- That's cool.
That's so cool.
Today, we're at a UV printer factory
they're giant and they can print
on just about anything.
Everything from flip-flops
to cell phone and tablet cases,
even luggage.
I have been fascinated by UV printers for a while now
and I've been looking
for the opportunity to do a video about them.
I recently got connected with Bes Jet,
so I want to thank them for making this video possible
and giving me access to their factory.
Let's go see how they make these machines,
and then I convinced them to turn me loose
on one of them to see what I can do.
(upbeat music)
- Edward,
- Hi Scott.
and Mung.
Thank you so much for showing me around today.
- My pleasure.
- So my understanding
is that over here we've got a fully finished machine
and the
and it's sort of being calibrated in the last steps
but let's go to the start
and look like when it--
when you first start building up a machine
- Right.
- What's the very first step?
- So this is the frame
It's basically what we get all the machine we build
start from here.
- And so you send this out to a welding shop?
- Right
- That does all the welding and the big steel.
So this is just like a big sturdy frame.
- Right
- You can put a heavy machine on
that's not going to torque
or move around or anything like that.
- [Edward] Yeah, exactly.
(speaking Chinese)
- Right, Okay.
And so this is the linear assembly
that will move the whole print head
back and forth.
And then I noticed
I noticed this table has all these holes in it.
- Okay, when you print something quite light,
something like a paper,
and when you print,
when you put on this, it's, um,
it's very easy to get moved when you're printing
which would not be good for printing.
- Right.
- But when you have the vacuum
with the vacuum
and they will suck the air
and make sure their media stand firmly on the surface
on the flat back.
- So it holds the paper in place.
- Yes.
This machine we have a four different sections.
And if you print something smaller one
so you don't have to open the whole area for the section.
And this is a carriage.
We are going to install the carriage
while the print hat and the controllers
where we have to be in sort of here.
- This is the actual printer.
- Yes.
- And then it's also where the UV lights are, right?
- Yes.
- That's the UV part of UV printing.
They keep screwing and unscrewing various things.
(speaking Chinese)
- Okay, now for the next thing we're going to
just look at all the wiring here.
- How do these guys know where to run all these wires?
Because I'm looking at this
and I'm looking at going this--
I don't--
(Speaking Chinese)
- But how do they know which ones to connect?
(Speaking Chinese)
- And so let's go see
where you guys are making those cables.
- Yep, sure.
- Now we are the, the boards.
Second of the sub,
where our sub-parts is assembled.
- [Scotty] These are for wire stripping, right?
For taking the outside wire off.
- [Edward] Yes. Yes.
- I've seen these before
but I've never actually seen one running.
Oh, that's cool.
- You can decide how much of the surface
you want to cut.
- Like how long?
- And then how long the whole wire is.
- [Edward] You can--
You can set it to whatever you want.
(speaking Chinese)
- (laughing) Oh, that's fast.
I like it.
This is so much faster than the way I do it.
(laughs)
That's cool.
So this is for,
for crimping the terminals on for connectors, right?
- [Edward] Yes.
(laughing)
- That's so easy.
Can he show us?
These go in another connector.
Oh yeah.
That's totally awesome.
This is how to create a cable like a professional.
So
my understanding is that this is the room where
you're creating a lot of the sub-assemblies as well.
You're creating, like, here are your front panels
for your machine.
It seems like you guys have a ton of, of sub-assemblies.
Like how many sub assemblies are you making
in here that then go downstairs?
(speaking Chinese)
- So she has to know how to do
a lot of different things?
- Yes, she does.
(speaking Chinese)
- So they all have specialties.
They all are good in different pieces.
- Yes.
- That's cool.
So this, this is your inventory.
It looks like you've got sub-tanks here.
- Yup, that's sub-tank.
- And then these are your main tanks.
- Yeah.
- And then these
these are your front panels, right?
- Yeah, it is a front panel.
- All right!
Oh those are pretty nice.
And they're all cabled up,
ready to go.
- Ready to go on a machine.
- Yeah. Ready to go.
- Awesome.
I noticed we came upstairs
I got a question for you.
- Yeah?
These machines are huge
and we're on the second floor.
- Yup.
- How did they get up here?
There's no freight elevator, right?
- Yeah. So,
we use a forklift.
- You use a forklift?
- Yup.
Do you want to see?
- Yeah, I want to see it (laughs)
Oh god!
(engine rumbling)
It doesn't drive as fast once it's got something on it.
(laughs)
(engine rumbling)
That's pretty amazing.
- Now we have to,
we have been installing all the parts
that you see here to
its on into the carriage.
So now, as you can see,
now he's doing the wiring for the
the parts.
Now this is for the negative pressure
is where you create an active pressure
it's for the print hat.
- To hold pull the
to pull the ink?
- To hold the ink.
- To hold the ink up!
And then these are the boards where the actual
print heads will get installed, right?
- Yes, exactly.
- And I noticed there are a whole bunch of cutouts here
for print heads.
How many will this machine get?
- [Edward] Basically, we've been started
with the four heads.
This is where we installed the UV lamp, right?
You just need lamp on both sides.
As you can notice,
there are two different UV lamp.
This a smaller one,
This a larger one.
And this is for the shiny part
which is the glossy part
to cure the vanish part.
So this can be installed on both sides.
- Why do you need a different UV lamp
for varnish, as opposed to--
- Very good questions.
The,
when you're printing the varnish
and the clear is
it's a little bit different
you need to give it the time to the vanish.
And give it a little bit flow
a little bit.
- Oh.
- That's why I put a little bit different than spread it.
- It's like the whole width.
I see.
So there's like a big one here,
and then a little one out here.
- Right.
- I got it.
- [Edward] As you can see,
this is where we installed the print heads.
And normally we get three or four print heads.
You want the varnish.
If you want to put a varnish you get four print heads.
- So once a machine is done testing,
then what?
- Basically this is it.
And the last part
would be install the covers.
- Yeah.
- Of the machine.
- Just make it look pretty
and hide away all the wires.
- From the dust.
- So, Mung thank you for showing us
around your factory floor.
I appreciate it.
We'll let you get back to work now.
(laughs)
And Edward you said
that now we can go play with a fully working machine, right?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- So this is our demo center
where we try out new things for our customers.
Right now, right now they're printing
it's a uh,
it's a part of a wifi router
it's a cover of the case.
So we printed some images on the
cases.
- And the image says Huawei.
- Yeah it is, Huawei.
- So these are Huawei parts.
Awesome.
You told me that you could print on anything.
So I went to the markets
and I looked
high and low
for something that I thought would be a good challenge
and would look cool.
(upbeat music)
- [Scotty] Ah, there we go.
Yeah.
- [Seller] Not new.
Not new.
- Not new.
That's okay.
- [Scotty] Got the logos.
Perfect.
That's okay.
(spraying)
Okay.
(speaking Chinese)
So what I got
was I got laptop covers for Mac Books.
You think we can print on these?
- Yeah, absolutely.
For the metal and the glass,
those medias we have to apply the coating
before we printing,
for the ink to cure better with the media.
- I think we should take the logos out.
These, these logos are actually an insert
like a plastic insert.
- Right.
- So we should pop those out
so we don't get anything on them.
Okay.
There's one.
There is the last one.
Now we apply a coating.
- Yeah.
We can apply the coating.
Normally we have a lot
when our customers have a lot to print
then they will use a spray gun
- Yeah.
- To apply it.
So to have the image.
So it's ready to be printed?
- Well.
So that's the part that I don't have yet.
Do you guys have some sample images?
- Yeah, we do.
We have uh,
quite a few of the design images
you can choose what you like and see if we can try it.
- This with like the embossing.
- Yeah. Okay.
- With embossing you're going to feel the texture feel.
- [Scotty] Yeah, yeah.
Oh, okay.
(laughs)
I tell you what maybe we'll do
since, since Shenzhen,
one of the things that Shenzhen
is famous for
is the Dafen oil painting village,
which is famous for replicas of Van Gogh paintings.
And the most famous one is Starry Night.
So what if we maybe do Starry Night on the laptop?
- Yeah, sure. Why don't we do that?
- Okay, let's see,
what DPI do we need?
- [Edward] One with about 300 DPI.
- So now the next step would be processing an image.
I mean, to some design,
what kind of effect do you want to be?
Like, is it shiny?
Or with the texture feel?
- Okay.
Awesome.
Let's do all the things.
- Okay.
First, we try the texture
the embossment feel.
- Okay.
- Then we can respond varnish.
- And so how do you do the embossing?
- Basically it's
it's whiting underneath.
- So the whiting adds the texture?
- Yes.
- Yeah, got it.
- Now we're going to do the
the embossing
which is the texture work to create a texture field.
- Yeah.
So this is for the texture.
So this will be the white paint that goes underneath
the,
the
color.
- Yeah.
- And whether it's white or black
is how thick that paint is?
- More black is thicker.
Because it create a contrast
you can, you can decide how strong the texture field is
by adjusting the image here.
- So, so, so black is all the way thick.
And white is none at all.
- Yes.
- Got it.
- Now we are creating another layer for the glossy
for the shiny part.
- Maybe just the sky should be shiny
and we'll leave the town.
Yeah. All of this.
And then this here.
Yeah. That's good enough.
Okay.
I'm sure Van Gogh would be horrified
by what we're doing to his painting,
but it's an experiment.
So I noticed this is moving now.
- It's moving,
it's printing the, uh, layer.
The layout of the the frame.
- Oh,
Oh, I see.
Okay.
You're reading directly on your metal printer bed.
- Yeah.
- And there's the old outlines here
when they were doing the Huawei parts before this.
- [Edward] Yeah, yeah.
- And we're just printing on top of that.
- Yeah.
So that we know where to put,
- To place the, the, the, the lid.
- Right.
So we're going to put the lid exactly where it printed
so then we're in alignment with the image.
- Yep. Yep.
- Got it.
All right.
So now we just align it
to the lines.
Oh, I see.
And I think it's starting to put down the white ink.
- [Edward] Yeah.
They put the white ink first.
- Okay.
So then that's just for the texture
and then we're putting color on top of that in a minute.
- [Edward] Now it's printing the color.
- There we go!
Now we got some color in there.
It's doing varnish now too, right?
Or is it not started varnish?
- [Edward] I think already a little bit.
- Yeah, a little bit.
Yeah, it's starting to get shiny.
(upbeat music)
The part that I'm most excited about
is as soon as this is done,
we can pick it up and touch it, right?
- Yeah.
- Because it's all cured.
Like there's no, there's no waiting time
for anything to dry.
So I can pick it up now, right?
- Yeah, pick it up now.
Ready to go.
- That's cool.
That's so cool.
Oh, it looks really good
now that you can see the varnish.
So the darker parts are shinier?
- Yeah.
- In the way we did the varnish.
- Yes.
That is really cool!
And it's like,
I'm so hesitant to touch it
because I think I'm going to rub it off.
(scratching)
Pretty hard.
Okay, let's put the logo in it.
Well, that actually came out a lot better
than I thought it might for,
for a last minute design idea,
that actually looks pretty sweet.
We've got our little spotlight
for lighting up the inside of machines.
(laughs)
That's pretty awesome.
It makes me want to build an old laptop
that takes a light up screen
just so we can,
we can show it off.
I don't have a laptop this goes with but,
that's pretty awesome.
Edward, thank you so much
for taking the time to show me around
and let us play with the machine.
This is super cool.
- No problem.
- And I really want one of these machines now
after playing with one,
you guys are going to give me one
for my, for my new workshop, right?
- Yeah.
- Yeah?
All right!
All right.
And I want to thank Bes Jet
for sponsoring this video.
If you want to learn more about their printers
go to besjet.com
There's a link down in the description.
That about does it for this time.
I'm Scotty from Strange Parts.
If you enjoyed this factory adventure
be sure to hit that subscribe button down below.
I'll see you again in two weeks.
(upbeat music)