A new batch of photos appearing on the Weibo social network claim to show new production schematics and die for manufacturing the body of the iPhone 6 inside a Foxoconn facility, as noted by GforGames. A few of the photos (below) definitely show some sort of technical design documents, though we can’t be sure what they show as they are both incredibly technical and written in Chinese.
The molds, as seen above, definitely appear to be designed to produce a smartphone, but there is no confirmation that these will be used for the iPhone 6 as opposed to a phone from some other manufacturer. Apple is rumored to be working on two different models of the iPhone 6 with different screen sizes. If they are designed for the next iPhone, these molds could be for the 4.7″ or 5.5″ models.
The larger model is reportedly being delayed until later in the year due to production difficulties, so it seems likely that if the above photos are real, the molds will be used for the smaller model. This would match up with reports that the smaller device will go into production this month, according to an earlier report.
Late last month, several new photos that purported to show the body for the next-gen iPhone leaked on Weibo as well.
A final photo shared on a different Weibo post shows what is said to be a fixture for one of the tools used to produce the next iPhone. We don’t have any idea what that could be, and the claim is pretty broad. (Update: Thanks to reader Tristan for clarifying that the part is a die block to hold the phone while it is machined.)
As with most leaks, it’s best to remember that these may or may not be the real thing, and the users who posted these photos haven’t been proven to be connected to Foxconn at all, or have they previously leaked anything.
The technical documents and tool fixture are below:
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Someone needs to get fired for this… they aren’t showing us the legit device… :(
windows xp…
Not uncommon in China.
Not uncommon in most industrial factories/manufacturing plants. Some have upgraded to Win7 however you do have to understand that many of these machines are not off the shelf and custom made for the components that they are designed to fabricate and construct. That being the case often times the company that makes them not only designs the machine and the subsequent firmware but also develops the application(s) that run the machine so if say this machine was developed to manufacture and manipulate aluminum and this machine was created 8 years ago and has been used in this plant ever since, it will stay with the OS and software it came with, never to be updated again… In my career I spent many years in the scientific field with similar scenarios; specialized equipment costing millions for let’s say 1 high powered microscope or DNA analyzer with bundled software that would only run on Windows XP or even Windows 2000 and could never be updated because new software or drivers weren’t written by the creating company which supported new OS’s.
please provide a photo of a CNC being controlled by an OSx machine, you can’t do it.
Its not that you cant do that, its a matter of price, PC for this purpose costs very less and then 20 cents pirated CD for XP, no comparison at all.
and besides that they are not controlling CNC in these shots, they are just using MS Excel and also autocad in the background.
That is a die block.As you mentioned it’s just to hold the iPhone while it’s being machined. Likely grinding the stainless steel frame.
Not too long before the actual phone leaks I bet.
I bet 2 months… you know, in June, just after WWDC but before it’s announcement.
Don’t be surprised if it’s earlier. But probably right around that time.
My job is to cut and ship the tool steel template blocks that these die’s are made from. I work for a specialist company in the West Midlands in England. We cut blocks, and then I ready mill them to perfect squareness within tolerances of -0.0mm/+0.1mm. Always makes me incredibly happy to see my work however occasional it may be as there are a lot of behind the scenes manufacturing processes that never see the light of day, (I’m not saying this is one of my blocks, we are not the only company in the world to supply this stuff). I must advise you all that I have no idea what the companies do with the blocks we send, and of course they still have to be machined to become the dies and presses by the companies that receive our steel. But looking at this steel and from my experience with all grades of tool steel this looks like a low chrome grade. Which isn’t used for much more than cold treatments. This looks like a holder to hold some sort of template that will be machined or ground into a shape. Probably one of many processes to get the shell of the phone made.
Thanks, that was nice and insightful info :)
wow very cool indeed !
Aren’t those injection moulds for plastic? How would that have anything to do with iPhone 6?
I my hope is they are injection molds for Liquidmetal! I can’t wait for Apple to launch a major product, or their whole line, in Liquidmetal. That combined with sapphire glass would be fit and finish to the Nth degree! Apple is always on top of their game and I can’t wait for the new iPhone and iWatch to make it to the market!
Reblogged this on BobLovesTech and commented:
More leaks. No surprise.
I my hope is they are injection molds for Liquidmetal! I can’t wait for Apple to launch a major product, or their whole line, in Liquidmetal. That combined with sapphire glass would be fit and finish to the Nth degree! Apple is always on top of their game and I can’t wait for the new iPhone and iWatch to make it to the market!
I don’t see why people are pissed about this not proving this is for iPhone 6 , 9to5mac and other sites are doing their job by getting us closer to actually seeing what we want to see.
This is a rumor site get over it.
Why on earth are they using Windows XP on that computer !!!
I’ve only joined the Apple league with iPhone,iPad and iMac about a year ago, and it STILL amazes me how completely ignorant and naive people are to the “real world”.
Your question should have been “why on earth would a company spend 10x more on Macs with limited software&support to get a little CNC job done?”
Don’t you know that the world is run on Unix and PC’s and Macs is for the “creative bunch”?
Go to your local bank and ask if they’re using Macs – NO!
Go to your local supermarket and ask if they’re using Macs – NO!
Ask 99% of companies if they’re using Macs – answer is STILL no!
Settle down a bit, André. I don’t think people think banks and supermarkets use Macs, and your 99% mark is incorrect. About 22% of companies use Macs in some form or another, according to one study. (http://www.cnet.com/news/macs-are-invading-the-business-world-study-says/)
The ’10x’ number you used is, I assume, just hyperbole. The actual amount of difference on similarly specced machines is usually closer to 30%, not 1000%.
The industrial firm I work for would love to switch to Macs for production because of reliability/build quality/security issues we run into with Windows machines. Unfortunately, all of the oscilloscopes, ovens, and other production equipment that we use all have Windows only applications. It doesn’t make much sense for a business like ours to use Macs when you have to put Windows on it anyway.
So it’s certainly true that most industrial computers do not use OS X. I think the folks like Sam that were surprised at seeing Windows XP were expecting to see OS X in use only because the teaser video Apple released of the Mac Pro production line showed iMacs being used in an industrial setting. That or they were surprised that it was XP specifically, not that it was Windows in general.
Well, that’s nowhere near correct, but think whatever you want, I guess.
Thanks Rex. Yes the 10x was just hyperbole as was the rest of my ‘statistics’.
And you’re right too, drivers/software mainly exist for Windows machines than Macs.
Also, who would want to put a nice looking Mac in a greasy & dusty environment in an industrial place.
Videos showing how the Mac was produced, probably the Macs there were just for show, I mean it dosen’t help Apple to proclaim “Windows machines are making our Macs” :)