UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Chinese electronics and The Art of Electronics

Argus25 · 19th Oct 2017, 5:37 am

Chris,

I have been quite astonished of late at the re-manufacturing or refurbishing of semiconductors and IC's that has been going from Shenzhen, that doco helps explain some of it.

They have mastered the art of extending the cut down wires from round CAN style IC's and transistors that have been pulled from pcb's. They cut the wires at a diagonal and weld them together. Then all the wires plus the metal device body is re-electroplated (looks like shiny new Tin) this covers the welds so you can almost not see it without a microscope. Then they re-label the device or laser a new label on it. You can see its been done if you look closely, but at a glance it looks like a shiny new part. The advertising though can be deceptive as it showed an original Motorola part, but these refurbished ones turn up. I can hardly believe all the work that was put in to pass these things off as new parts.

The problem with this as I see it, even if the part works, it is used, you can't know its history or even who the original MFR was, so it throws in a big element of uncertainty, so when I receive this sort of thing I bin it and don't even bother complaining, its a terrible waste.

19th Oct 2017, 5:37 am	#8
Argus25 No Longer a Member Join Date: Oct 2016 Location: Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia. Posts: 2,679	Re: Chinese electronics and The Art of Electronics Chris, I have been quite astonished of late at the re-manufacturing or refurbishing of semiconductors and IC's that has been going from Shenzhen, that doco helps explain some of it. They have mastered the art of extending the cut down wires from round CAN style IC's and transistors that have been pulled from pcb's. They cut the wires at a diagonal and weld them together. Then all the wires plus the metal device body is re-electroplated (looks like shiny new Tin) this covers the welds so you can almost not see it without a microscope. Then they re-label the device or laser a new label on it. You can see its been done if you look closely, but at a glance it looks like a shiny new part. The advertising though can be deceptive as it showed an original Motorola part, but these refurbished ones turn up. I can hardly believe all the work that was put in to pass these things off as new parts. The problem with this as I see it, even if the part works, it is used, you can't know its history or even who the original MFR was, so it throws in a big element of uncertainty, so when I receive this sort of thing I bin it and don't even bother complaining, its a terrible waste.