MANUFACTURING COMPETENCE

foreign Phoenix Arizona a thriving busy Metropolis of nearly half a million people one of America's fastest growing cities a city that reflects exciting concepts of today and tomorrow the overall business climate in Phoenix is excellent Phoenix is a good source of Labor and encourages good Labor Management relations it's a good place to live and work in recent years some of the nation's industrial leaders have established manufacturing plants here significant trend has been the growth in the electronics Industry quarters of the General Electric computer department is located here on a 160 Acre Site in the Deer Valley industrial complex north of the city more than 2 300 men and women are employed by the computer Department occupying a total area of over 260 000 square feet at present the manufacturing area is being expanded to more than twice its size from this new modern plant General Electric company's computer department is pioneering many new applications for the latest tool of progress electronic solid-state computers computer systems for All Phases of Business Industrial scientific engineering and financial endeavors [Music] the manufacture of computers is a complex process it takes more than 150 000 electrical connections and over 60 000 individual parts because of the magnitude of detail the design and planning of manufacturing techniques has become a job for the computer itself many of General Electric's manufacturing processes are computer designed and computer controlled Electronics of computers consist of three major elements logic wiring which is the interconnecting of common building blocks printed wiring boards which are the common building blocks and magnetic core matrices the memory portion of the computer it takes the products of almost 3 500 suppliers to furnish the raw materials for the manufacture of a computer its company policy to buy everything possible from local vendors where quality price and service are competitive quality control begins immediately every item is tested for strict adherence to specifications the computer racks are placed on the production line and mechanical assembly begins raw forms are bolded together and modular sections are mounted in place [Music] modular card holder fixtures are assembled with the aid of this Jake devices like this are used throughout manufacture to eliminate awkward and tedious operations foreign s are a major and vital part of the computer to assure a wire connection of the highest quality a solderless wire wrapped connection is used by eliminating the use of solder also eliminated our heat damage flux corrosion and solder splashes punch paper tape is used to control the wiring list display the operator reads the wire termination points makes the connection and presses a switch which advances the display to the next point the wire wrapped gun stripping attachment is a device which was developed by the computer Department to increase reliability of wire connections its strips cuts and prepares the wire for wrapping when the gun trigger is pressed the gun rotates and wraps the proper number of turns on the terminal making a lifetime connection some computer wiring requires direct runs of wires with a minimum of connections wires are run to various connectors on this fixture and are formed into a large harness for later installation in the computer with all of today's electronic advances the simple clothespin still comes in handy [Music] when a rack has been completely wired it must be tested for correct placement of wires and terminations this testing is being done at this console an entire rack is checked at one time connectors plug into the rack completing the circuit so that cut annuity can be checked [Music] one operator scans the wiring list while another checks the lights each light represents a termination for that wire [Music] another form of computer wiring is back panel wiring back panels require hundreds of drilled holes holes drilled to exact specification and in many different patterns the General Electric Mark II controller is used to control the actions of this birdmaster drill the pattern to be drilled is computer determined and the whole location information is on punched paper tape [Music] online the Outrigger drill allows the machine to simultaneously drill two panels automatically back panels combine wiring and printed wiring in the most efficient combination its panel technique produces consistent and accurate wiring resulting in Savings in space and a higher quality product the back panel system of wiring requires that connections be made to printed wiring boards these connections are made through individual connectors here they're inserted into the panel connectors are fed to the insertion machine one at a time the operator lines up the hole in a beam of light and presses a trigger the machine then automatically takes over locks the panel in position picks up a connector and inserts it in the bore foreign [Music] silk screening is used extensively on printed wiring boards this machine is another development of the computer Department it maintains accurate placement of the screen on the printed wiring board solder resist is being applied to the board the green colored resist will prevent solder from adhering while the bare terminal points will be selectively soldered foreign for the boards are staked on this press each computer uses thousands of diodes maximum reliability is achieved by testing each diode prior to assembly the diodes are purchased in reels that are fed to an automatic tester at the rate of one per second if one should be found defective it is automatically cut out of the reel [Music] diodes that have been tested or placed in an automatic cut and form device the leads are cut to length and bent into the proper form to allow the diode to easily fit into place in the printed board diodes are made of glass and so must be handled gently to accomplish this the leads are firmly clamped close to the glass before any cutting or forming is done everybody [Music] most printed board components must have their leads cut in form a variety of machines are used so that these operations can be done automatically transistors require special handling because they have three or more leads and cannot be placed flat against the board the transistors are placed in this device which automatically cuts the leads to size and crimps them this transistor has the normal long leads after cutting it looks like this a closer look allows you to see the crimp that is placed in the leaves to hold it above the surface of the board pre-cut and pre-formed components are now ready to assemble into printed wiring boards this method of handling prevents stress in the component body and results in longer life and greater reliability the printed wiring boards are passed down a progressive assembly line each operator is assigned a certain number of components she inserts them in the board and passes it on Down the Line this system allows a complex board to be broken down so that each operator's task is relatively simple the boards are pre-marked to show location and direction of electrical flow The Operators Place their components Guided by these markings this method assures a high degree of accuracy [Music] factor in the reliability of printed wiring boards is the soldered joint for highest reliability the computer department has completely mechanized the soldering operation boards from assembly are placed on a conveyor from this point on the entire soldering process is automatic boards are fluxed dried and preheated before being passed through the solder wave temperature of the solder and the speed of the board are closely controlled flow soldering results in solder joints with extremely high reliability excess leads and solder are trimmed away by this machine [Music] the finished boards are analytically tested this instrument is programmed to test for any particular circuit desired one component per second is checked here again the test is completely automatic here boards undergo functional testing the operator simulates actual operating conditions and observes the results on various instruments the simulation of actual operating conditions makes this a very positive test foreign [Music] all the test units used in manufacturing are themselves checked periodically a calibration laboratory is maintained by quality control its prime function is to keep all test instruments calibrated to extremely close Manufacturing tolerances [Music] they're really small the memory portion of a general electric computer contains 170 000 of these tiny cores threaded on matrices they store the information fed to the computer vibrator jig is used in place of manually aligning the individual cores for threading operator is 4 is 400 cores Into The Jig each tiny core is vibrated into its proper position and in a matter of seconds each core is in perfect alignment [Music] here the 2400 cores properly aligned are placed in the assembly fixture prior to threading the wire is now easily threaded through every core in the following close-up Watch The Wire as it moves diagonally from upper right to lower left invest be seen crossing the Center Square [Music] in case you missed the action here it is again [Music] the core memory Matrix still in its original assembly Jig Is Now undergoing testing again completely automatic each core is individually tested a bit of information is electronically read into each core it remains there for a moment and is then read out this readout must be within specifications [Music] each memory plane must be assembled with other planes and electronically connected to form the complete memory this is a completed memory ready for installation [Music] computers also require small memory devices to allow the high-speed electronic portion to work with a low speed mechanical unit this buffer consists of many cores each wrapped with several turns of wire here manual dexterity and lack of distraction are vital foreign [Music] the operation of a computer is made up of a number of simple events each command will cause a certain number of these events to occur in a given order this device performs these control functions the fine wires being threaded are the electrical pads that determine the order in which events will occur wiring this Matrix requires a high degree of skill and concentration for this is the nerve center of the computer the computer is now in the final stages of assembly in the upper left a memory is being bolded into place at this stage all major sub-assemblies are installed and wired and the computer is ready for final testing in previous data processing systems it has been necessary to test the entire system with the Advent of the controller selector the new General Electric computer can test any individual unit or combination of units with no more difficulty than inserting a plug into a socket like this General Electric high-speed printer that can fit a thousand lines per minute [Music] [Applause] [Music] or this high-speed document Handler which can sort and read into the computer documents that have been printed with magnetic ink characters with testing completed the computer is prepared for shipment doors are installed trim is added and final touch-up work is done you have seen automatic production methods many of them controlled by information produced on digital computers producing other still newer computers the evolution toward automation is tied closely to products and methods such as these General Electric has a dynamic program for increasing productivity and maintaining technological leadership in the manufacture of computers here in the advanced manufacturing engineering laboratory various assembly and Manufacturing equipment is developed for mechanization and automation systems foreign techniques are developed and tested these experiments will result in mechanized and automated component welding equipment new chemical processes are evaluated and analyzed from this constant research comes the development of new manufacturing techniques techniques that have led to the first electronic Bank bookkeeping system using General Electric developed magnetic ink character recognition the first gauge logging system the First tinline Quality data accumulator and the first process Computing system in the steel industry General Electric with its tremendous resources is continuing to invest in new facilities and dramatic new technologies for the production of computers its computer systems are being installed by Leading businesses Across the Nation information processing centers are being opened in major cities through manufacturing applications research and accelerated marketing efforts General Electric computer department is assuring creative innovation productive performance and competitive Vigor in the age of the computer [Music] thank you 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