Explosion Reported at Foxconn's iPad Production Plant in Chengdu, China [Updated]

[RalfTheDog]

I know Apple will take care of those injured and I am also sure they will contribute to the families of those who died. I hope the workers are paid while they wait for the plant to come back online and I hope the new facility is safer and has better conditions.

Corporate espionage happens. To think it doesn't is being naive. This probably isn't it because it normally doesn't happen on this kind of manor, but it does happen.

This is not the action of a competitor. The potential risk of getting caught is great. The total damage to production is trivial.

Insurance motivated?

No. You do insurance fraud when your factory is not making money. They are making money faster than they can find places to put it.

Sooooooooo....

Didn't expect to see a headline like "dust explosion in electronics manufacturing plant". I guess all that hype about clean rooms and keeping particulates out of components during their manufacture is just a bunch of hollywood movie myth.

Wait, if you shake your iPad does it erase the screen? Maybe all that dust in there has a purpose.

Anyway, sucks to be a line worker in China, explosions or not.

Chip manufacturers, hard drive makers and to a lesser extent PCB makers need clean rooms, assemblers don't need to worry about dust to the same degree. It might very well have been a dust removal system that exploded. It could have been an industrial hot water heater. It is too early to know what the cause of the explosion was.

Despite these comments have received negative numbers, they should be stripped of their logo under their name. This may be the downfall of Apple. Shouldnt really joke about that.

This will have no long term effect on Apple.

 

[blow45]

While the potential human toll is obviously the primary concern at this time, it is also unclear just how much of an effect the incident may have on Foxconn's iPad production capabilities.

The main page article is disgusting, to say the least.

 

[Born Again]

We should see a statement by apple in a matter of minutes

We may all be indirectly responsible.

'We want our iPads 2' - well lets overwork these machines without doing the proper maintenance or safety checks.

 

[LondonCentral]

Apple, build a new plant in the US! Some southern right to work state! We just moved productions of our sprinkle heads to Alabama from China. We are saving 5 percent because of this!! Quality is better too!!

Random question;

Take two 100% identical products; one's stamped 'Made in America' (or USA) and another stamped 'Made in China'...

Globally speaking, rightly or wrongly (the why's don't matter here), which do you think would sell more?

Also, which country has the cheaper, more efficient transport infrastructure, allowing it to ship to anywhere in the world at the lowest cost possible?

Just wondering.

 

[gkarris]

We should see a statement by apple in a matter of minutes

We may all be indirectly responsible.

'We want our iPads 2' - well lets overwork these machines without doing the proper maintenance or safety checks.

Maybe in China with no labor safety laws has something to do with it...

 

[Born Again]

Maybe in China with no labor safety laws has something to do with it...

Maybe corners were cut. Let's wait for the truthful Chinese investigation

I can't imagine these sophisticated machines would be completely at fault.

My guess is human error. We shall see


In the meantime I heard the families of the victims were given store credit.

 

[rolfbert]

Apple, build a new plant in the US! Some southern right to work state! We just moved productions of our sprinkle heads to Alabama from China. We are saving 5 percent because of this!! Quality is better too!!

As soon as the US economy is weak enough that wages of 5$ per day become acceptable no doubt apple will come back.

 

[carlgo]

Man, just put the manufacturing plants in America and pay $5000 for an iMac.

Wow, impressively fast response by the Foxcon support team. They must have posters on duty 24/7 just in case.

Wonder what the response will be when it is determined that windows were closed to prevent escapes or to save on heating and cooling...oh, I know: Foxcon was trying to save the planet by not letting pollutants outside. And iPhones will cost $3000 if made in Alabama...

 

[Gasu E.]

I thought this at first, but then I remembered this is MacRumors, and this story was posted as it pertains to Apple, so all angles are considered - not just harm to people, but harm to production. It might seem heartless, but it is the point of the site.

Actually, production matters for totally humane reasons. A lot of people will lose their jobs if iPad production stops for a significant length of time, not necessarily in manufacturing, but certainly in logistics and retail.

If you don't think job loss matters, try explaining this to the impacted families.

 

[RalfTheDog]

Random question;

Take two 100% identical products; one's stamped 'Made in America' (or USA) and another stamped 'Made in China'...

Globally speaking, rightly or wrongly (the why's don't matter here), which do you think would sell more?

Also, which country has the cheaper, more efficient transport infrastructure, allowing it to ship to anywhere in the world at the lowest cost possible?

Just wondering.

Internationally, I would think, most people would expect better quality from China. Japan has the best quality, then Korea, Europe, China, A bunch of untrained drunk monkeys then the United States.

 

[Themaeds]

First this and then Macho Man Randy Savage dies? Sad sad day

 

[txr0ckabilly]

i don't understand how this happened?

Arsenic-free display glass
BFR-free
Mercury-free LED-backlit display
PVC-free
TnT-free
Recyclable aluminum and glass enclosure

 

[RebeccaL]

It is incredible how insensitive some of the comments here are with their twisted sense of humor.


We are talking about an accident involving human beings!


I hope for the quick recovery of the injured and for emotional well being of the families of the workers that died.

 

[RalfTheDog]

Actually, production matters for totally humane reasons. A lot of people will lose their jobs if iPad production stops for a significant length of time, not necessarily in manufacturing, but certainly in logistics and retail.

If you don't think job loss matters, try explaining this to the impacted families.

As I said above, I hope the workers are paid while the factory is rebuilt and I hope they get better working conditions.

 

[ciTiger]

I hope this isn't as bad as it seems for the workers...

 

[KristenM]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Honestly, to those who are offended by the article mentioning iPad production, how is this any different that an article that states 'Muti-car pileup causes traffic delays'?
If you're stuck in traffic waiting for a serious accident to clear are you thinking 'oh and it's fine I'll be stuck in traffic because I'm more worried about the people' or 'damn, I'm going o be late for work!'???
Yeah...I thought so.

 

[Reason077]

Apple, build a new plant in the US! Some southern right to work state! We just moved productions of our sprinkle heads to Alabama from China. We are saving 5 percent because of this!! Quality is better too!!

Apple isn't in the manufacturing business. You should be asking Foxconn (or Quanta) to build a plant in the US.

 

[Yamcha]

Again very sad, something needs to be done about the conditions of these workers..

 

[Eddyisgreat]

only on MACrumors will people complain about iPads production being mentioned in the same bredth as "foxconn factory explosion". And then if MR posted a story about the foxconn factory only and not mentioning how or why it relates to Apple, everyone would say "why is it being posted here" and proceed to RAGE.

 

[notjustjay]

So you're saying if it happened at the shoe factory that made your shoes, you'd be equally as upset and posting condolences on shoerumors.com?

If I was reading such a forum, then yes, I'd be as upset.

Put it this way, if it was a Microsoft manufacturing facility or one for Samsung or Sony and people were killed, wouldn't we be just as shocked and upset? Please tell me you wouldn't be saying things like "Good riddance, all the better for Apple".

(Edit: just occurred to me that Foxconn is a factory that builds things for these other companies.)

I don't think the earthquake in Japan got any more attention or sympathy than Haiti or Katrina or the miners in Chili, despite none of our favourite tech toys having anything to do with those.

 

[JAT]

"While the potential human toll is obviously the primary concern at this time...it is ALSO..."

Learn to read the whole sentence.

MR changed the story after several posts in the forums, including the one you quoted.

 

[KPOM]

The Journal article refers to an official release that rules out foul play.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704816604576335262591187804.html

This appears to be a tragic accident.

 

[HyperX13]

Random question;

Take two 100% identical products; one's stamped 'Made in America' (or USA) and another stamped 'Made in China'...

Globally speaking, rightly or wrongly (the why's don't matter here), which do you think would sell more?

Also, which country has the cheaper, more efficient transport infrastructure, allowing it to ship to anywhere in the world at the lowest cost possible?

Just wondering.

I believe more sales would be made if product would be stamped made in USA. Our shipping costs were going out of sight. On top of that, we needed to staff our Chinese manufacturing plant with US quality engineers, else the product quality suffered. We still have a chroming facility in China but only because we could not obtain permits to open one here. Costs in China are on the rise as their middle class increases. if you calculate all costs, including time it takes for our containers to be scanned and processed, we are ahead.

 

[Blacklabel34]

I hope everyone makes a full recovery. My prayers go out to the people who weren't so lucky.

 

[KPOM]

Honestly, to those who are offended by the article mentioning iPad production, how is this any different that an article that states 'Muti-car pileup causes traffic delays'?
If you're stuck in traffic waiting for a serious accident to clear are you thinking 'oh and it's fine I'll be stuck in traffic because I'm more worried about the people' or 'damn, I'm going o be late for work!'???
Yeah...I thought so.

If you hear about a plane crash, is your first thought "my flight later today might get delayed" or about the people?

Pile-ups are, unfortunately, fairly common. Explosions in hi-tech factories, like plane crashes, are very uncommon.