Tag: factory
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Foxconn to Make AirPods for the First Time, New Factory Planned in India
The Taiwanese contract manufacturer plans to build a factory in India to produce the earphones, underlining efforts by the key Apple supplier to diversify production away from China.
According to the report’s sources, Foxconn will invest more than $200 million in a new AirPods assembly plant in the southern Indian state of Telangana.
Construction of the facility is expected to start in the second half of this year and begin production by the end of 2024 at the earliest.
Foxconn officials are said to have debated internally for months about whether to assemble AirPods, due to the relatively low profit margins, but they ultimately decided to go ahead with the deal to “reinforce engagement” with Apple.
The decision to set up production in India was requested by Apple, according to one of the report’s sources. Besides the Telangana facility, Foxconn reportedly plans to ramp up its investment in India with a view to manufacturing smartphones, EVs, and semiconductors.
It’s not clear which model(s) of AirPods are included in Foxconn’s order, but there’s a high chance they will include a USB-C connector instead of a Lightning connector, as Apple is rumored to be planning to introduce iPhone 15 models with a USB-C port instead of a Lightning port in 2023.
This article, “Foxconn to Make AirPods for the First Time, New Factory Planned in India” first appeared on MacRumors.com
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TSMC to invest $7.4 billion in second Japan chip factory: Report
Chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) plans to set up a second semiconductor manufacturing plant in Japan with an investment of about $7.4 billion, Japanese newspaper Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun reported.
TSMC will build the new plant in the southwestern region of Kumamoto to manufacture 5nm and 10nm chips from 2025, the report said.
A TSMC spokesperson declined to comment on the development but instead pointed to CEO CC Wei’s comment from the company’s last quarterly earnings call in January, which said, “In Japan, we are building a specialty technology fab, which will utilize 12 and 16 nanometer, and 22/28 process technologies. Volume production is scheduled for late 2024. We are also considering building a second fab in Japan, as long as the demand from customers and the level of government support makes sense.”
World’s Last Dedicated Meccano Factory To Close In France
Now the last dedicated Meccano factory in the world is being closed and dismantled. The Canadian company that owns Meccano has said the plant at Calais will close at the beginning of 2024, putting 51 people out of work. It blamed the soaring cost of raw materials and “a lack of competitiveness” for the closure. Spin Master, which bought the brand in 2013, said Meccano toys would continue to be produced by its “network of partners in Europe, Asia and Latin America.”
“We have no other choice than to envisage the end of industrial activity at the Calais factory,” Spin Master said in a statement, adding that the factory had “never managed to break even” in spite of receiving 7 million euros in investment since 2014.
Meccano was the largest toy manufacturer in the UK by the 1930s. “By the 1920s Meccano Magazine had a monthly circulation of 70,000 and Meccano groups had sprung up around the world,” adds The Guardian. “It has been in decline since the 1950s.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Ford reportedly plans to build a $3.5 billion EV battery factory in Michigan
Ford is reportedly days away from sharing a plan to increase its supply of US-made electric vehicle batteries. According to Reuters, the automaker could announce as early as Monday that it’s partnering with China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL) to build a $3.5 billion iron phosphate battery plant outside of Marshall, Michigan, a small town about 100 miles west of Detroit. Once completed, the facility is expected to employ at least 2,500 workers.
As Bloomberg points out, Ford is moving forward with the project despite uncertainty around how the Treasury Department will interpret President Biden’s landmark climate change bill. Specifically, the Inflation Reduction Act includes language that seeks to prevent automakers from taking advantage of consumer EV tax credits if they make vehicles with batteries made by a “foreign entity of concern.” Congress designed the rules to incentivize automakers to build a domestic supply chain for EV parts instead of relying on China for critical components.
According to Bloomberg, Ford has considered an ownership structure that would see it own the entire plant and nearby infrastructure. Ford employees would also work at the facility. CATL would only own the technology used to create the batteries. It’s an arrangement that could allow batteries made at the facility to qualify for the Inflation Reduction Act-related tax credits. “We’ve said that we’re exploring batteries based on CATL’s technology for Ford vehicles and that we plan to localize,” a Ford spokesperson told Bloomberg.
In July, Ford said it would begin sourcing batteries for US-bound 2023 Mustang Mach-E models from CATL. That same month, the company announced it had plans to produce 40 gigawatt hours of battery capacity in North America starting in 2026.
A 3D Printer Isn’t Cool. You Know What’s Cool? A 3D-Printing Factory
The company, which has never before discussed its approach publicly, says the technique could allow it to make metal parts 25 to 50 times faster than is possible with current methods and at a fraction of the cost. Freeform’s co-founder and chief executive officer, Erik Palitsch, spent a 10-year stint at SpaceX, Elon Musk’s aerospace company. […] Freeform, on the other hand, is creating machines that can fill a warehouse. Its current factory, in Hawthorne, California, used to serve as Keanu Reeves’s motorcycle storage facility. (Freeform still ends up with some of the actor’s mail.)
Inside, machines shuffle objects back and forth along rapidly moving conveyors, so the system can work on many things at once. Other companies have set up multiple printers in a single facility, but this strategy doesn’t improve their speed, it just increases scale by having them work in parallel. Freeform, by contrast, is redesigning the process by which 3D printing can turn raw materials into finished products. In a sense, it’s akin to the establishment of the assembly-line process pioneered by 20th century industrialists like Henry Ford. “We have to achieve a state of mass production to open this up to more industries,” says Palitsch. “And you simply can’t get there with a conventional machine.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tesla’s new $3.6 billion Nevada investment includes a ‘high-volume’ Semi factory
Tesla is investing more than $3.6 billion into its Reno, Nevada Gigafactory, and with part of the cash, it plans to build its “first high-volume Semi factory,” according to a blog post published Tuesday.
The company officially delivered the first of its long-delayed electric Semi trucks to PepsiCo in December, but it appears Tesla is ready to significantly expand its production of the new vehicle. However, Tesla’s blog post doesn’t specify how many trucks the factory might make on a regular basis or when it’s expected to open, so it might be awhile before that high volume kicks in.
Today, we’re announcing $3.6B of new investment in Giga Nevada.
– 4M sq ft of new manufacturing footprint
– 3k additional team members
– 2 new manufacturing…