From Magic Studio, we came to the workshop with the loudest noise and the strongest oil smell in the factory. This workshop is the parts processing workshop. This workshop can be said to be the base of various CNC machine tools. Here you need to turn the metal material without any carving into useful parts.
The first thing we saw was this wire cutting machine. Its main function is to cut parts of various sizes, shapes and sizes from various metal molds according to the requirements of Hublot.
The so-called wire is a very thin electrode wire. After the electrode wire is turned on, it will reach a high temperature of 10,000 degrees Celsius. When an object touches it, it will melt quickly, so it is easy to cut it.
In order to reduce the impact of friction on the processing accuracy as much as possible, not only watches, but also all mechanical manufacturing industries must be performed in engine oil when processing parts. This machine is specially designed to cut titanium.
The wire cutting machine is cut by drawing the outline on the mold in advance. When cutting, the electrode wire will start to cut from the small hole on the side of the part to be cut. From the figure, we can clearly see the cutting track.
Some of them are already finished products.
The machine next to it is dedicated to cutting ceramic parts. The ceramic powder has turned the oil into black.
This machine can be said to be the treasure of Hublot’s Zhenchang. There are only two supersonic cutting machines in the world, which are specially used to punch magic gold.
Magic gold is very hard, and no metal can leave scratches on it, so ordinary machines will only break the machine, so this supersonic cutting machine is the only machine that can punch holes in magic gold.
This supersonic artifact comes from Germany’s top CNC machine tool brand DMG (Demaggi). This brand mainly produces top-level high-precision CNC machine tools. It’s really not to be underestimated.
In addition to Hublot, most of the watch’s movement splints are made of brass. The brass material is 2 to 3 meters long. The brass is first cut into pieces by a machine, and then polished into the most Regular circle.
After that, the brass pieces are machined for basic milling, cutting and drilling by a machine tool.
Brass is not the most accurate when cutting and punching for the first time, so it has to be processed several times.
Since the processed brass parts will be oxidized, there is another machine that will be completely cleaned and then coated with PVD coating to make it resistant to oxidation.
In my impression, no brand is so careful in the use of materials, not only the colors are diverse, but also the variety.
Take carbon fiber, not only does Hublot use it in the movement, but the raw material of carbon fiber is produced by Hublot itself. Another small factory near this factory specializes in carbon fiber production.
The produced carbon fiber raw materials will be sent to this workshop here, and then cut like brass. Because carbon fiber is many times harder than brass, ordinary machines need to change the drill bit to cut 1,000 pieces of brass, and every 100 pieces of carbon fiber are cut. It needs to be replaced, which is why the carbon fiber watch is expensive.
These are the components of highly complex watches, such as tourbillons, minute repeaters, perpetual calendars, and of course some decorative parts.
This is the copper pillar decoration on the Tourbillon watch.
The two white ones are the parts of this year’s LaFerrari watch, which have just been made and have not been polished, and will be polished and polished later, and then decorated.
This is the first step of quality inspection. The newly cut parts are placed under the microscope and compared with the design drawings.
These lines represent the most standard outlines of parts designed by computers.
Through the comparison of the actual object with the design drawing and these lines, you can see that they are completely consistent. Since these parts are produced by machinery, just pick one of the same batch for inspection, but this is only the quality of the first step. Inspection, and finally, when all the parts are delivered to the upper floor for assembly, they must all be inspected again.
Before leaving the first floor, we also visited the dyeing workshop, where we saw a lot of equipment like bird cages.
When dyeing, first hang the part to be dyed in that ‘bird cage’, and then put it in these cylindrical dyeing tanks.
These already dyed parts can greatly increase the charm of Hublot’s movement. Leaving Hublot’s dyeing workshop, we walk towards a more mysterious production workshop. (Text \\ Figure \\ Photo Watch House Mao Zhuang)
The Hublot Factory Quest (1) Please click hublot / 19359.html