How Motherboards Are Made – MSI Factory Tour!

So where does it all start?

Motherboards for the most part, and in the simplest terms are a PCB with various components fixed and soldered to it with traces of copper within that connects the various components to each other. It sounds really simple, but it’s anything but.

The PM’s and engineers at MSI work on producing a design based on their many years of experience and templates set out by the likes of AMD and Intel which are loaded onto the systems. This is the start point for all of the industrious machines to read from so that every component is placed in the correct location, in the correct way, with very little room for error, and the automation side of things was something that MSI were extremely keen to promote to us. In the last few years alone, they have increased automation by ten-fold and are keen to progress further so that more products can be made, and in an even faster manner, without slipping in terms of quality.

While automation is important, there is always room, at least for now, for physical people checking along the way, changing reels of capacitors and components and checking once again, even though MSI have invested heavily on inspection machines that can scan a board at intervals along the way, to make sure that there is no room for error.

The PCBs of which are cut to size, start their journey by moving along into essentially what is a large printer. This printer starts by placing solder on one side of the board, using a Solder Paste printer. Essentially what is a conductive ink printer before moving along to the next step which comes down to component placement.