'Brick' Refers to the MacBook Manufacturing Process

[MrCrowbar]

Holy ****, this is some news! Apple had some serious problems with poor case quality. This could mean both more robust laptops and cheaper prices, too. I doubt that this manufacturing process involves more than a handful of humans, once you have the cutting machine set up and the aluminum supply going (cut off material could be re-injected into the furnace), you should be able to put together the whole thing without significant human interaction. I mean, soldering the parts onto the logic board is automated already, having a machine put the board into precisely cut casing and screw it shut should be no problem at all. I'd imagine calbes would disappear too, like the ones running to the fan(s), hard drive port, airport, optical drive... if you do it all onto the board directly (like on the Macbook Air), you save lots of money because there's way less human labor.

People in China will probably lose jobs, but Macbooks will get cheaper. I'm waiting for my broken Macbook to return (they wouldn't fix it under warranty...) so I can sell it on eBay before the news spreads. Guess I can't make a 10 day auction anymore

 

[OllyW]

.....also it doesn't really matter what value the raw material becomes when it has been used because ,as you said ,it will be recycled , and in house too ...another money saver .

Who says they will recycle the aluminium in house? You don't just melt it down and cast it into a new block, it's a fairly complex procedure. The scrap will have to be returned to the aluminium manufacturers to be re-processed.

And of course the value of waste material maters. Say you are paying $5 for a block of aluminium and only $2 of it ends up as part of the finished product and you get $0.75 back for the scrap. That's $2.25 off your profit straight away.

 

[ravenvii]

edit> see above ..beat me to it
true.. but didn't they say recently that the price margins would be falling & also went as far to say profits would be down ?

It isn't cheap to set all of this up. It will probably cut into their profits for a bit. That's probably what Apple meant. Short-term losses for long-term profit. What a concept.

That is, if this all isn't a ruse.

 

[pavelbure]

That makes good sense.

Making it out of solid aluminium blocks would be very expensive. I would think that at least 50% of the raw material would end up as waste material.

And even though the waste material could be re-cycled, the scrap value would be less than 25% of the cost of the raw materials.

the cases are most likely made the same way the body on your car is made. the sheet aluminum goes from one press to the next with each press forming the case slightly more or forming different areas than the previous press. cutting out a cube to make a case is totally impractical and wasteful to a extent. any manufacturing facility putting out a quote with "cutting a cube" taken into account will get creamed.

 

[zarusoba]

Water?

How water intensive do you think it will be?

Will it be drinking quality water?

The world's running out of the stuff.

 

[SandynJosh]

Apple had to start making their own cases, the Chinese were gonna start making them out of Melamine, paint them metallic and call it Aluminum.

 

[bigandy]

It sounds strictly "American" to me. It does not sound Scottish or Irish to me at all.

Being Scottish, and having Mackintosh* blood in me, I would like to point out the history of the name.

Origins of the surname point to Moray near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands, around the year 1160 or so.

*There are a number of spelling variations including Macintosh, McIntosh, MacIntosh etc, all originating from Clan Mackintosh.


Apple's Ireland manufacturing plant builds (the last I heard) desktop Macs destined for European markets.

I've seen a good few PowerMacs and Mac Pros from the Cork plant in the last few years.

I have the same doubts.

The article said Apple's own manufacturing process, meaning Apple was going to be able to produce their laptops using the process they're after rather than using whatever process Foxconn and Quanta was capable of doing, which is essentially putting parts together using really standard techniques that they can use to build computers for Asus, Sony, Dell, etc.

This DOES NOT imply that these laptops will be made in America.

If anything, I expect these laptops to be made in Taiwan or China, but in Apple's own manufacturing plant. It would allow for manufacturing techniques that Apple couldn't get by simply hiring Foxconn and Quanta. Perhaps they want a bit more control over their own destiny, tired of letting someone else be in control of quality control.

I couldn't agree more with you, Abstract.

LL- how many American cars "of lesser quality" have you been driving London. Do you have a petrol pump in your garden, or have you been listening to Jeremy Clarkson (Top Gear)?

I've driven quite a few American made cars, and only one has come up to par with the construction standard we have here. But that's not the point of this thread, is it?

 

[olternaut]

I wonder if the new MacBook and MacBook Pro would still look like this:

I have a feeling now that those aluminum cases in the first pic is really a picture from one of the old cases thats been slightly photoshopped. Could I be right?

 

[marbles]

Who says they will recycle the aluminium in house? You don't just melt it down and cast it into a new block, it's a fairly complex procedure. The scrap will have to be returned to the aluminium manufacturers to be re-processed.

And of course the value of waste material maters. Say you are paying $5 for a block of aluminium and only $2 of it ends up as part of the finished product and you get $0.75 back for the scrap. That's $2.25 off your profit straight away.

fair point , I just presumed they would simply put any metals not used back in 'the furnace' after being cleaned of residues etc ...(not that complex in all fairness).

I realize the value of the metals matters if the recycling is done out of house but if it's not ......


this is a mute point really ....we'll all have to wait and see what really transpires

 

[MrCrowbar]

I understand this implies making the case of just one piece of metal. Imagine a macbook case (without the screen) that only has holes on the top end for the keys and one on the back to attach the display and slide in the logic board and battery. To save space and keep it user servicable, you could slide out the logic board yourself, swap RAM and hard drive, put it back in and off you go.

This is seriously exciting!

 

[puffnstuff]

How water intensive do you think it will be?

Will it be drinking quality water?

The world's running out of the stuff.

Running out? The majority of the earth is water, glaciers are melting, and then there is a little something called rain. If anything we have too much water and we will have to live on barges some day.

 

[OllyW]

the cases are most likely made the same way the body on your car is made. the sheet aluminum goes from one press to the next with each press forming the case slightly more or forming different areas than the previous press. cutting out a cube to make a case is totally impractical and wasteful to a extent. any manufacturing facility putting out a quote with "cutting a cube" taken into account will get creamed.

I know that, that's why I'm trying to argue against it.

I work in the pressed metal industry.

 

[t0mat0]

I wonder what the new monitors are gonna look like.

Interesting line of thought! Is the ACDs going to take on this. Mac Mini? iMac? They could all take aspects of this. Would be interesting to see what Mac ranges this pertains to, whether it's just the laptops, or much much more...

 

[michaelaus]

Do you guys really think Apple would be dumb enough to waste $3 of aluminum per 'brick'? I mean come on, they have obviously thought about this. There's no use bickering about something that is completely based on assumptions.

Btw dude, rain comes from water evaporating, it doesn't just appear magically.

 

[MrCrowbar]

I've driven quite a few American made cars, and only one has come up to par with the construction standard we have here. But that's not the point of this thread, is it?

The old cars were awesome. Until 1980 I guess

In my 7 months in the US, I had about 1 rental car per month. Most of them had serious problems that were unacceptable for my western european standards. I'm talking about bad servo steering (do a quick left-right-left turn of the steering wheel. If it's the same speed as the servo sensor frequency, the steering wheel is blocked until you completely let go of it...), ABS is only mandatory on the rear wheels, where only 1/4 of the braking forces apply, it's too easy to get the car to ride on 2 wheels when avoiding an unforseen obstacle...

On the other side, large back seats are very handy if you can't bring girls home and the remote engine starter is just cool and actually handy to heat up (or cool down) the interior so it's just right when you enter the car. Still, I'm in love with Toyota's starship feeling of hybrid cars, they just glide over the street and are very versatile.

 

[Dias]

Interesting, I'm overexcited now, I can't wait another 10 days...

 

[olternaut]

I am a shareholder (and it has definitely not been phat the past few weeks haha!) and during their last conference call, they specifically referenced a product transition that would lower their margins. They refused to provide any detail about what it was though, just that it would happen during the fourth quarter. THIS is big enough to dent their margins.

Yup. This is the product transition. This is it! This will be a freaking earthquake like announcement to the tech industry when finally confirmed by Steve-o.

 

[olternaut]

Oh, and October the 14th is my birthday. I tell ya.....Apple is such a consumer oriented company that they would actually move their macbook event date to my birthday.

How can you beat that? Thanks Steve!

 

[.Andy]

Yup. This is the product transition. This is it! This is will be a freaking earthquake like announcement to the tech industry when finally confirmed by Steve-o.

I'm not sure it's wise to raise one's expectations so high.

 

[labrats5]

You aren't an engineer, are you?

No, but you don't need to be to have common sense. Bending things create weak spots. Try it yourself. The obvious way to compensate for weak spots is to make the whole sheet thicker, but this wastes material. This manufacturing process removes this problem entirely. put 2 and 2 together.

If you have something constructive to say, you might want to consider becoming an engineer yourself. It's better than being a hater.

 

[marbles]

No, but you don't need to be to have common sense. Bending things create weak spots. Try it yourself. The obvious way to compensate for weak spots is to make the whole sheet thicker, but this wastes material. This manufacturing process removes this problem entirely. put 2 and 2 together.

If you have something constructive to say, you might want to consider becoming an engineer yourself. It's better than being a hater.

I think he was trying to associate with you because of your response , no? ...the guy works in the metal industry , maybe if you read the thread eh

I know that, that's why I'm trying to argue against it.

I work in the pressed metal industry.

 

[olternaut]

I'm not sure it's wise to raise one's expectations so high.

I know...I know. But somehow this seems to fit. This must be what Oppenheimer meant when he said "product transition". Switching manufacturing to a different plant including brand new manufacturing techniques HAS to be the transition.

I wonder if 9to5mac can get any word on what the PA Semi division is up to?

 

[bobertoq]

Running out? The majority of the earth is water, glaciers are melting, and then there is a little something called rain. If anything we have too much water and we will have to live on barges some day.

Exactly! How can we run out of it? It's not like it disappears. I was always told the earth has the same amount of water it had millions of years ago.

Anyways banyways, I bet they will recycle the water. It'd be much cheaper. I wonder if they would recycle the light

 

[kabunaru]

I wonder what the new monitors are gonna look like.

They would probably look like the aluminium iMac, just without the chin.

 

[donga]

what a relief that there's no macbook "brick". hopefully it'll alleviate some of the case problems