EKWB Factory Tour

If there's one company in the enthusiast computer hardware space that we all love, but nobody really knows much about, it's EKWB. The company, which is celebrating its 10^th anniversary soon, has never had a media visitor to its headquarters.

Recently, EKWB moved into new offices. Of course, when I heard this, I just had to ask if Tom's Hardware could take a look. After a couple months of figuring stuff out, I boarded a flight to Slovenia and paid EKWB a visit.

The company's primary focus is on water blocks, but it also sells the other parts you need to build a water-cooled system, including reservoirs, fittings, tubing and pumps. Some components are made by EKWB, others are resold or re-branded.

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Edvard König is the man behind EKWB. That's also where the company gets its name: Edvard König Water Blocks. EKWB started as a garage effort when König realized that he wanted to water-cool his PC. At the time, he worked in a shop and had access to a milling machine, allowing him to build his first water block. Enthusiasm on the Slovenian forums was huge, and in 2003 König started mass production of one design, selling 100 units. In 2005, König went to business workshops and participated in a business plan competition. He won, and in 2006 he launched EK Water Blocks.

Within six months, he had resellers on every continent. The days were long, but growth was strong, and slowly König started taking on employees and building a team. Today, König primarily plays a strategic role in the company, having handed most control to the CEO, Mark Tanko. The company employs about 45 people at its headquarters.

One of the block designers is Rok Dolinar, an R&D engineer at EKWB. As Dolinar explained the design process to me, he was working on a model for a water block compatible with three of Asus' Maximus VIII motherboards, which later came to be known as the EK-FB Asus M8G Monoblock.

The first step in building a water block is designing it. There are multiple ways to go about this, but for most blocks, the process starts with digitally mapping out the hardware.

This particular block would cover the CPU as well as the VRM circuitry around the socket. Therefore, the entire CPU socket area is mapped out, as well as the space around it.

Following the creation of the motherboard in virtual space, Dolinar went on to build the water block's base. He opted for a split base, with the area over the CPU separate from what covers the VRM circuitry.

The space over the CPU is the easiest to design; it's just a copy of the EK-Supremacy EVO's based, EKWB's flagship CPU water block. Conversely, the part covering the VRM circuitry has to be designed by hand.

Over the bases goes a metal plate, followed by the top of the block.

Once a block has been designed, it goes off to manufacturing and comes back in pieces as a prototype. The designer can then test-fit the hardware to make sure it works as intended. Of course, that's not always the case.

After Dolinar made some "non-retail" adjustments to the prototype, he added them to the block design, sent the update back to production and tried again.

Contrary to what you might expect, EKWB doesn't actually manufacture any of its water blocks in-house. Instead, it partners with various manufacturers that own CNC (computer numerical control) milling machines. EKWB pays them to build the blocks.

The reason for this split is to keep the company flexible. Admittedly, EKWB could achieve higher margins if it brought manufacturing in-house. But outsourcing allows more agility, making it easier to absorb changes in the market.

When a milling company receives a block design, an engineer must specify how the CNC machine should build the block. For a prototype, this step isn't very time consuming, but for final designs, the engineer has to ensure that each block spends as little time as possible inside the machine. An engineer told us this can take a full day of simulation.

We captured one such simulation for your viewing pleasure. You can watch a video showing the simulation of milling a GPU block here.

The three objects you see are not different blocks. Rather, because the milling machine can only cut from one angle, a worker has to move the block around when switching from front to back, to cutting the micro-channel structure.

Water blocks may be small, but the CNC milling machine is actually quite large. Much of what it does is automated, including switching tools. However, the people operating the machines do need certain qualifications.

In person, it's hard to see what the milling machine is doing as a result of the fluid being sprayed everywhere. Regardless, we did get a couple of pictures at the factory.

The machine works with various sets of drills, which it uses to cut parts out of the copper block by following the path set by the engineer. Each has a different shape and can be used for different purposes. Naturally, the milling machines can make all sorts of objects.

Between sides, a worker has to take each block out and flip it around. This is because the milling machine can only work on a block from above. The block's placement has to remain precise, though. If it's slightly off, the milling machine can start drilling into the wrong part of the block.

Cutting out the coolant channels happens from above the water block. But to create the micro-channel structure, the block has to be placed on its side. This is because the tool that is used employs a blade, and doesn't drill into the copper from above.

The micro-channel blade is not something you can pick up from Home Depot. EKWB worked with the milling company to design it, and then had the tool custom-made. The computer-controlled milling machine is perfectly capable of using it.

It isn't the most durable tool, however. The micro-channels must be etched down to a certain depth, and the blade cannot reach it in one attempt. Instead, it passes over each channel three times, cutting out a little bit more until the proper depth is reached. You can see this in the simulation video.

The acrylic and acetal tops are machined out the same way, and all the parts are shipped back to EKWB's headquarters for assembly.

The first step in assembling a water block is collecting all of the required parts. A handful of employees handle this stage, and they all operate through work orders telling them what block to make and how many to put together.

The first step in assembling a GPU block is placing the water jet over the micro-channel structure, and getting a rubber gasket onto the base of the block.

While EKWB has pre-shaped rubber gaskets made for the blocks it sells in high numbers, some blocks don't move in such high volumes and therefore don't get pre-shaped gaskets. This saves money in production, but doesn't make installation any easier. In fact, I've heard that installing these gaskets is a huge pain.

Once the gasket is placed, the weights have to be removed in order to position the top. Sometimes the gasket then pops out of place, forcing the process to start over.

Next, EKWB employee places the top over the block and screws in the bolts using an electric torque-sensitive screwdriver that hangs from above. Not only is this very quick, but because the tool is set to a specific torque setting, it also ensures that the bolts are not over- or under-tightened. Over-tightened bolts can cause the top to crack (especially with acrylic), and under-tightened bolts result in leaks.

The EKWB badge is placed, nuts on the opposite side are tightened, the block is wiped clean and the inlet/outlet terminals are installed. After this, the block moves to pressure testing.

EKWB has an automatic pressure-testing machine. The only interaction required is for an employee to place each block in the tester. The machine does the rest of the work by itself.

The machine works by sealing around the block's inlet and outlet, forcing air into it. If the block can take EKWB's specified pressure, it passes the test. The machine was set to 0.207 megapascals, which is equivalent to about 30 PSI. That's roughly what's in most car tires.

Next, an employee places a "Leak Tested" sticker on the block, and sends it off to packaging. Should you ever dismantle the block, you'll have to go through that sticker first.

There isn't much to be said about packaging, except that the folks running this department are extremely efficient. At first, I told one of the workers to just do what she normally does as I took pictures. Right away, though, I had to ask her to slow down. The process consists of cleaning the block, bagging it, putting it in the right box with its bundled accessories, closing it up and labeling the box. For that last step, the team has a label printer.

There are two teams that handle distribution. One takes care of customer orders, and another handles shipments that go to EKWB's distributors around the world.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was how efficiently everything runs in EKWB's factory, and how good the working conditions appear to be. You're never really sure what to expect when visiting a company's headquarters, but I was allowed to browse freely. After spending just over a day talking to the employees and figuring out how everything works, it became clear to me why nobody was nervous about my presence -- they had nothing to hide.

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Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware, covering News. Follow him on Twitter.

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