OT: Chips from China

[Adrian Caspersz]

Pinched from another group...

This is interesting for those who use Ebay or certain other parts sources...

Low cost chip processing for fun and profit...

[Jonno]

Adrian Caspersz scribbled

SMT are a secondhand computer components dealer, they're pissed off with being undercut by the Chinese. That PDF is 6 years old and has probably been as doctored as the story they've told about the Chinese. I wonder what SMT were doing in China? WTF has having a woman owner to do with their business?

[Huge]

OK, can you summarise, so I don't have to read a 76 page PDF?

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Huge escribió:

Seems to be a PowerPuke slide show converted to .pdf.

Female owner of a components business bitching about Chinese entrepreneurs recovering and re-marking parts recovered from PCBs, washing them in river water and leaving them in the street to air-dry. Despite that, the 'counterfeit' parts shown looked in remarkably good condition which makes me suspicious about how they were recovered.

One part re-marked as new (ish) was shown to be 9 years old when the new paint was scraped off the top to reveal the original markings. Allegedly.

Something didn't ring quite true about the whole thing.

[alan_m]

Now that electronics cannot go into landfill in the EU it shows how the components are actually recycled. A large scale Chinese back street industry to remove components, wash them in the local river and re-label them to be sold in bulk. They then appear to be bought by a USA based company which is run by a woman and supports US troops. The components are kept in a high security warehouse in a humidity controlled environment.

[whisky-dave]

It's one of the reasons we don't use ebay at uni, or rather not allowed to unless we can prove we are getting the product we want at a reasonable price.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , whisky-dave escribió:

A pox on university finance departments and the financial trolls therein. We used to call them the Work Prevention Team. They forget that they're there to support staff and students, not the other way around.

[Huge]

It's not just Universities.

[whisky-dave]

They make plenty of work for themselves, generate loads of pointless report s, then divide their jobs in two and get another person in as an assistant and still can;t get the jobs done. Then pronote themselves.

Nah were here to support their careers. :-D

[Tim Watts]

I work at a university and I can buy from anyone I like, though official suppliers "on the system" are preferred. Our lot hand out credit cards to key buyers so that does make life simpler.

If asked, I would be able to defend every purchase as either "not available from the main suppliers" or "better value".

[whisky-dave]

Same here but not normally ebay.

We do here too, but ours maxes out almost every month £2k during term tim e is our limit.

we can to a certain extend anothe reason for not using ebay. we order on behalf of studetns too and when they request next day delivery or similar that's when defending butgets gets difficult. So how about the studetn that has appologised for sending in their order la te and wants an £8 product and £5 P&P for next day delivery ? If it were up to me I'd change the studetn the deliver costs as if he'd su bmitted the order to me on friday it might have been here today or tomorrow .

and then there's should we hold orders until the free P&P is met ? This is one thing RS are good at whereas digitkey charge us £12 for order s under £50 and when you get 30+ students spreading their orders over two weeks....

[Brian-Gaff]

Read the other bits in this thread. Its old news, even if it is true. Interestingly the sort of things I've encountered from china which are rubbish are.. usb or mobile chargers that blow up fail cause interference or damage the item plugged in and have fake iec stickers.

Washing machine replacement hoses that split in about a year and flood the kitchen in the middle of the night Batteries that leak and are rubbish. Some cleaning products that contain some nasty chemicals long banned in this country. Indeed, I suspect almost anything they can make or the data to make is public knowledge, they then cut corners to make it cheap, don't qa check it and dress it up so it looks nice. Brian

[Bob Eager]

I only have to suffer it for another 23 days.

[Adam Aglionby]

From another group, a gentleman with experince of Far Eastern manufacturing talking about Chinese made LED stage lighting:

"As to Chinese quality I feel I can speak to this with a knowledge that man y here don't have. I have run factories for major manufacturers in western countries, have run a China factory and now work with several manufacturers in China. I have also been traveling to China since 1994. I have seen a hu ge step change in the way things are run in China. There are Chinese factor ies now making products for our industry that are comparable and in some ca ses better to factories I know in the western world. Many source management staff and engineers from the major corporate electronics companies in Chin a.

Many are integrated and manufacture everything from the LEDs, have CNC mach ines, state of the art PCB manufacturing and very sophisticated test labs. Many western brands that are held in high esteem source many many of their components from China or other low cost countries. Ask your reps where the PCBs, metal work, lenses, LEDs, lamp holders etc are made. Most western man ufacturers are simply assembly shops.

Not one factory I ran in the west had the following equipment: Full Optical test lab with numerous size spheres Full EMC lab Full IP test facility up to IP68 Thermal Shock ovens Vibration tables

The other thing I see changing rapidly is the simple copy mentality. There is an active desire to make product that is unique and has features beyond the western brands. Parts of this are driven by the major companies in the west who are sourcing products and building their brands strongly in the ma rket. Certainly I know the company I am working for is actively developing products unique to us, it is one of the reasons I am working with them and spend so much time in China.

Hope that helps put some of the perceptions about China in perspective."