Inside the Lumintop factory!
Inside the Lumintop factory!⌗
This post is the final part of a series of posts where I attempted to visit five flashlight factories in China over three days.
After visiting Acebeam in the morning of Friday the 12th of May 2023, Neal and I travelled to a restaurant near Lumintop to have lunch.
Lunch with Lumintop⌗
We were warmly greeted by Mr Leo, Mr Tiger He and Ms Jiang when we arrived at the hot pot restaurant.
There were many different dipping options. I filled a few bowls with sesame sauce and peanuts to dip meat in. I had a lot of fun picking meat and vegetables out of the boiling pot of water with chopsticks.
I mentioned that I work for a telecommunications company. Mr He, the founder of Lumintop, is a senior telecoms engineer. And we talked about China and Australia.
We headed outside after lunch. It looked like it might rain. It sprinkled a bit but we remained dry.
Mr He offered to drive us to Lumintop headquarters so Neal and I jumped in his vehicle.
Lumintop headquarters⌗
Mr He pulled up in front of the headquarters and we went up the lift to the top floor.
This is where the video starts:
We walked through the entrance with the Lumintop brand and the bunny logo on the door and continued into the main office with engineers, designers, sales and marketing all working.
As we went into Mr He’s office, I asked if I could use the restroom.
We walked through the main office, through the packaging area, and outside where there was a nice view.
I went to the restroom near the assembly area and then walked back to check out the assembly area.
Assembly area⌗
To keep the assembly area clean we put covers on our shoes before entering.
I followed Leo down each assembly line to see how they make various torches.
Lumintop Thanos 23 tubes were having lubricant applied to the threads.
Boards with three springs for three 21700 cells were being screwed into the tubes.
MCPCBs with emitters were being soldered onto the drivers. It looked like the the shelves of each head were flat and anodising had been deliberately removed to allow the MCPCB to more efficiently transfer heat away from the emitters.
It was great to see Lumintop take the time to clean any flux or dust off the emitters before adding a reflector and lens. This step can be overkill for a domed emitter but it is nice to see this attention to detail.
The workers look very proficient at installing glow sticks. They were installing about six glow sticks per torch!
Other parts of the factory⌗
We headed over to the test lab where they have large and small integrating spheres for measuring the light output.
In another room I saw a machine for laser etching the Lumintop branding and model names.
We then headed back through the packaging area where I noticed a nice setup for taking professional photos with a light box.
A nearby room had several racks with products ready to be packed.
Mr He’s office⌗
We walked back into the Mr He’s office and sat down to have tea.
Leo asked for my opinion about flashlight designs, using larger cells (have you seen the 46950?!) and he welcomed input from the flashlight community (e.g. BLF).
I showed my website on my phone and explained how the Lumintop Tool AA 2.0 was one of the first torches where I learnt how to swap emitters.
Mr He then brought out a gift set of Lumintop Tool AA 2.0 in the four seasons. I tried to refuse and mentioned that my wife would not be impressed if I came home with more torches. He then brought out a brass Lumintop Frog on a necklace and suggested giving this to my wife.
Trying out torches⌗
We stood up and walked over to Mr He’s desk where he had multiple torches.
I was handed a Lumintop GT4 (or GT94?) and I shined it at the roof. It was a massive thrower!
I checked out a few flooders:
- Lumintop Tiger
- Lumintop Thanos 23
I then checked out multiple Laser Excited Phosphor (LEP) torches:
- Lumintop Ant Man
- Lumintop Thor I
- Lumintop THOR4
- Lumintop THOR5 (such a narrow beam!)
- Lumintop Petal
Leo then brought a tub of water into the room…
Lumintop Mach with a fan underwater!⌗
The emitters that were being diligently cleaned earlier in the assembly area were surrounding a fan. It was not the Thanos 23. It was the Lumintop Mach!
Leo put Lumintop Mach into Turbo mode and the fan immediately turned on. He lowered it underwater to demonstrate it still working and then gave it to me to have a go. It was a lot of fun. Mr He joined in too.
Lumintop kindly gave me the Lumintop Mach and Lumintop Petal for review.
Heading home⌗
We took some photos as we said goodbye and then I jumped into a car to go to the airport in Shenzhen.
It was a whirlwind of a trip! Five factories in three days. Everyone was so welcoming.
Thank you⌗
Thank you Lumintop for being so welcoming! And thank you Neal for guiding me over two days.