The sapphire screen has been completed, and the Huawei P7 has become the first model to be equipped

　　[PConline Information]The mobile phone industry supply chain is gradually maturing and complete, and large manufacturers such as Huawei mobile phones have higher bargaining power in the selection of raw materials and accessories. And in the recently hyped sapphire screen, Huawei P7 has already used sapphire screen, becoming the first independent sapphire screen mass production model in the Chinese domestic market. The production process of such high-strength materials is not simple.

　　Known by the media as "never wear" sapphire screen, it has a hardness second only to diamond, and its production and processing difficulty and high price have made it used in high-end watches and precision optical instrument lenses. With technological breakthroughs, sapphire can finally be applied to mobile phones. And Huawei has brought a new upgrade to the Huawei P7 mobile phone that has been put into mass production with the help of sapphire technology. This 4G mobile phone released in Paris, France won the Best Consumer Smartphone Award in Europe for its good shape design and user experience. After getting the configuration of the new sapphire screen, it will become stronger and more perfect.

　　The bubble production method, the most important technology in the production of sapphire raw materials, not only determines the output of sapphire, but also determines the final quality of the material. Due to the complex process and long production cycle, the production of sapphire materials suitable for industrial fields places strict requirements on equipment and production environment. Because of this, as of today, only a few companies can produce sapphire materials for screens.

　　In 2013, Apple invested a huge amount of 578 million US dollars in cooperation with GTAT, the world’s largest crystal manufacturer, to buy out GTAT’s future production of sapphire long-crystal furnace equipment. Faced with the situation of "blockade" of raw materials in a short period of time, Huawei, which has the ability to regulate the industry chain, actively deploys resources to promote the improvement of the domestic sapphire industry chain. While the media is paying attention to the expansion of production capacity of Apple’s sapphire production plant in the United States, China’s local sapphire suppliers have taken the lead in releasing 150 kilograms of sapphire crystals in the world.

　　While obtaining scarce raw materials, Huawei has not relaxed its control over product quality. Since sapphire itself is a brittle material, the industry has always questioned its tolerance. Huawei and suppliers have conducted many tests to optimize the quality of the material. After the in-situ annealing of the long crystal rear section, crystal brick cutting, wafer grinding, and re-annealing after polishing, Huawei’s production of sapphire screens has not only eliminated the internal stress of sapphire, but also significantly improved the strength of sapphire. This meticulous attitude towards quality requirements may be more important than the more important use of high-end configurations.

　　Over the past decade or so, Huawei’s pursuit of leading technology and cutting-edge quality has never been slack. In 2013, Huawei’s investment in research and development reached 30.70 billion yuan, equivalent to about 5.10 billion US dollars, accounting for 12.8% of the annual sales revenue. This is the tenth consecutive year that Huawei has maintained its R & D investment at a high level of no less than 10% of revenue, far exceeding the average level of 6-8% prevailing in the "Global Top 500". As China gradually becomes the world’s largest consumer market for smartphones, to break the monopoly of imported brands in the high-end market, only through continuous investment in R & D and continuous innovation of product technology.

　　　　　In the manufacturing process of Huawei P7 sapphire screen. Due to the existence of sapphire material is hard, high surface energy, poor adhesion of the special finger, the screen processing process is slightly careless can lead to complete destruction of the material. How does the edge processing of sapphire not produce collapse? How to punch holes in the cover plate? Nowadays, the CNC numerical control machine tool hyped by many mobile phone brands can no longer meet the production and processing of sapphire screens. For this reason, Huawei has specially selected a supplier with processing patented technology, using the world’s leading laser non-destructive cutting and precision edge polishing process to solve the problems in the production process.

　　　　In the ink silk screen printing and AF coating process, Huawei has conducted more in-depth and detailed research. Through the adjustment of ink formula and composition, after testing dozens of ink schemes and adjusting the ink baking process, Huawei finally found an ink suitable for sapphire; in the process of developing new AF materials, in order to obtain an ultra-silky and highly wear-resistant anti-fingerprint AF film, Huawei adjusted the coating process according to the actual production experiment. During the production process, it also conducted a steel wool wear resistance test, which reached 5,000 cycles, and finally passed the material improvement and process optimization. It is the adherence to the quality-focused strategy over the years that has allowed Huawei’s rigorous and pragmatic attitude to be integrated into every detail of the mobile phone.

　　For the vast majority of Chinese consumers, simply having the best configuration is not enough to be called the best product, because the high-end configuration may not match the daily usage habits of consumers; for Huawei, there are always some steps that must be taken to transform cutting-edge manufacturing technology into a satisfactory product experience for Chinese consumers.

　　An internal confidential material with version number V1.0 clearly records Huawei’s rigorous product testing content, involving dozens of tests such as stress, drop, temperature, electromagnetism, and saline-alkali corrosion. In order to test the reliability of the mobile phone, a variety of scene modes such as free fall, low temperature controlled drop, and roller drop are set up in the drop process alone, and the test qualification standard is even set as many as 4,000 times for common micro-drops. For the huge environmental differences between northern and southern China, Huawei even specially set artificial sweat to test whether the mobile phone can maintain normal mechanical and electrical performance under complex use conditions after being immersed in saline-alkali corrosive liquid.

　　The production of Huawei Sapphire P7 in 2014 also went through dozens of complex tests such as four-point bend test, ball drop test, extrusion test, transmittance test, hardness test, coating test, TP/LCD test, drum test, drop test, high temperature and humidity test, etc., which proved the excellent product quality of Huawei P7 and verified the leading industry standard of Huawei mobile phone in hardness, temperature, signal and other performance indicators.