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> Apple does not want to run it's own manufacturing lines, however they have long been known for buying the manufacturing equipment needed for their manufacturi
by bigiain 6y ago
> Apple does not want to run it's own manufacturing lines, however they have long been known for buying the manufacturing equipment needed for their manufacturing partners to make exactly the parts they want in the volume they need.
I vaguely recall a story about them buying a controlling stake and the entire production output of the only company capable of making the machine tools to make the aluminium unibody Macbook cases (and maybe also the laser tooling that punches the holes in them for the status LED t shine through)...
- raihansaputra 6y agoI'm not sure it's the entire output, but AFAIK Apple is the buyer/owner of the largest fleet of high-precision CNC machines (Haas?), solely for the purpose of manufacturing unibody MacBook cases. One time I found the operator's website, a nondescript Taiwanese company that's responsible for all Apple cases. Again this is off the top of my head.
- hop 6y agoBrother and Fanuc CNC machines.
- Someone 6y agohttp://atomicdelights.com/blog/why-your-next-iphone-wont-be-ceramic http://atomicdelights.com/blog/why-your-next-iphone-wont-be-...: “Apple is the world's largest owner of CNC milling machines and swiss style lathes. Rumors are that the number is around 40,000 with about half dedicated to iPhone production. I've seen pictures of one shop with acres of Fanuc Robodrills making iPhones, and that was only one of about a dozen such facilities. Apple is such a huge buyer of a particular kind of mill (BT30 spindle drill-tap centers) that Fanuc, Brother and DMG Mori each have factories dedicated to building machines exclusively for Apple.”