- This is incredible.
I had no idea this place was going to be this big.
I didn't realize how big a factory
was going to be necessary
just to make some business cards.
Amazing.
(upbeat music)
I have a bit of a shameful secret.
I don't have any business cards.
Here in China, WeChat replaces
what you would normally use email and phone and SMS for.
And when people meet each other,
they just scan a QR code on the other person's phone
to add them on WeChat.
And so I haven't really needed business cards.
But now that I'm traveling to other places,
whenever someone hands me a business card,
I always sort of have to embarrassingly say and apologize.
"I'm sorry. I don't have any cards."
I'm headed to the U.S. in July for a bunch of conferences,
VidCon, LTX, DEFCON,
and I'm determined to have business cards this time.
But I don't want any old, boring business cards.
I want something cool.
And so I was thinking maybe I'll do like PCB Business Cards,
but I've seen a lot of those over the years.
And I don't know, it just feels kind of stale.
And then I came across something cool.
Let me show you.
I found these.
This is a stainless steel business card.
This is for Mash,
a defunct gourmet burger place here in Shenzhen, RIP Mash.
But, it's super thick,
and it's got this textured bit here, and etched,
and it just feels really good.
And it's stiff and solid.
And I want to make some of my own just like this.
And I'd like to go see how they're made,
'cause I have a feeling it's really cool.
But I got to do the design first.
And I'm not a graphic designer, so we'll see how this goes.
(upbeat music)
(Scotty groans)
(soft music)
This sucks.
I just realized, I totally forgot about the WeChat QR code.
I totally need that.
Otherwise, this thing is totally useless here in China.
Where am I going to put it?
Maybe on the back?
(soft music)
Amazingly, that still seems to scan.
I guess there's enough error correction
that you can cover up part of the center of the QR code
and there's still enough data there that it can recover it,
go to the right place.
Pretty amazing.
(soft music)
Will this work? I don't know.
(soft music)
I can't believe that works, but it kind of looks like crap.
All right, well, I have something I don't entirely hate.
The real ones obviously have my name and my full email.
I get enough email as is,
so I'm not going to include it here in the video.
I guess all that's left is to send this off to the factory.
(soft music)
I just got a WeChat message from the factory.
They said they're running my cards this morning
and that I should come out to the factory
if I want to see how they're made.
(soft music)
So I don't really think this factory
gets many foreign customers.
We found them on Taobao and messaged them.
And, you know, they make business cards and they said,
"Hey, come on by and take a look."
But I don't really know that they know what to expect.
And I guess I don't either.
These are all samples here.
I didn't realize they could do so many colors.
I'm getting all these ideas now for what
we should have done
- (man laughs) For the design,
- For future design ideas.
Oh, okay. So it starts out as rolls here.
- [Tony] That's the raw material.
- Comes in as this?
- [Tony] Yeah.
So those are in the roll are,
the thin ones.
- Ah, the thick ones here.
- The thick ones here.
- As sheets. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it looks like they've got
a bunch of different materials.
So normal copper, then regular brass and then steel here.
- [Tony] Yep.
- And iron, iron. Okay.
So here they take the raw material and they cut it to size.
They got a guillotine for cutting.
- [Tony] Yeah, yeah.
- All right, let's go see the next step.
Just wanted to add a quick note here after the facts.
Tony who's translating for me is a fan.
He's never been to the factory before either,
and we're both collectively working together
to try and understand what Mr. Tong,
that the factory boss is explaining to us.
- So on the other side, they have pollution treatment,
like, to deal with this high pollution production.
- Ah. Okay. Right For the chemicals?
- Yes. Yes.
- Yeah, I got it.
- But they can't do it this side
because there's no one that's dealing with that here.
- Ah, Okay. I know it's driving everybody nuts,
driving all the factories nuts,
'cause they keep having to move their processes around.
- Yeah. Yes.
- But I think it'll be good in the end.
- That's the, when they cut.
- So this is just the raw material,
and then we're going to put the mask on it.
Right, okay.
So this is like the mask for the etching ...
- Yeah. That's right.
- To prevent ...
So they're only going to etch the parts that are shiny
and the blue prevents the etching.
- Yeah.
- Is that right?
(Tony speaks in foreign language)
- Oh, so this is to develop this, the content.
- Yeah right.
- So, so you will see this part in design.
- So the shiny part will get etched, right?
- The shiny part ... (speaks in foreign language)
- And the blue part will stay.
(Tony speaks in foreign language)
Yep. That's right.
- Okay. So this machine is putting the blue on?
- [Tony] Blue oil.
- [Scotty] Yep. On the whole, on the whole board,
not just the design, but everywhere?
- [Tony] Yeah, the whole board.
- [Scotty] Everywhere.
- [Tony] Everywhere.
- So they spread blue on it everywhere,
and then they run it through a dryer,
and then we need to remove it where the shiny part is,
for the design.
- So the whole plate will be blue,
and then they will go, we go to the next step.
- Okay, okay. Let's go see.
- Okay.
- This is a really serious operation here.
- So that's the result product from the last step
- Right, okay.
So this is just, it's covered everywhere.
- Yeah.
- And now we're exposing it with the films.
- Yep, yep, yep..
- Oh, here we go. This is our boards right here.
Awesome.
So which ones are done? We can't really even see the design.
- [Tony] Yes, you can't see it.
- [Scotty] It's just ...
- [Tony] But it's on it.
- [Scotty] And it looks like the purple light in here,
that's UV light.
Is that right?
- [Tony] Yes, yes.
- [Scotty] Ah, okay.
- [Tony] So, basically, they want to make sure
there's no bubbles and it's completely flat
and everything will be transferred onto that. Yeah.
- [Scotty] And so they want to get the design
in the films really, really flat against the board.
- [Tony] Yes.
- [Scotty] So that the exposure's crisp.
- The next step is to, actually develop the image.
- Develop it. Okay.
We are on the other side of the wall
and they're feeding in boards into this machine
from the other side?
- That's right, that's right.
- That were exposed.
- Yep. And then ...
- And then what's this doing?
- You're going through this to let the process develop.
- Yeah.
- So this is a developer.
- Got it.
- They're coming out with this design.
So basically you see this blue plate, right?
- Yeah.
- And then once going through this process,
you will see the design.
- Got it. So it's taking off the parts
that were not exposed,
the parts that were black in the film,
are then getting removed.
- Yep. - Got it.
- This is exactly like the PCB process.
The same thing as etching the copper on a PCB.
- [Tony] Yup.
- [Scotty] So you guys want to see more about that process.
Go watch the video we did at JLC PCB,
reviewing the whole process of making a four layer PCB.
This is one stage in that.
Oh, Oh, there we go.
All right.
Those look cool.
And they got full sides.
- This is quality control, right.
So they check this whole exposure process.
- Yeah.
- Once they finish, you can see this image, right?
- Yeah.
- And there's some part too off like.
- Right. There's some. Yeah.
- The oil was off,
so they have to put this white something ink or something,
to put on ...
- [Scotty] So they're just touching it up by hand?
- [Tony] Yep. Yep.
- [Scotty] Uh, that works out well. (giggles)
They don't have to redo it.
- So, I think that the current machine
that's currently running to cut through this,
like each through the metal.
- To go all the way through to make holes.
- All the way through.
That's the second process now.
- Yeah.
- So it takes longer half an hour.
So they are trying to speed up the machine
four hours so we have to wait.
So they will speed up our process
because our process is only halfway through.
- So they don't want to run it as long.
- It's faster, yeah.
- Yeah.
- And, but the second cut, the second one will take longer.
So they have to run through the whole metal.
- Right. So it needs to be in the etching solution.
The chemical longer?
- Yes. So, there's a smell here.
- Yeah. That's okay. That's all right.
- Okay.
- All right. That was the last board into the machine.
Let's go see the mid-process here.
So they should come through here next.
All right.
Very cool.
- [Tony] They do both sides the same time.
- [Scotty] Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, right,
because they expose both sides at the same time.
- [Tony] It's cool, right?
- [Scotty] All right, let's see what's next here.
- So they are trying to dry it.
- Yeah. - Okay.
- [Scotty] So it's been etched, washed, so it's wet.
- [Tony] Yep.
- [Scotty] And now we're just drying off water.
- [Tony] Drying, yes. - [Scotty] Okay.
- [Tony] Okay. Next steps is to etch these names.
- [Scotty] Yep. Yeah.
- I think they have to repeat this process
after they have done one etching process.
- Yeah.
- So everything is like lower,
like half halfway through, right.
- Yeah.
- So in order to cut this through
they have to come back to reapply, and then ...
- Oh, and they etch? - Yeah.
- They etch it. They don't cut it?
- Again. Yeah, they don't cut it.
- Ah.
Okay. So, so here, this is,
we're covering up the parts that we only want etched,
that we don't want cut.
- [Tony] He's applying the oil now and manually,
so that part is not full blown oil apply.
- [Scotty] Right. And they, right, okay, and
so this is like a silk screen process.
- [Tony] Yeah.
I think he mentioned in the beginning,
the laser process cutting is pretty expensive
and only one by one.
So it's time consuming and expensive to run.
So they have to do it. They do it this way.
It's easier, and you can do the whole plate.
- Got it. Okay. Let's go see it.
- Let's go.
- You never know how things are truly done
until you come out to the factory.
(both laugh)
I really want to see lasers.
That honestly, that's why I did the entire video,
just because of the laser.
- [Tony] No, they can't do it now.
- Can't do it now. Oh, okay.
- [Tony] They can't wait
because a half an hour they had gone for lunch.
- I understand.
Yeah. Look at that.
That is, that is pretty awesome.
We just came back from lunch.
These are going to turn out super cool.
There's still some more steps to be done here,
but that's super cool all etched out.
Very, very cool.
(soft music)
- So to it peel off, they have to polish the side
because all those parts might hurt your hands,
so they have to polish the edge.
So we can ...
- So they're just punching them out basically.
So yeah, there's little like bumps on the side
where the tear offs are.
So they're just grinding them off here.
- [Tony] That's right.
- [Scotty] Oh, as a whole stack?
- [Tony] Yeah.
- [Scotty] Ah, that's a lot faster than what I thought.
(Tony laughs)
Not one by one, we got business cards to make here.
Now we're going to see painting?
- [Tony] Yep. - [Scotty] Okay.
- Okay, so basically that's the color set
that they're using.
- Okay.
- So which they can guarantee you get this color.
- And so this is again, just straight up silk screening.
We are just literally putting paint on with silk screens.
- [Tony] Yes.
- [Scotty] Like you would any other silk screening process.
- [Tony] Yep.
For each color you add on top,
they have to do repeat this process again.
So she put the paint on,
and then outside is cleaning off the exceeding part.
And then they go in for the, how they call it?
Like heating part.
And then they dry it.
Once it's dry, they have to come back for a second color.
So the more color you add, the more labor they have to do.
- [Scotty] I heard him say (speaks foreign language),
which is Chinese for trouble.
- Yeah.
- More colors, more trouble.
- Yeah
- Got it.
- So that's why they have to charge extra for each color.
- [Scotty] What is the most colors
they've had on a single card?
- More than ten something.
- More than ten, yeah, okay, okay, but not 110.
- No.
(all laugh)
Yeah. This is after the printing.
So you can see the print it's like on top of this plate.
Right, so there's more print, like exceeds the surface.
So what they're doing is, they're trying to use this alcohol
to remove the exceeding part.
So once they removed it, so this is much more clear.
See the ...
- Got it. So they're removing the black paint
everywhere that's not etched.
- Yes.
- So that they print slightly outside of the etched area.
And it looks like probably alcohol.
- [Tony] Yep, alcohol to remove the painting.
- Yeah, nice.
I recognize these machines.
These are the fiber lasers,
same exact machines they use in the cell phone markets
to cut iPhone backs. (laughs)
To mark iPhone backs and cut
and all the other things they do.
It looks like this here, they've got a black card
that then they're etching the, the black surface off of.
Is that right?
- Yep. Yep.
- And so they're not cutting, they're just etching.
- Yes. There is a machine laser cutting cuts through
in downstairs, but this is too dangerous,
- Too dangerous.
- Yeah. Way more powerful than that.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- It cuts through the ...
See, that's the laser cut.
- Oh, that's cool.
- So thick.
- That's cool. So this is like a bottle opener.
- This is so thick, so etching process
doesn't actually do this job.
- Oh, okay. That makes sense.
- And it's more efficient, quicker.
See, if you're doing it one by one it takes a long time.
- [Scotty] Yeah, it does, yeah.
- [Tony] This is including a lot of manual process.
- [Scotty] Yeah.
- [Tony] This is packaging.
- [Scotty] Awesome.
Oh, so she's putting each one in a little plastic sleeve,
so they don't get scratched.
- That's right.
- So these get packaged up,
and then they get mailed out all over the world,
it sounds like.
Today we have seen major, in fact, right in front of us
off camera, we're not going to show what it is,
but a major, major brand
that you all have definitely heard of.
We've been asked not to show it,
but we've seen, I don't know,
a handful of major brands today.
So there's, they're doing some serious customers here.
Well, Mr. Tong, thank you so much
for showing us your factory and for making these cards.
And you guys have an incredible operation here.
So thank you very much.
- (speaks foreign language)
- And Tony, thank you for translating.
- Oh, you're welcome.
- If you guys want to order your own business cards,
Mr. Tong and this factory, they have an Ali ...
It's Alibaba store, right?
(speaks foreign language)
Yeah.
- Okay. So we're going to put a link to that
down in the description.
They're not sponsoring this video or anything,
but I'm super impressed by what we've seen today.
They're making really nice cards.
So if you want your own, check out that link in the bottom.
All right, we finally got the cards in the mail
finished, supposedly.
I want to see how they look.
(wrapper noise)
I'm so excited. We've been waiting on these all week.
Oh God, they're heavy.
Okay. Oh, okay.
So there are three versions.
Some that have personal contact details on them here.
Those are my personal ones,
and those, okay, these
♪ Hah ♪
They look really good.
Oh.
Yeah, those feel pretty good.
It could be a little thicker, but those look pretty awesome.
And the etching looks really good,
and the cut out letters look good.
And then the painting on the QR code, that's pretty sweet.
Awesome.
Well 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.
We've got a lot more of these coming up.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the video,
I'll be in the U.S. in July and the first part of August
for VidCon and LTX and DEFCON.
If you see me there, definitely come over and say hi.
I'll have stickers and business cards.
(soft music)