, which is now an aluminum alloy. It needs to use CNC, surface treatment, anodizing, sand blasting, and even with certain tests. CNC loading and unloading, in recent years, the comparison of the fire like Changying Precision, in fact, their demand for CNC loading and unloading has been soaring. Changying Precision even set up a subsidiary to specialize in automation, and the amount of the robot's loading and unloading is done. In fact, this piece can produce quantity. I think that the case of the case, the 3D glass back cover has to be completely replaced, there is still a process. Everyone should have the impression that the iPhone 4, 4s series appeared in the Steve Jobs era, and its back cover was made of glass, but the back was changed to aluminum.
>>>>Key Process
According to the process, it can be divided into assembly sections, core component segments, and detection sections.
As for the assembly section, including dispensing, precision mounting, pre-installation, and precision press-fit, lock screws, these will be mass-produced.
The core components include SMT, PSA, laser cutting, marking, welding, as well as automatic loading and unloading, polishing, polishing, engraving, hot bending and other equipment. The core components are also assembled with a relatively small module. For example, the camera module is similar to the assembly line.
The detection segment is actually a dimensional measurement, including flatness, step, gap, and flaw detection; it also includes performance testing, including RF, audio, and MMI, all of which require specialized meters to detect.
>>>>About the glass back and back of the phone
Unless it is similar to LCD and OLED, or when the previous incandescent lamp was replaced by LED light, one thing has an absolute advantage over the other and will be replaced. If the two sides have an advantage, or the advantage is not obvious, it will be partially replaced. Unless a certain material is needed in the future when it is combined with wireless charging or various technologies, there will be an inevitable trend, so I think it should be in these categories in the short term. In the short term, metal shells are still mainstream, because from the perspective of the entire industry, the industry chain can not change so fast.
Smart phone production line automation integration
>>>>Mobile phone production line automation is the trend
At present, 70% of the world's electronic products are manufactured in China. At present, in the whole mobile phone industry or 3C industry, 90% of the entire manufacturing process is mainly based on manual operation, which means that the space for intelligent transformation in the future is very huge.
For the mobile phone industry, first of all, the mobile phone is divided into four major blocks: the first one is the pre-process, which is the processing of the shell material, the plastic material, and the metal material, such as the CNC machining of the middle frame, and the polishing and polishing process; There are quality automation, such as the size detection of the card slot and the HOME button, as well as spraying, including some steps of assembly and testing of the PC board, which is more through the automation project on the automation company surrounding the mobile phone industry chain.
The second one is more in mobile phone manufacturers, such as Apple's foundry, there will be mid-stage assembly and testing, which is where the public is more focused, and in this industry, the entire industry chain adds up to 80% of the labor force. .
Finally, the packaging of the back channel, the finished product, including the MMI test just mentioned, after the QR code is written, will immediately enter the packaging, and then the packing code.
Four large blocks - pre-process, assembly, testing and post-packaging, the former process may account for 10% of the employees, the assembly accounted for 60%, the test accounted for 20%, and the packaging accounted for 10%. According to the distribution of labor, from the perspective of staff reduction and efficiency, it is a very large direction to solve the application of assembly and testing.
>>>>New requirements for mobile phone production line
First of all, the first one is a small batch and a variety of high frequency, requiring a highly flexible production line. For example, if Apple wants to launch a new mobile phone, there may be three series, one hundred production lines meet the production of three series, but this one hundred production lines must be able to produce these three products at the same time. This requires the entire device to be compatible with all of its range of products.
The second is that the device has a depreciation cycle. At present, the entire industry usually has a level of about 3 to 5 years. The production cycle of mobile phones is relatively short, Apple is about a 12-month cycle, and many domestic ones only have an eight-month cycle. The product life cycle of the mobile phone and the depreciation period of the online device are not equal, which means that the mobile phone production line will produce several generations of mobile phone products. Here, there is a very important parameter called device reusability. If you spend 20 million to invest in an iPhone7 production line in two months, after the iPhone 8 comes out, you only need one more investment. This re-investment is to see how much the device can be reused. At present, the whole industry is usually non-standard, which can only reach about 30%. If the equipment can be reused 80%-90%, there are many opportunities here.
The third is the issue of return on investment, which is how long it takes to recover costs. According to the range that non-Apple customers can accept, it is about one and a half to two years.
>>>>Assembly, test segment profit level is high
I just said that the entire mobile phone industry is divided into four major segments. In the assembly and test segments, the technical threshold is higher than the business model, and the payment terms and profit margins are also very high.
Metal drilling machine
>>>>Mobile metal case is still mainstream in the next few years
To do metal processing, there is a heavy asset investment, which is the investment of mechanical equipment. There are many mechanical equipments, one is the drilling and tapping machine, mainly doing some drilling, and milling some inner cavities, including the outer side, to make a metal mobile phone case into a finished product, mainly to do such a process.
In my opinion, the metal phone case is still a big trend in the market, and the glass and ceramic case still take a long period of time to occupy the market. At that time, Apple laid out three to four years in the entire metal processing field, and then the injection molding was killed overnight, so if it is now all glass or ceramic, it will take a cycle. Therefore, one expectation of the future of metal processing, there is a cycle of three to five years, and it will take three years to predict the next three years.
>>>>Metal shell CNC machining is a heavy asset
Now Foxconn has 150,000 CNCs. Then BYD has nearly 40,000 CNCs. Even if a CNC has 250,000 yuan, this is a very large foundation of heavy asset investment. The threshold is very high, to what extent? Now I have to cooperate with these manufacturers, and the order is at least 500 CNCs before I can receive his second-hand orders. What is the concept of these 500 units? That is to say, if you invest at least 1.25 billion yuan in heavy assets, 125 million yuan may not be able to turn around, and some other packages may be needed, including some other equipment assistance, personnel and the like.
Automated assembly has always been a headache for manufacturers in this industry. The unit price of the product is getting lower and lower, the labor cost is getting higher and higher, and every manufacturer is thinking about using automation. How to solve this 24-hour non-stop operation, high efficiency and non-stop, unmanned workshops, intelligent workshops. Foxconn, BYD, and Huamao, both of which are doing full-process, are considering using automation solutions to solve the most typical problem of loading and unloading in this industry. Nowadays, there are still manual solutions for loading and unloading. It may be considered to use horizontal robots, semi-automatic, non-standard, and six-joint robots, all of which will be considered.
However, this industry has its own particularities, including its wide variety of products. The design of each manufacturer's products is not the same. There are no rules, standards, long looks, different sizes, and automation of products. The overall connection requirements are very high; and the switching cycle is very short. It is possible that one product will go offline within two months and three months. My automation can not match, which is a very high requirement for automation.
>>>>About the glass back of the iPhone8
The back of the iPhone8 is also a glass cover, and the middle frame is still there. The amount of cut may be reduced, but it won't be said no. The price of the middle frame relative to the metal shell may not go down, and the unit price may be higher because the requirements are higher and more precise, the requirements for the entire assembly line are higher, and the material may be better. When the material is better, the requirements for cutting are higher, so the unit price is definitely not calculated according to the current aluminum. Cutting aluminum and cutting stainless steel and titanium alloy are completely different. The knife I use may not be very good. same.
If 3D glass panels are used, in fact, the manufacturers are not pursuing with the engraving machine, but try to shorten the processing capacity in the back section. The glass molding machine is used for one-time molding. After bending, cutting and grinding, 90% is already finished. .
The hot bending machine is very difficult to do, and the cost of the machine is very high, unlike the drilling and attacking machine of 200,000 yuan, one for four or five million, the cost of light needs more than two million, and you must sell you four. five million. At present, only a few companies in South Korea that supply Samsung can do well, and many domestic companies only have a 30% yield. Any brand will do one, but not all models will be made into 3D glass. Because there is a market acceptance level, a process is needed, and if all the products are cut into glass, the market can't be made in large quantities, and it is impossible to make a mobile phone. The order was taken back and could not be made. In terms of the entire layout, we have not seen which one is in the large-scale glass forming machine and glass carving machine. There are listed companies including some large companies that are laid out on a small scale.
Dispensing expert
Dispensing is a verb, also a noun, which is to apply glue to the workpiece, which is called dispensing. Dispensing nouns, usually the dispenser is a device. Dispensing this process is also called filling, gluing and dispensing. This glue refers to a fluid, a paste or a powder, as long as it is flowing, it is collectively called a dispensing.
The role of glue is mainly in bonding, potting, bonding, fixing, surface treatment, waterproof, heat conduction, conductive, etc., which is the most widely used in the electronics industry. From the electronics industry, there are many, from the electronics to the various shells, plastics and metal bonding, and later extended to the lighting, LED.
Dispensing was first done manually when there was no equipment. The control of the amount and position was not enough. It slowly extended to semi-automatic dispensing. The amount and path of dispensing were controlled, and the robot was fully automated. Use robots to smear and then rise to the current dispensing line, smart factory.
Dispensing the dispensing can be understood as a bonding process. Originally it was assembled by snapping, riveting, welding, and screwing, so Nokia can make a brick. Why do you want to make bricks? Because there was no bonding process at the time, it could only be done by snapping or riveting. There is no use of thermal silica gel, so the heat dissipation module is made very large to avoid overheating of the mobile phone circuit board. Nowadays, the application of chemical glue is becoming more and more widespread, so that the application of the bonding process is becoming more and more mature. Why is the mobile phone originally made of plastic parts, now with metal? Because the metal and circuit board electrical components, after applying thermal grease, can directly dissipate heat through the casing, solving the original heat dissipation problem. You can see that there is a large aluminum heat sink behind the computer fan. Now, through the glue, the surface of the shell can be directly dissipated. The glue process can be used to make the bonding process. You can see that the wearable device is flexible, parabolic OLED, and the future screen can be attached to the wall. Why can it be done? Because the research and development of chemical materials is getting faster and faster, it is possible to directly attach the products with glue to make them wearable and flexible.
The dispenser can be understood in this way, one is the industrial robot for the trajectory movement, and the other is the dispensing valve, which is the flow control of the glue. The valve is a switch, there are many kinds of valves, there are needle valve, rotary valve, ball valve. The screw valve is pumped out with a screw pump for closed loop flow control. Usually the most done in the industry is to use the constant pressure and constant current mode to make the glue, and the easiest to homogenize. It is done by the individual, so the homogenizer of the constant pressure constant flow in the dispenser section is relatively homogenized. . The servo pressure device not only uses constant voltage and constant current, but also uses position control. It has a closed loop control for the glue that is introduced. If the push is not accurate, the hose will be exploded and the dispensing is not accurate. At present, the domestic screw valves are relatively inferior, and they are all used abroad for the micro-precision dispensing, which is output by means of metering after the screw is rotated. The metering valve has a piston, which is a volumetric pump. The platen pump is usually used in high-viscosity glue, such as glass glue, which cannot be pressed by the air pressure and the general pressurization method. Then it is pressed out by the booster pump, and the switch of the valve is used to control the switch of the glue. Through the control of the flow, the glue is applied to the workpiece through the movement of the robot, and the entire dispensing process is completed.
The online dispenser refers to fully automatic, the offline refers to semi-automatic, and the desktop is understood to be more economical and simple. This is some of our current products. As mentioned earlier, the application industry of dispensers is relatively wide, and the demand is very large. At present, there are thousands of domestic sales and production companies in the industry. But now the industry has also had problems, that is, customers are more and more concentrated, the mobile phone industry is just a few, and there are so many black and white home appliances, including around the mobile phone industry, the entire supply chain of the 3C industry is so few, so we Customers are becoming more concentrated, and the low-end market is becoming more and more competitive, so we are now working hard to develop some products with higher technology added value.
The domestic dispenser market is about five or six thousand per month, and the average price per unit should be more than 100,000 yuan, of which there are also one or two thousand and four hundred thousand. The domestic market has a scale of more than 20 billion yuan. Now, there will be no more than 10 companies with a revenue of one or two hundred million yuan. There are many enterprises with a revenue of around 20 million yuan.
Transfer from: SMT headline
