How is a Vaporizer Made from Component to Finished Vape

Although vapes are just about every where, do you know how they are made? Read this post to learn the ins and outs of how a Vaporizer is actually made from tiny components to finished vape pen product.

by: Joe C. | 05/12/21 1:30PM

Home Blog How is a Vaporizer Made from Component to Finished Vape

Vape Production Quick Break Down:

Individual component parts are manufactured by a specific Manufacturing Facilities
All components are shipped from the various Manufacturing Facilities to one Assembly Facility
Components are laid out into assembly lines and assembled
Components and Finished Vapes go through quality control tests
Vapes that pass all quality control checks get packaged into kits and sealed in plastic

Manufacturing Vaporizers Introduction

Vaporizers are essentially just another consumer electronic with a huge array of options with varying functions, designs, feels, quality levels and more. Like most electronics, just about all vaporizers are made in China from the small to big brands – and China does not necessarily mean cheap or bad quality, they have been manufacturing electronics for a long time and have great quality as well as poor quality; even the almighty iPhone is made in China, but so is the trinket found at the 99-cent store. Whether producing your own proprietary vaporizer or using already produced components in the market, there is still a general process that a vaporizer goes through before it ends up a completed vaporizer.

Manufacturing and Sourcing the Vaporizer Components

A vape pen does not magically appear. Vaporizers start out as individual, internal components which are eventually combined to create the end-product. Any vaporizer is made up of many components, from the battery to the different buttons, the wiring, PCB chip, chambers, coils, and more.

Each of these individual components themselves first need to be manufactured. And more often than not, it takes multiple factories to complete one vaporizer. Factories can create various molds for components, order the raw materials like ABS plastic or metals and produce many of the vape components. But even with that, parts and components like the PCB chip or battery are often sourced from another factory that specializes in those components. Whether it is one or ten different factories, the fact is, the vape components themselves need to be manufactured first before you can even assemble the final vaporizer. Below have quickly broken down some of the individual components found in vapes.

Vape Battery

One of the most important components. No matter what, the battery will obviously need to fit inside the vaporizer housing unit and needs to be programmed to work with the PCB chip and the vape in general. The battery is one of the biggest costs, maybe the biggest when it comes to pricing out the individual components of a vaporizer. It is important to have a quality battery and this component often separates good from bad quality. When a vape ultimately fails it is often the battery, so it is important that quality batteries are being created or sourced for the manufacturing of any vaporizer.

PCB Chip

Also very important, essentially the brain of the vape that tells it everything from the amount of power to draw, to the amount of charge to take. The quality range does not vary as wide as the battery quality, but there are better and worse PCB chip qualities. A PCB chip itself is made of individual components; so it is important they are made properly, and it is important to use quality PCB chips in the manufacturing of any vape. With that being said, some vapes are simpler than others. For example, the PCB chip in a Box mod vape will be more expensive than the PCB chip for a simple vape pen battery.

Body of the Vape

Important obviously, but the body is the body, and it is technically referred to as the Housing Unit. When you break it down to the chemical make-up, technically there are many levels of plastics (ABS), rubbers (Silicone) and metals (aluminum, copper), however, more or less, a hard-plastic or metal body is the same from one supplier to another. But do keep in mind that a metal housing unit is typically more expensive to create, although metal will last longer than plastic.

The body of most vapes are made in a manufacturing mold that produces one piece after another on a production line. Production is a cookie cutter approach, so there will only be an issue if you create a mold with incorrect measurements to begin with, or something else like the mold is past its life – a mold can be made from steel, titanium and more, so depending on the material, it may be able to do a production run of 10,000 units, or even a million units.

Vaporizer Display Screens

This component you typically get what you pay for, and it is not so much about getting a bad screen that should be good, but just a fact that some display screens are more expensive than others; just like the newest tv is more expensive and a bit nicer than the one that came out a year ago.

Basic display screens and the newer higher def screens will differ in price slightly. Basic screens do not have a negative impact on the vape, they just do not look as nice. The size of the screen and whether it has other features like touch screen will also make an impact on cost.

Heating Chambers and Vape Coils

Really depends on the vape in question as dry herb vaporizer chambers are straightforward and are typically just a hollow chamber made from ceramic or metal – these are typically made and produced in high quantities by specialized manufacturers. More complicated wax coils are themselves made up of components from metal, quartz and ceramic rods to the ceramic chamber casing. The quality level can vary in a variety of ways – the bigger 510 vape tank attachments typically used with box mod vapes are complicated and require a ton of small parts. And with those parts it is important all the wiring is soldered properly too.

Barrel Threading

There are different types OF threading in the vaporizer industry and it is important that the correct threading is ordered so that there aren’t inconsistencies in the battery threading and the threading that is inserted in the atomizer barrel. One of the issues with this material is that suppliers may not have enough demand of one threading and will decide to stop producing it because the other threading is being ordered much more. The most common threading is the 510 threading. It is the industry standard, and many vapes which debuted with their own threading have now diverted back to a design that utilizes 510 threads.

Putting Everything Together

The vape components themselves either need to be manufactured or sourced from multiple manufacturers in order to create the vaporizers we know so well. The individual parts are all sent to one place, typically another type of factory, one that is designed for assembly. This part of the manufacturing timeline is all about assembly. Cars and some other products are very expensive and heavy duty, so robot manufacturing is common in that industry. But for consumer electronics that pop up and change by the day, it is not common for robots to be putting this stuff together. Having a mold pop out a million vaporizer bodies and a million buttons is one thing, but to create a machine that will put together the body, the buttons, the battery, the PCB chip, the wiring, etc would not be cost efficient – by the time the robot is constructed a new electronic is ready to be pushed out. For consumer electronics and vapes specifically, the vape is assembled in different stations, and each station is manned by human beings. One station may be responsible for connecting the PCB chip to the battery and another station will connect the heating chamber, and all the way at the end there is quality control that will charge and test each product.

Vaporizer Quality Control Checks

The connection points are super important in the assembly process. The AGO Vape for example, must have the pins positioned correctly or else the atomizer may not connect with the battery, resulting to a defective item because the vaporizer will not turn on. The SteamCloud mini relies on magnetic connection, so the connection points need to be positioned properly or the vape will not function.

Quality control is an important part of the assembly process. Making sure the atomizers work after assembling them. Nobody is perfect. That’s why having a production manager oversee the assembly workers is key. That way they can optimize the assembly process and minimize the mistakes.

Testing/Charging is a key part to the process. Making sure batteries can take a full charge multiple times is very important. That way the manufacturer knows the wiring, battery and PCB chips are all consistently working together. Another important aspect of charging test is testing the charging port connection. Sometimes the charging port moves after being connected and reconnected, resulting in a defected unit. It is important to make sure the charging port is positioned properly and attached tightly so it doesn’t move after inserting and detaching the charging cable.

Button connection is important to test to make sure it’s near impossible for it to get stuck/jammed. Clicking the buttons several times and making sure it’s not wiggling too much or making loud/hollow noises.

PCB Chip Program Testing. Making sure that the vaporizer consistently heats up within the correct time period and checking on the automatic shutoff time shutoff for all vaporizers is commonplace.

Vape Aesthetics inspection. Making sure that there are no scratches or marks on the vaporizer body. Those must get immediately taken off the production line.