Mitsubishi Diatone Factory, from the website, still pumping out lots of speakers! https://www.mitsubishielectric.co.jp/carele/car_diatone/top.html
I only just seen your picture, has anyone ever told you that you look a bit like a youngish Nicholas Lyndhurst from only fools and horses, Not a Lot, just a bit.. As for these photo's i've always wanted to see a video of a Boombox Being made, Like watching them make the casing, spraying the casing, stamping the Decals on to the front.. just watching them move along on the production line .. i just don't think one exists, it's a shame because there's old videos of cars being build, shoes, clothes, Furniture, just no boomboxes or HiFi's
I'd love to see any of that but I'm still scrubbing the internet. There is a three part Sony Documentary, hosted on YouTube, that might show some assembly. They had conveyors with carpeted carts that went past the assemblers, each tray had a unit being built with people sitting next to each other. The videos are on here somewhere, maybe one of the archaeology threads?
In 1998 I worked for 6 months as a temporary for Compaq computers, one assembly line building computer workstations. All it was is a chassis with a hard drive and a processor on a micro ATX motherboard and not much else you know just the very necessities. One stick of RAM, a fan and power supply and all necessities to make it just work. I did that for 6 months and then moved up up from there to becoming a telephone technical troubleshooter for the Presario line of computers and I did that for 3 months and then became a customer service relations manager for a Compaq. Did that for roughly just over 2 years more and then got fired for saying hell and damn too much LOL. Go to hell and damn you.
I guess this is Toshiba around 1973 and they are putting together early "cassette radio." Thanks AB388!
From "USSR Pictures" over on X, The "Vega-335 Stereo" cassette tape recorder from the Berdsk radio plant, 1987
I doubt if a 1970s boombox would have been too different to this except all the ladies would have looked Japanese. Two more for you. Compare the 1950s with the same factory in the 1980s
That is crazy watching the Tv's being made, i never knew they were made by Robots cos it was the 80s, i always wondered how the heck they could line the machines up so accurate to fit the capacitors and resistors and diodes through tiny little holes in the board. i could imagine robots making cars then, but not electronics, so i bet boomboxes were made the same way then. that is wild.
From the Museum of Magnetics Sound Recording, some cool Sony/Superscope Photos, there's more on the website. https://museumofmagneticsoundrecording.org/StoriesSony.html
This video goes into more detail You can usually tell if a board has been automatically assembled from how neatly the components have been fitted. Automatic Component Insertion won't put capacitors in at random angles with random lengths of lead between the board and the component. We had Fuji (the same Japanese company who made tapes) automatic component insertion machines where I worked in 1989. One of the products they made were System X telephone exchange boards. However, in the early 1990s they decided not to make the investment to do surface mount, subcontracting all assembly to companies like the one in the video instead. Moving on to the 21st century, if you ever wonder how phones and computer motherboards are made watch this. If you get bored skip to half way. The machine seems to spend more time lining itself up than placing the components. Finally more 21st century stuff but some good explanations for anyone interested
Another UK Store from 1966, I'd love to walk there here back then. I've never seen a dedicated tape deck store before, over here they were usually lumped in with camera shops.