Inside the Olight factory!
Inside the Olight factory!⌗
Today I am taking a look at the Olight lab, the Olight factory, a battery supplier and a supplier with CNC machines and lathes.
We will see how the Olight O’Pen Glow is made.
This post is a part of a series of posts where I visited multiple flashlight factories in China over three days.
After visiting Wuben on the first day, I went to sleep at a hotel near Olight.
A giant sculpture outside the hotel looked a bit like an Obulb:
Day two⌗
I woke up around 8am Thursday the 11th of May and had a quick breakfast at the hotel.
I sent Monica a message via WeChat and she arrived at the hotel with Nick to take me to Olight headquarters. It was a short walk around the corner.
As we went up the lift, I was greeted at reception with a welcome message on the TV and the dedicated team at Olight for Australia.
Monica kindly gave me an O-Witness certificate, Olight i16 and an OD green O’Open Glow with my name engraved on it.
We walked around where there are teams for different countries and regions. The support and marketing teams are big!
I mentioned that I would love to see the test lab.
Olight lab⌗
We walked over to the building with a new test lab. The lab was much bigger compared to 2017 where the late Marshall Hoots of Going Gear toured the headquarters and factory.
One dark room had several boxes with light meters calibrated to measure the lumens and runtime.
Another room had small and a massive integrating spheres for measuring the lumens, CCT, CRI and duv. The PC showed a spectrum graph.
Another dark room measured beam distance.
We then proceeded to yet another room with several machines for testing torches! Drop tests. Tumble tests. Static electricity…
I saw some new products being tested. Buttons and pocket clips were being tested with two different machines that press buttons and insert into the pocket clip.
Another room had a machine to test a torch rapidly going between hot and cold. It also had several new products being charged.
Olight headquarters⌗
We walked back to the main office and checked out some prototypes.
Monica and Nick brought me over to the product manager for Obuy where he showed me several knives.
We then visited the CEO of Olight, Mr Fox Fan.
I had expressed an interest in seeing the Warrior Mini 3 so we went over to the research and design department to meet the product manager.
There were several people working on designs and coding.
A showcase of several lights (range of i3T, i5R, WM2 etc) was on display.
The product manager brought a sample of the WM3 with him. It was exciting to play with! I commented about some of the new features and the product manager explained why they made the changes. It was exciting!
Monica, Nick and I took a taxi to the factory. It took about twenty minutes.
Olight factory⌗
We were greeted by the receptionist where she showed us around with a manager.
Raw materials and components come into a receival area where employees perform quality control checks. If the items are ok then they get placed on a blue tray and a robot takes them to another room.
A conveyer belt brings the tray in and another check is performed. Then the tray is collected by another robot and stored in a storage room.
Another conveyer belt receives certain components like torch heads from the robots. And then employees take the trays and laser etch the product name on.
I saw one complex machine automatically assembling tailswitches.
We then headed over to the assembly area where I saw the O’Pen Glow being assembled. One line was assembling a black O’Pen Glow while another line was assembling a red and blue O’Pen Glow for the US.
Off to the side was a testing room. There were heaps of machines for testing lights, similar to the lab, but every bit of space was being used for testing.
I got to see the Seeker 4 Mini being packed up and ready to ship. And there was yet another room for testing lights (runtime tests).
On the way out I saw that Olight have a room with a CNC and lathe for making prototypes before getting a supplier to mass produce the aluminium hosts.
Battery supplier⌗
We walked over to a battery supplier where they were making battery packs for another client.
We found one assembly line where 21700 batteries were being made for Olight.
I got to see them weld the protection circuit on, add the proprietary button top, and add a wrap.
Supplier making hosts⌗
We then walked over to a supplier that cuts aluminium down to make the hosts of each torch.
The supplier was working on products for different clients but I got to see about three different hosts for current and upcoming Olight products being made.
I was pretty noisy!
Olight and their suppliers have an impressive setup.
Video⌗
Here is a video of my visit to the Olight factory:
Thank you⌗
Thank you Monica, Nick and Olight for showing me around!