Takeaways from the Leaked 8min Google Pixel 6 Assembly Video

This is more of a discussion topic so I put it in meta. The videos under discussion have been pulled, but here are the original sources (one), (two).

You can easily find them by searching youtube for "Pixel 6 Pro Disassembly video" or "Pixel 6 Pro Assembly video" and filtering by “last hour”

Here is one link, but it may be pulled by the time you view, YMMV.

Key Takeaways:

The tools used for phone assembly are larger than those in ifixit kit. This may be because smaller tools are more fiddly when assembling phones with nitrile gloves.

The "universal esd stick 540-00898-00" mentioned in the video looks roughly 3/4in wide, 1/4in thick and 8in long

The esd tweezers also look larger.

Sankol lubricant is used on rubber gaskets and mesh microphone screens throughout the phone. It also has water repelling properties.

3m AP111 primer is likely the cause of absurdly strong adhesion of batteries to phone frames.

Non lint q-tips / dust free cotton buds were used throughout assembly. Is it worth looking for ways to import such products to make them more common for repair folks in the states?

The battery is handled very carefully. Notice the plastic feeler gauge used below the battery? This assembly step is clearly implemented to allow for battery expansion (Lipo batteries change in volume as charged and discharged). I can't help but think this step was added because of the disastrous samsung note7 battery production error. It's clear no one wants to pay for a recall.

The battery and display are handled with an "esd safe bulb vac." Virtual Industries in colorado springs makes these in the states. Here’s a supplier link.

"3m upuv primer" is used to adhere die-cut adhesive strips during phone assembly. The aluminum phone frame is first cleaned with IPA. 3M VHB Tape Universal Primer UV is likely the product.

The biggest insight here may be that google is ok with an 8 minute assembly time for a pixel 6 pro phone. If Apple produces more than 200 million iphones a year, they have to have optimized assembly to less than 8 minutes, or employ a significant chunk of Asia to assemble them. I’m betting it’s a lot less than 8 minutes :D

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3 Comments:

@salvagedcircuit awesome information. Thank you for sharing.

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Very interesting, @salvagedcircuit! Thanks for posting this!

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Thanks for the input guys. Just wanted to bring some attention to recent repair methods used in industry :D

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