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MSI’s manufacturing facility outside Shenzen, China is massive. Seriously: the complex, which I visited in late May, currently houses approximately 7000 employees, according to the facility’s director. Many of those employees work to produce thousands of motherboards and graphics cards every single day, along with full tower PCs, all-in-ones, and vehicle entertainment products (though we know them as a computer hardware company, MSI makes many other products in China, too).
These pick-and-place machines have thousands of tiny electronic components on those reels in front. The reels are fed into the chamber and slotted into place on the motherboard. All those tiny resistors and other chips scattered across the motherboard are attached in these machines in a very fast automated process.
A close up of a pick-and-place machine, also referred to as a chip shooter. You can read more about the SMT (surface mount technology) process here. You can't see inside, but there's a conveyor belt rolling the through with the motherboards.
The dual wave soldering machine here will essentially cook the components into place, though that's a simplification of the soldering process. Here's an example video of a wave soldering machine in action.
A look at the testing area. After motherboards go through the assembly process, they roll down the line to these stations, where workers plug in components and run diagnostics to ensure there are no issues.
In recent years, MSI has developed some of its own testing tools and procedures to improve its production process. This has helped them test for a wider range of problems and feed the data collected back into R&D, engineering, and operators on the assembly line.
The room above is where many of MSI's products are designed. Concepts, prototypes, and refinements are all sketched out. The product design team goes through many iterations before arriving at a final design. Materials and colors are selected here.
The white board doors slide open to reveal a treasure trove of mockups and prototype designs that didn't make the cut. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to snap photos of the early prototypes.
Here's one of MSI's many anechoic chambers. This one in particular plays hosts to testing of wireless devices. The room is completely void of outside radio frequencies. Step into here, and the signal on your mobile phone drops off completely. If you're ever stuck in here, there's no chance of dialing for help.
With the door closed, we couldn't hear anything from the outside. It was complete silence. Staying in the chamber for any amount of time above five minutes started to make us feel uncomfortable. We were told that if you stay in an anechoic chamber for long enough, you actually can hear the blood flowing through your ears, as well as your own heartbeat.
Above is another smaller anechoic chamber used to test Bluetooth- and Wi-Fi-related devices. For example, a router can be placed inside the box at the end, which is sealed from radio interference. The antennas are connected to the box itself, and the box has antennas on the outside. This ensures exact testing of antenna performance.
