Apple shows us the amazing process of making the Mac Pro | Hacker News Reader

Apple shows us the amazing process of making the Mac Pro

guru8.net

12 pointsmboses24 comments

The manufacturing processes shown in the video have been commonplace for 25 or more years. Amazing, no. Interesting to those who are not familiar with manufacturing automation, perhaps.

If the general public thinks that video is amazing, then perhaps the general public has no idea how advanced the manufacturing sector really is.

Of course the general public has no idea how advanced the manufacturing sector really is.

I doubt anybody would know how advanced every sector is. Innovation has been increasing at a pretty dramatic pace over the last 100 years.

> the general public has no idea how advanced the manufacturing sector really is.

I feel this is likely. I know of no-other company that regularly releases videos (or marketing material) of how its products are made.

yes, i have "no idea how advanced the manufacturing sector really is". i can only imagine. it's just not my profession.

but the point here is, i think, that the vast majority of people (including myself) take it for granted. we don't really care about how the iphone's made but when we have the chance to actually see automated manufacturing we are (or at least i am) completely amazed by what we as humans are able to do with materials coming out of bricks of stone from below earth surface. i'm amazed that people invent machinery so acurate and precise creating clear, polished surfaces for the end product. pressing metall into a desired form. creating glass to be bend and scratched like crazy.

i could stand at a production line and watch that stuff all day.

Eh. This product designer thinks otherwise: http://atomicdelights.com/blog/how-apple-makes-the-mac-pro

From 1979-1984, I programmed and operated NC & CNC lathes and milling machines that made parts far more complex and precise that what they are showing. One of our customers was the beer bottling industry.

In the period from 1984-89 I watched pick & place circuit board assembly, pick & place robotics, robotic polishers, robotic bead blasters and spray painters operate in local machine shops, automotive plants and electronics manufactures.

I've never worked in a shop that punched out cylinders, but I'm sure that the process they are using for punching out the cylinder from a block of aluminum is how beer cans get made.

It's not amazing.

You may well be right, but I think the key claim is this:

"Most metal stampings go through one or two die tools to produce the final shape. With the Mac Pro though, the challenge is to produce a massive amount of plastic deformation without tearing, rippling or deforming the perfect cylindrical surface."

and, below the figure:

"The results of the first (of between 4 and 5) deep draw stamping operations. Notice how the Mac Pro part is nowhere near the final length."

As I'm sure you know, there's a big difference between a single-use aluminium can, which is both small and thin, and a large part like this, which has to have both structural stability, very high dimensional tolerances, and a good surface finish. That said, you obviously know more about this than I do, so maybe you can comment on the quotes from the article?

I'm not an expert, but if they are simply swaging the tubes out until correct length is met, it's not amazing.

If the deep drawn stampings were so precise, why are they machining the surfaces after they are stamped? ;)

The processes in and of itself aren't amazing, I think what's amazing is the scale that Apple operates on. Not many other PC manufacturers use CNC milling as extensively as Apple. Here's an interesting video with Jony Ive talking about the process: http://youtu.be/nUHROAtyGIg?t=2m29s

It looks amazing and like sci-fi to me; a general public perspective, apparently :)

The making of the fancy, hip Mac Pro is really-really simple compared to a much less fashionable Korean car. Except Hyundai users usually don't spend their time watching videos on car manufacturing. :)

Sometimes, however, simple things can require a lot of expertise: during the '90s, many jet builders went to Shimano and Campagnolo and sought help in manufacturing small, but reliable metal parts for airplanes as the bicycle part industry was quite ahead in this field.

Video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbWOQWw1wkM

The site is just a container for ads.

The video is an advert.

Still looks like a small dustbin.

That and the dust bunny acquisition system...sorry bottom drawing fan inlet.

Not pictured: The factories in china that make most of the parts.

It's mainly amazing because in the US it's cheaper to have a $75k robot do a job than a human.

And less error prone, no need for training, no need for downtime.

I promise you, even if the actual cost of the machine were the same as a worker every month, you would always choose the machine.

Sorry, humans are just really crap at automated tasks.

Not just in USA, but in most "developed" countries. Robots are usually also more accurate and make fewer mistakes.

It's more that robots can do tasks with unrivalled precision at temperature/pressure extremes that would kill a human.

OTOH, in the US, you use a robot arm to load a piece into an automated machine. In China, you use a person.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2043026/foxconn-to-speed-up-r...

Or, you know, you use a robot.

How is that amazing?

I mean it looks amazing in the video, because robots and automated manufacturing are more impressive looking than people doing the same jobs.

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