by Ekaterina Alexandrova
The Russian computer equipment manufacturer Aquarius has doubled the production capacity of its plant in the city of Shuya, Ivanovo Region, from 400,000 to 800,000 devices per year, by commissioning new workshops with a modern belt conveyor and high-speed surface and pin-mount lines …
Investments in the project amounted to $ 5 million, another $ 10 million will be invested in the modernization of the company’s production in the next two years. According to the Aquarius company, in 2019 the volume of the Russian computer equipment market amounted to 480 billion rubles, the share of domestic equipment was about 13%.
Previously, Aquarius manufactured a number of motherboards for its products at the Shuya plant, memory modules, specialized controllers, trusted boot modules, and also fulfilled orders as a contract manufacturer. The modernization of production will allow the company to install all types of motherboards in its plant, as well as double the production volume.
The new SMT line installs all types of electronic components on a PCB and is equipped with Automatic Optical Inspections (AOI) that automatically monitor critical PCB assembly steps such as the quality of solder paste application and component placement before and after soldering. All finished printed circuit assemblies undergo additional soldering control on an X-ray machine, which allows detecting defects inaccessible to visual systems. The presence of such stages of control raises production to a level that meets high international standards.
The pin assembly line includes automated wave soldering machines for mixed assembly and post-soldering PCB cleaning. The production area for the installation of new equipment was modernized, a new air conditioning and anti-static protection system was installed.
At the moment, the production area of ”Aquarius” is 11,300 square meters. m, including the SMT and THT workshop, two workshops for conveyor electrical and locksmith assembly of final products, a server workshop, a slipway assembly workshop, as well as a camera for additional selective control of assembled products at elevated temperatures.
The company’s immediate plans include the construction of a new production building and a new automated warehouse. A section for the manufacture of specialized technological equipment will also be launched, which, among other things, will include the manufacture of in-circuit and functional control stands, solder masks, etc. developed at the enterprise. Thus, Aquarius plans to use the technological equipment of its own plant in the future, increasing the speed launching products into production.
The Aquarius plant in Shuya is one of the country’s oldest non-governmental IT industries (it has existed for over 30 years) and one of the few production sites in the country capable of mass production of modern computers, monoblocks, laptops and tablets, data storage systems, servers and telecommunications equipment that is not inferior in quality and functionality to products of leading foreign brands.
This year, Aquarius participates in the production of tablet computers under an agreement with Rostelecom for the production of tablets for the All-Russian Population Census in 2021. In the workshops of enterprises, the installation of motherboards and the assembly of ready-made tablets for software and hardware complexes with a domestic mobile operating system has been established “Aurora” – at least 70% of the total output (from 360 thousand devices) will be produced by the company “Aquarius”.
The development of production is inseparable from the development of the division that develops products and their key components – the technical management of the Aquarius company, whose staff has been seriously expanded recently. The company is actively recruiting new specialists to accelerate the development and launch of new product models in each product group.
At the same time, it is planned to constantly increase the share of Russian microelectronic components in technology. In early July, an agreement was concluded with the Element Group of Companies, which unites the microelectronic assets of the Rostec state corporation and Sistema JSFC, to analyze and formulate proposals for the unification of the electronic component base, which is used for the development and production of hardware – computers, telecommunications equipment , metering devices and mobile communication devices. In the near future, Aquarius plans to present new product models, including those based on Russian processors Baikal-M and Elbrus 8C. Aquarius is a member of the Vychislitelnaya Tekhnika ANO consortium, which unites leading Russian manufacturers of radio electronics.
Russian IT companies, results of the year, production
Aquarius | Aquarius GK
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