Can Russian electronics compete with the Chinese one? At the market of safety systems it is reality – more than 90% of fire detection devices and controllers for them are produced in Russia. This segment is one of the few where appeared strong companies with their own production, development, integration, distrubution and service.
That is why we go to see how these safety systems are produced at the largest and the most famous in the coutry producer that functions at the secret space research institute in Korolev.

Put shoe covers on to enter the shop

They lack of space, all these areas are leased, and no more space is offered. They can’t afford to buy their own yet.

Printed boards assembling.

The new equipment Fuji – the main part of the production line that costs more than 2 million rubles (about 670 thousand USD).

Reels are inserted into feeders by operators.

At the start of the line is a laser marking apparatus. It applies a unique 2D code on the board that is tracked during the whole production process.
Having read the code of the board of a defective device they may trace by whom and when it was produced, which components were used.

Section of visual control and repair

In the corridor

Nearby is the section of metal boxes assembly. Mainly they are backup power supplies with a storage battery and an electronics board. Ready boxes are hung and tested under load. Modules of test load are above.

RIP – nice name for the equipment…

The red corner is the place where they assemble blocks of fire alarm systems.

Some boxes are filled with rather complicated tight plaits assembled manually.

The second floor

Mounting smoke chambers on the boards

Before the assembly code of each board is scanned and automatically registered in the data base.

There are such screens on all tables, they display the current operation and amount of the products produced.

It is forbidden to photograph in the room where they adjust devices sensitivity, they keep secrets. Only this general view.

Assembly section. Each square meter is occupied. Detectors assembly.

They make various detectors, but mostly smoke detectors, of course.

Some hundreds of detectors are checked at once.

The new mechanical stand. It can push a red button by itself to check response.

The third floor. Here is the second assembly line.

Solder paste is applied in the printer through a template. Then the robot takes electric details out of the reels and puts them on this solder paste like on glue. The board with the details moves to the furnace on the conveyor where the paste melts and turns into solder alloy reliably connecting ends of the details with strips on the board.
Nothing difficult except the fact that an average size of such detail is 1×0,5 mm and the robot’s operational speed is up to 5 components a second.

The test laboratory. The main exhobit – a smoke chamber. Rare and precious. It’s a strange thing in fact, it can be activated only once. Misoperation will turn the alarm system and firefighting on and cause real damage. But it’ll be even worse if it works late or won’t work at all.

Leaving the building

They sit all squashed…

Ladies decorate their working places… so cute

Once they built an extra floor in the shop with high walls but this beam crane remained. Now this ugly thing is kind of the interior part.

Testing of the board. They use handmade stands. A worker should only put a board on it and see if it’s fit or not.

Final assembly is on the first floor. Ready and checked boards are inserted in frames and sent to the warehouse.

Mini-typography where they print instructions and nameplates.
And we won’t name the company, we don’t advertise them actually as you might think. Google if you want…

Location: Korolev

via zorins