You can watch this without ads on my streaming platform, Nebula! nebula.tv/videos/strange-parts-inside-a-huge-pcb-factory-in-china This video is because of you! I went through all of the comments from the previous factory videos, and seeing inside a PCB factory was one of your top requests. So keep the suggestions coming! I'll try and make as many of them happen as I can.

I think Lily really enjoyed the tour of the factory, she learned a lot from the tour guide.

50% enthusiasm 50% "yeah"

I'm glad that Mr Liu was there to answer the difficult questions

Low cost aside, the quality of such a complex process is amazing, thanks to JLCPCB for allowing this tour.

The background noise was rough and youtube's auto subs sucks, so I subtitled the video for you.

How it’s Made with actual personality! Awesome, keep up the great work Scotty.

Scotty makes extra effort to make sure every step in the PCB manufacturing well is explained really well. This is something not easy to find in any book or by googling. I was just starting to learn PCB design and I was lost in so much terminology but this priceless video has cleared my confusion

Just ordered 20 boards from these guys. It amazes me the great value that you get considering the complex manufacturing process they go through.

Please go to a battery cell factory - Lipo or Li-ion

Really enjoyed this Scotty. You've produced content on par with the quality I would normally only be able to watch on a BBC television documentary. Thank you for your hard work and I look forward to seeing where you go next.

Great content as always Scott! I work in PCB manufacturing as a cad operator, PCB manufacturing is a complicated processes. Your explanation of each manufacturing procedure was simple, very detailed, and by far the most consistent and accurate. Please keep up the great content!

Don't take it wrong, Scotty actually the guide there. Lilly seems enjoy the trip in the factory. XD

I freaking love this. The content, your sheer enthusiasm, everything in this channel is something I never knew I wanted or needed in my life. Thank you man. I’d love to see the process of making a GPU in a factory

Is she giving you a tour or are you giving her a tour? Haha :D fascinating factory, great video, documentary level!

As someone who maintains automated machinery this tour of the JLCPCB factory was totally awesome. Thank you Scotty, I cannot wait till things level out and you can get back to bringing us to more super cool factory tours. Hang in there my friend, we are all in this together.

I had some boards manufactured by JLCPCB recently. Love their work - and they are ACTUALLY as fast as this video makes out. Its seriously super impressive.

Honestly JLCPCB have nailed it, their business is perfect. I got 10 small boards for 2 dollars plus shipping. Plus the quality control shown in this video. No one can compete with that. They deserve all the customers they get. I wish other chinese manufactures would understand the importance of quality control.

The PTH (plating through-hole) process is very complicated but I'll try my best to describe what's happening. ----- DESMEAR -----{1,2} It all begins with the desmear which usually consists of 3 different process baths and is necessary for two reasons. First of all, one has to remove the so-called smear (all the stuff that forms due to high temperatures during the (laser)drilling process), debris and dirt. The other reason for the desmear is to roughen the surface so that the deposited copper adheres better. The first bath in the desmear process is called sweller and contains chemicals that permeate into the cavities of the base material (the glass fiber epoxy resin composite) thereby letting the base material swell up, hence the name. The second bath is often referred to as the actual desmear and contains a concentrated solution of alkali permanganate and hydroxide. Under these conditions organic materials, such as the smear, decompose and glass is etched back. The third bath contains reducing agents that help to get rid of permanganate and manganese dioxide residues. ----- PRE-TREATMENT ----- The next process step is usually referred to as the pre-treatment. It is composed of up to 5 process baths. Please keep in mind that i'm only explaining the most common type of process which is an ionogenic palladium activation process (other activation processes such as colloidal palladium (as explained in a recent video by applied science) and direct plating processes that work without any but one pre-treating bath also exist and are used in the industry). (1) Conditioner The conditioner contains chemicals that help the activator to bind to the surface of the base material and copper. (2) Etch Cleaner The Etch Cleaner contains agents that remove oxide layers on any superficial copper. (3) Pre-Dip This is a bath containing chemicals that protect the activator from drag-in and helping the activator to get even into the smallest VIAs. (4) (Ionogenic Palladium) Activator The activator basically contains cationic palladium compounds that can bind to the base material. Check out the palladium price in order to understand why this process is so expensive. (5) Reducer{3} The reducer contains reducing agents, that reduce the cationic palladium [Pd(2+)] to elemental palladium Pd(0). This is important in the subsequent step, as the Pd(0) acts as a catalyst. ----- COPPER PLATING -----{4} Following the pre-treatment comes the electroless copper bath (ECB). This bath is used to deposit a thin layer of copper (usually around 1 µm give or take) that makes the whole PCB conductive so that it can then be plated in a conventional galvanic copper bath. Besides copper the ECB contains a reducing agent, alkali hydroxides and complexing/chelating agents as well as often stabilizers. The Pd(0) on the surface of the PCB catalyzes a chemical reaction in which the reducing agent is able to reducer the cationic copper Cu(2+) to elemental copper Cu(0). Since this reaction is autocatalytic it keeps on going once the palladium is covered in copper. However, the copper deposition using an ECB is very slow, expensive and doesn't give a nice surface finish. Therefore, the PCB is only treated for a short period of time and a galvanic copper bath is used in order to plate the desired thickness (commonly around 25 µm). The galvanic copper bath contains different chemicals (called leveler, brightener and suppressor) that help with via filling, surface finish, etc. . Keep in mind that the overall process leads to an entirely copper covered PCB so structuring is once more necessary. Afterwards the superficial copper tracks, pads and so on are covered with tin in an immersion tin process or with gold in a nickel/gold process. This is necessary because soldering to the bare copper is very difficult since copper oxide layers will trouble the solder adhesion. ----- References ----- {1} J. Kirmann, X. Roizard, J. Pagetti, et al., J. Adhes. Sci. Technol., 1998, 12 (4), 383-397 (doi: 10.1163/156856198X00100). {2} K. L. Mittal., J. Vac. Sci. Technol., 1976, 13 (1), 19-25 (doi: 10.1116/1.568850). {3} O. A. Sadik, H. Xu, A. Sargent., J. Electroanal. Chem., 2005, 583 (2), 167-175 (doi: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2005.05.013). {4} M. Paunovic., Mod. Electroplat., 2010, 1, 433-446 (doi: 10.1002/9780470602638). If you don't have access to these publications, try using sci-hub... looks dodgy, is used by many scientists=)

2018: "I gotta put on this charcoal mask, this sucks" 2020: "Man I wish I had more of those masks!"

Huge thanks for this video, both for the maker of this video and for the guys at JLCPCB for the amazing factory insight. Really appreciated it 👏😃

After watching this video, I learned a lot. I could n’t sleep all night. and my ears still seem to hear Lily ’s voice: "yeah"

Why are people complaining about him repeating everything she said? He's doing it on purpose so we can fully comprehend and actually hear what it is she's saying. Without his commentary I would have missed a lot of what she was saying and had to replay and turn things up just so the details weren't missed. His repetition is also for clarification, so that something hasn't been lost in translation. He repeats back to her what he understood about what she said, so that something wasn't misunderstood.

This was one of the most interesting and understandable videos on PCB production. Great job and I hope to watch all your videos as time permits.

Me: OMG Lily, you are really cute! Lyli: Yeah

I'd love to see a silicon foundry making simple parts. Not like CPUs/GPUs/Memory, but ASIC/"glop tops"/mask ROMs, things like that. Things that are basically one-offs rather than mass produced

This was an incredible video! Its amazing how much access they let you have to be able to show each step. I had a lot of fun learning just how many steps there actually are in making a board , and to think they can get it done in roughly 24 hours. Thats almost TO efficient lol.

Really great video. Just did my second order with JLCPCB and I am really impressed with them. They definitely have the whole process dialled in.

the volume and speed of board production here is insane considering how customizable everything looks! the entire manufacturing process looks really well thought out. did i miss info on how long that plant has been operating? would be interesting to see how they started before scaling up to this.

Really enjoyed this! I have been ordering batches of boards from several Chinese PCB manufactures for the last twenty years. I know the staged pictures they like to send me in their digital "slick" sheets, but it's nice to see inside of an actual factory.

You are one of the reasons why I've made up my mind to apply for a university in China and study in Engineering. Thanks for the inspiration and insight, really.

just sent of my first PCB to JLCPCB yesterday and was really interested to see how they do it... so cool to come back to this video and watch it as my own boards are going through the process!

The video just keep getting better! I had no idea you were doing a comprehensive tour of the whole board making process in the factory. Wow, I was entertained.

I think it's great the that JLCPCB has reached out to the maker community. They have invested a lot of time and money supporting UKposts channels as well as providing a quality product at great prices.

22:41 “We have to make sure that the things that shouldn’t connect do connect and the things that shouldn’t connect don’t connect” 😂

AMAZING i made my first pcb 10 days ago and they arrived already, boards made and fully working, such a great company to deal with.

JLCPCB. I have ordered a lot of boards from them. 2 layer, 4 layer, 6 layer. Some boards were production boards that I ordered thousands of. Very high quality boards very cheap and very fast. Recommend them.

This is legit better than 98% of TV documentaries. I hope you are being paid enough and receiving a great deal of satisfaction from this. You are getting seriously good at your job and your passion and it's great to see!

first, I HAVE TO THANK ALL THE WORKERS IN THE FABRIK AND ALL THE PEOPLE THAT PROGECT EVERY THING... I just wish you all a lot of good health, and God bless you!!

Thanks for the visit, very interesting to see the steps in sequence with some explanations. And I still cannot fully comprehend how the resulting PCBs can be so cheap despite the complexity of the process and the significant machine time needed (notably drilling and testing).

Mannnn. Not that your editing was ever bad (it has always been really good) but this is just awesome. I love all the little effects that you put in. it really makes it very interesting to watch. Nice Job

Lily is such a cute and fun rep.

Thanks for the factory tour. I am a hobbyst and purchase from JLCPCB at least once a month. I must say that quality is top notch and affordable therefore Q/P ratio is huge. And fully customable in size and color and whatnot. After I discevered I can design my own PCBs and let them produce them... Extremely happy!

I started in IT back in the late 70's. My mind is blown by the miniaturization and compression that has been made. Also the speeds ... started with a Pet Commodore with a 1 Mhz CPU, 300 baud acoustic coupler, and cassette tape storage... Yes Mhz... things have come a long way.

The first copper plating line you saw was called Electroless Copper Deposition, it is a process that is used prior to electrolytic copper plating, it deposits micro inches of a fragile copper in the holes to make them electrically conductive for electro copper plating, without that step copper will not be plated on to any surface that is not electrically conductive (pre preg layers in the holes)

Incredible video, I'm Chinese, I also find Lily's English is limited, so I'm so thankful Strange Parts translated them into English-friendly language. THIS, is like what I'm seeing in Discovery Channel!!

Thanks to everybody involved, great video, great work man!

Just received my 2nd order of custom boards from JLCPCB. I used to run a screen printing company and have produced my own diy PCBs so very familiar with the process. The quality from this company is unbelievable. I don't know how they do it for the price.

maybe visit a TV factory! Or something super unusual

Dude, that is a GREAT format for you!

At 6:35, Its not Blue light, the photoresist coating or film is sensitive to light of lower wavelength specially UV. Therefore, in a CLEAN ROOM, where you were, always have Yellow light which theoretically cannot react with the photoresist. The whole process is called Photolithography.

Great video! I've had PCB and Flex made in US but never seen a full factory video like this one. Well done.

What I find extremely impressive is not the factory itself but the fact that you can get boards manufactured by them with your own design for like 8$ delivered to your doorstep.

You're probably the most enthusiastic man I've ever seen visiting a circuit board manufacturer. Great video!

Absolutely brilliant! I am amazed at how efficiently and accurately they can do this. So cool!

How many times does Lilly said "Yeah": 1. 0:57 2. 1:05 3. 1:09 4. 1:15 5. 1:35 6. 1:39 7. 1:45 8. 1:49 9. 1:53 10. 2:06 11. 2:13 12. 2:15 13. 2:17 x2 in same sec => 14 15. 2:20 16. 2:21 17. 2:28 18. 2:41 19. 2:44 20. 2:58 21. 3:00 22. 3:03 23. 3:09 24. 3:14 25. 3:21 26. 3:28 x2 in same sec => 27 28. 3:37 29. 3:42 30. 3:49 31. 4:14 x2 in same sec => 32 33. 4:20 34. 4:25 35. 4:28 36. 4:46 37. 5:04 38. 5:06 39. 5:20 40. 5:28 41. 5:39 42. 5:45 43. 5:53 44. 6:09 45. 6:20 46. 6:37 47. 6:42 48. 6:48 49. 7:02 50. 7:08 51. 7:20 52. 7:36 53. 7:40 x2 in same sec => 54 55. 7:51 56. 7:53

11:43 Strange parts: Now we need to drill the holes. Lily: Whaaat?? Strange Parts: All the holes. Lily: yeah

I get my hobby boards manufactured by this company. 4-6 days from submitting my files to delivery at my front door. And at US$0.20 cents per board. Fantastic service.

Amazing process, thanks for showing how it's done ...

I love the way he go to ur work place, explain all ur work process, so all u can do it to say YES.

Well. it looks like you are giving her the factory tour. You have amazing knowledge.

I've been designing and dealing with the manufacture PCB's for over 33 years and know the process, but this video was great!

Thank you so much for sharing this video, it was so insightful.

Loved that intro shot where you stepped forward and the camera "dollied" backward until your interviewees came into frame. Really slick.

I am not sure how JLCPCB plates copper on their boards, but we've done this in our laboratory. Please research the process thoroughly if you attempt it, it uses toxic chemicals, especially formaldehyde. There are two steps: first electroless plating, then electroplating afterwards. I can explain how we electroless plate our 3-D printed parts. First they must be cleaned thoroughly, which for example can be done by using sodium hydroxide. Then the surface must be made hydrophilic by oxidation. We use hydrogen peroxide or sodium percarbonate for this, others use ammonium persulfate. Then we have to put a catalytic layer so that copper deposits on the surface. We use colloidal silver as our catalyst, which is deposited by alternately dipping in silver nitrate and tin (II) chloride. Then electroless plating is performed, with a mixture of EDTA as a chelator, triethanolamine as chelator and buffer, sodium hydroxide, copper sulfate, and formaldehyde as the reducing agent with the solution maintained at pH of 11 and at 50-60 C. Then the part is electroplated, which uses dissolved copper in an acidic solution, with copper sulfate, acetic acid, citric acid, and a few other chemicals that act to make the electroless deposition smoother, more even, and shinier. Then it is dipped in a protective solution like benzotriazole to prevent corrosion on the surface. The process we used is for an academic laboratory, so its likely JLCPCB's is more suited for mass production and not like the one I've described.

This is so fricking interesting! Amazed that the factory owner is ready to provide this detailed insight to "just a youtuber". Really a sign how far independent quality content has come.

Crazy awesome factory! Next I need to find where you cover the process of soldering the electronics components! Love it!

Impressive factory, really efficient-looking and clean. What's just as impressive and doesn't come out in the video is the organisational systems enabling an order goes from start to finish keeping all the layer, drill, print files together - perhaps sometimes different customers' orders on the same sheet to reduce waste - while not getting mixed up with other orders.

Didn't show how they manage alignment - do they use x-ray to align with inner layers or just rely on the panel edge? Would also be interesting to know how they keep track of designs through the process, making sure they get the right films etc.

Absolutely amazing process. I was spellbound by the complexity of the process. I always wondered how much effort went into making boards as efficiently as possible

Awesome tource, great video. I spent every second viewing it over and over

I was using PCBway for years til I found these guys , these guys are the best . I`ve been using them now for a long long time and they never let me down the lead time is amazing , and every board comes to me just as I wanted it . Way cheaper than PCBway too ! Thanks guys you really are the best!

Congratulations for the video, it's great! A few months ago I collaborated with them and they sponsored me a video. Seeing the finishing and quality of the PCBs I knew it was a great company, but what I could not imagine is how big and well prepared their facilities were.

the Asian girl be like "why he screams too much" xD cool awesome video dude :3

Let's not be unkind to Lily. He speaks quite quick and just as Chinese is one of the hardest languages for English-speakers to learn, it's probably the other way around as well. Also, she was probably nervous. I think she did very well!

amazing. just placed my first orders with them, had no idea it was this complex and took this many people and factory space.

Oh yeah! Big improvement on production value!

Amazing video. This was the most comprehensive look at this process that I've seen. The level of automation and professionalism in that factory was unreal. Thanks for your efforts to show us this.

Wow, this process is really amazing!

Amazing video...never seen pcb manufacturing so much in detail

Wow, that is an impressively large, modern, and clean facility. I would love to see some actual component manufacturing. ICs/ASICs, through-hole/SMD, passives, LEDs, LCD/LED/OLED, etc.

Really like this documentary. A suggestion if you do smth like this again. Maybe let the representative talk more. It seemed like you explained everything and she didnt even have to be there.

That is really impressive. The instructions for each board have to flow from beginning to end along with the boards and machines that are doing the work. I'm guessing each has a job or board number and that keeps things in sync. Thanks for posting this video.

This helps me so much to refresh myself on pcb mfg for an interview. Thank you

In that electroplating process the solution in which the PCB is dipped is called copper sulphate solution ( or any solution containing copper ions ) and electricity is applied between the PCB plates and another electrode , this reduces the copper ions in the solution and forms a thin layer of copper on the PCB surface ( exposed metal surface )

Great video, Scotty! I knew a few things about how multi-layer PCB boards were created, but to see ALL the steps is SO cool. I have no idea how they do Inventory Control at that speed!

Congratulations to all the people who work with this company. I find this stunning to watch and I must admit that though I have had many affiliations with industries and universities over the last 80 years , I have never seen such brilliant work. Behind those machines there are many people who know much more than the people who simply are proud to own what they can buy. Modern industries have became an engineering art that only a few can comprehend. Congratulations once again and thank you once again, I feel rather excited by what I have just seen. This is sublime ----of very great excellence and beauty:

I was chief engineer at a PCB shop in California. You missed one step in between drilling and plating. Multilayer boards need to be either plasma etched or chemical etched (opposed to alkaline etch) so the vias and plated hole achieve a three point contact with inner layers. Coming to plating question. Essentially copper in the plating solution is in divalent state (+2 state). The copper needs to be reduced to metallic state (0). Theway tis is done is reduction of valence states. The first application of copper is via electroless copper. This plating bath is called electroless because it uses chemicals to reduce copper to (0) valence state. The copper build plating bath uses electric current to reduce copper to (0) valence state. Hope this make the plating process clear to you. I am retired now and was connected to PCB industry for 40+ years.

Very neat video. My question was on alignment. How do they make sure the layers are correctly aligned. Is there an alignment symbol printed on the edges of the copper panels? They seemed to put on the photomask layers quickly. If there is a tight pitch bga footprint the via alignment would be critical to inner layers.

I'm so pleased you made this video. After creating my own PCBs for years I recently ordered my first set of 5 PCB's from JLC. I've always been worried that my designs would come out wrong but I needed some PCBs with pads and traces too small for me to make. I was very impressed with their service. Because it was my first order they didn't charge me shipping (which was more expensive than the PCB's in my case) and the quality was excellent. Seeing this video just reinforces how professional an operation they have.

Very interesting review on how it is made, great job 👍

I'm in love with all these processes behind a little piece of glass fiber and copper, soon i will buy from their page for a robotics university project. Greetings from Mexico. ❤

Thank you so much for this,this is amazing it definitely changes the "made in china" mentality. Love these videos keep them coming :D

These guys are mind blowing. I sent in my pcbs design from Australia and i had the board in my hand 7 days later!!!!! The speed of this operation has unlocked a new superpower for me in board production, soon cheap and ultra fast

I learned a lot. Great video. Thank you.

This just makes me more excited to get my pcbs, submitted my order yesterday.

Loved watching this video, opened my eyes to what actually goes on behind doors into making PCB"s. Thanx for the good video. Keep doing what you do!!!

I really enjoyed this vid! It feels like you're really inside the factory for a tour. Thanks Scotty for making this vid!😊Hoping for a much more factory adventures!

I recently had my board made by JLCPCB, They are amazing from the beginning of the process to the shipment

just realized they put this video on the homepage. Cool stuff man!