Design and Manufacturing Process Analysis of iPhone 4 to iPhone 6, iPhone 4iphone6

Design and Manufacturing Process Analysis of iPhone 4 to iPhone 6, iPhone 4iphone6

Here I will explain some of my views on the design and manufacturing processes of these mobile phones.

These five models have three appearances:

Sandwich Design for iPhone 4.

Three-Stage aluminum alloy Integrated forming of iPhone 5.

All-metal Integrated Molding Design for iPhone 6.

Looking back, the design of these three generations of mobile phones almost leads the world's mobile phone design trend. Whether it is material, design, or manufacturing technology, some or even the appearance is based on the gourd painting.

Let's talk about the iPhone 4, which is amazing. The first time the iPhone was born in, it could have been done by a smart phone. The second time it was released by iPhone 4, it could have been so beautiful.

 

A notable feature of iPhone 4 is the use of a CNC stainless steel frame with front and back glass, so that the entire machine has a tough, strong, concise beauty. Although both the first and later generations use stainless steel borders, the difference is that the stainless steel border of the iPhone 4 is the core and skeleton of the entire mobile phone structure, the screen, battery motherboard, and other accessories are fixed on the skeleton to achieve the basis of ID and structure design.

Before talking about the manufacturing process of the iPhone 4, let's trace its brother product Touch series.

Apple's pursuit of product integration has reached the point of deep bone marrow. In Touch3, the stainless steel back cover is made of die casting.

 

Because Touch has no requirements on the cellular network, it can achieve a more complete unity. From the internal point of view, in fact, the process of this back cover is not as complicated as iPhone 4. First, it is a fast Steel Die-casting into the back cover, in the internal fixed motherboard and other parts of the structure of a single small stainless steel component, and then through the laser spot welding with the back cover connection.

 

In the same period as iPhone 4, toumethane was still a piece of Stainless Steel Die-casting molding. The difference was that injection molding was added to implement complicated internal structures.

However, on the iPhone, Apple's requirements are obviously higher than Touch, and it is not as handy as Touch to consider the signal problem.

The difficulty of making the stainless steel border of iPhone 4, whether it is its structural complexity or processing accuracy, it seems that it is still the top level, not beyond.

In the internal structure of the stainless steel frame, it is not achieved through spot welding like the Touch series, but by cutting the shape of the CNC directly on the frame, the process complexity can be imagined.

 

For example, the two boxes above are marked with red boxes, that is, the CNC record, which is used to hold the glass on the back of the mobile phone. The middle is a threaded column. First, we need to produce a circular groove on the frame, and then laser spot welding. In this way, the stud will be fixed to the screen. The bottom red strip frame is the middle stainless steel laser welded joint.

The rightmost is the antenna partition injection molding. Now it seems that the full street is like this, which is Apple's first product. The injection material is a kind of engineering plastic with very strong texture, after the frame is cut off, the injection material can be used to connect and ensure the signal. So now, all the metal cell phones on mantai street want to thank apple for its exploration in material science, instead of saying that my injection is better than yours at the press conference.

The Structure Strength of the iPhone 4 is very high. The stainless steel material is inherently strong, and the front panel is fixed on the stainless steel frame by screws. The glass back cover is stuck on the stainless steel frame through a snap-in, the motherboard is also attached to the middle of the stainless steel, and you rarely see the plastic parts on the iPhone 4 and the parts bonded with glue.

The iPhone 4 has a huge impact on the subsequent mobile phone market, so that consumers have an aesthetic inertia, as long as it is front and back glass, the middle frame of the mobile phone, all think nice. In the end, you have done something bigger than it, you have done something lighter than it, and you have done something thinner than it, but no one has done it in terms of technology and structure.

In terms of ID and structure design, it is not difficult to find that Apple products follow the principle of simplicity, unity, integrity, robustness, and elegance.

IPhone 4 sandwich design, including the front panel, stainless steel border, stainless steel sheet, glass back cover four major components. Obviously, this is not Apple's final pursuit. Two years later, Apple brought iPhone 5.

I also watched the press conference that night and spoke about Apple's lack of innovation. Isn't it just a flattened iPhone 4? after two years, you can do that. When I gradually got into touch with the iPhone 5/S, I split it and found that this is by far the most exquisite iPhone, none.

In terms of manufacturing technology, what are the improvements compared with iPhone 4?

 

The biggest improvement was that Apple finally applied Unibody technology to mobile phones, and the mobile phone shell was fully processed by CNC.

This should be the first time in mobile phone manufacturing. What makes Apple awesome is that it doesn't have to look at how other mobile phones are made. What technology is used, and it has been exploring and using some new technologies on mobile phones. These techniques didn't suddenly come out, previously there was, but apple was able to implement it according to the design needs, which is why Apple has always been the only one.

At first glance, the appearance continued with the 4 style, but the structure and process completely changed. Unibody directly changed the machine into two parts: the screen and the shell. In more detail, it is the three-step back. The upper and lower parts are ceramic glass. This is in line with Apple's pursuit of a simple style, while the Unibody can make the machine thinner, but also put forward greater requirements on the internal structure of the body, the signal problem is more difficult to deal.

 

The appearance of the above is more refined than 4, this fine is reflected in the ubiquitous top of the high-gloss chamfer: border top and bottom corner, button highlight, bottom speaker hole angle, stainless steel headphones and lightning interface angle, even the dense highlights of the two screws at the bottom are not missed, all of which are achieved through the CNC carving.

The LOGO and iPhone words on the back are all oxidized by special anodization, and the glass at both ends of the back and bottom are combined with Apple's high precision requirements. Therefore, no matter which angle you choose to watch this phone, they all reveal a refined atmosphere.

In terms of manufacturing technology, Unibody design is subject to expensive CNC processing costs, and production capacity is difficult to improve. More machine tools need to be purchased by the foundry. In this regard, Apple even purchases machines for the foundry to support the other party to meet their own production capacity needs. Sometimes, suppliers are directly acquired to meet the requirements.

 

Different from the stainless steel frame of 4, the whole of 5 is centered around the Unibody back cover. This back cover needs to be made up of tiny structures such as the main board, camera, and tail plug-and-discharge line by means of CNC, for example, the screen assembly is still stuck on the fuselage through the bayonet. All the phone makers know that the bayonet is difficult to control accuracy. Most of the practices are solved by glue.

On Touch5 and iPad mini with Unibody, the screen is glued to the chassis. on iPhone 5, Apple can also do this, but this is a compromise on the structure, however, most vendors stick together glue to ensure accuracy and ease of operation.

Let's take a look at how other Unibody mobile phones are created after iPhone 5.

 

This was htc one M7, which was popular at the time. We can see that there was a circle of injection molding and glue on the edge of its Unibody back cover, and its back cover was just a back cover, the main board and so on are all attached to the screen, which is slightly inferior to the iPhone 5 in terms of structural complexity. It is easier to do this in white, but the back arc of M7 is also a difficult CNC problem, it takes a little more time to smooth the arc transition.

 

Let's take a look at the second generation of the ONE series M8. This generation has made progress and has become a full metal. Although the glue is discarded and switched to a snap button, it still serves as the back cover only. But globally, it is also the second best Unibody design.

Speaking of iPhone 6, when I saw the iPhone 6 spy photos, I don't believe it was Apple's design. This thick antenna became the focus of everyone's collective discussion.

 

Compared with 5, it removed the ceramic glass on the back of the iPhone 5 and left two main components on the phone: the screen and the body. It turns out that this is the real all-metal, which is also the ultimate embodiment of Apple's pursuit of unity.

 

Apple has made an ID for two years. In the past two years, there may be hundreds of designs. Finally, we chose this design, and there are also reasons for its persistence. Mobile phones are getting bigger and bigger, let's continue the previous stable ID. Obviously, it is not suitable for holding hold. In real life, there are a vast majority of Founder's things in the objects we come into contact with. Such a design is even better, it is also more in line with people's psychological expectations, but if Apple still makes iPhone6 5 look thinner, it will certainly look better than it is now, it's just a conservative design.

Therefore, apple must come up with a brand new design to challenge itself.

 

After changing the style of the iPhone, from the square to the circle, the body becomes larger, and the arc frame is easy to hold. This is not enough. Apple also needs to match the screen size 2.5D with the border, so that the sides of the mobile phone are symmetric. This is nothing. Many mobile phones can do this since iPhone 4, however, the arc border is almost perfectly symmetrical, and it is still better than iPhone 6.

It is more difficult to process the arc border in the CNC system than to process the 5-way face. I think the most difficult thing is the matching problem between the arc of the screen and the arc of the border. We need to keep this arc layer, that is, the arc is too smooth, which is too difficult for the combination.

 

Without eye-catching highlights, without a square shape, it seems that there is no iPhone5 exquisite feeling. Even worse, there are prominent cameras and thick injection strips. If the iPhone 5 is founder, regular, and shining, the iPhone 6 is relatively low-key, restrained, and flashy.

 

If it is difficult to manufacture the iPhone 6, it is more difficult than 5. It needs to overcome the signal problem. 6 supports more frequencies than 5, but the glass above 5 is removed, the complete integration of metal has also added NFC functions, which put forward a serious test to the design of the fuselage.

Now there are a lot of borders on the market to make them arc-shaped. The front is the same as the 2.5D glass, and some are also pasted with a 2.5D glass on the back. The result is just the stacking of materials, no mobile phone has ever been as awesome as the iPhone 6, even if the prices of the two phones are the same.

Postscript:

Among the three generations, the iPhone 4 is the most solid, and the iPhone 5 has the highest face color. The iPhone 6 is more like a mature product. Through iterative discovery, Apple has been moving forward on the integrated metal body, iPhone 4 borders to the iPhone 5 metal body, and finally iPhone 6 more thorough all-metal, restricting Apple's only signal problems.

Finally, I would like to say that when the outside world praised Apple's industrial design team headed by Jonathan, I would also like to give them an excellent structural engineer and RF signal team a little affirmation.