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So as the title says, I’m looking to start performing glass only repairs on iPhone 5S’s, 5C’s, Samsung’s etc. There are several methods ranging from several price ranges, but for what I want to do I want a high success rate, and 0 bubbles. I want an efficient business setup (I am a business owner) to explore these cheaper repairs. These are the two things I was looking; The first, LOCA (Liquid Optical Clear Adhesive) Which is applied on the screen after separation and cleaning then after the removal of bubbles it is then cured under a UV lamp. The second, OCA (Optically Clear Adhesive) which comes in pre-cut sheets that are applied to the LCD and the glass is attached. I was originally leaning towards LOCA, and now OCA, but I have queries with the pressure methods of removing residual bubbles in the gap between the glass and the screen. There are two ways to remove bubbles, an autoclave, and a vacuum chamber. I am wondering, for anyone who has experienced, which works better for what method? Also, if the vacuum chamber is a viable option, do you think it would be possible to make your own (having the knowledge and tooling of course). Is heat necessary when removing bubbles? To my understanding it works best at roughly 60 degrees centigrade(140 degrees Fahrenheit). How do you heat the screen in a vacuum? Would any autoclave work? Or would I need to fork out the $1500 for a purpose built autoclave? What pressure is required for these bubble removals? I’m looking for the most cost effective professional method for performing glass only repairs on phones, while still having some level of automation and a high success rate? What do you guys recommend? I really appreciate any tips from guys already doing this. Thanks so much! :) P.S. Could anyone explain exactly how each bubble removing method has an effect on each type of screen adhesive? I have heard that using an autoclave with LOCA would make it spit out the sides? The vacuum chambers make the bubbles expand and then come out the side, how long does this process take? It just seems to worsen it while looking at it. Sorry for all the questions but it’s a lot to invest, especially for someone of my age (15). Sorry if this belongs in Meta, I wasn’t quite sure.
Let me start by introducing myself. Im an owner of an electronic repair shop. We do everything. From Board repair to screen replacements. Prior to owning my own company I was a general manager of a store which was part of the 2nd biggest repair franchise in the U.S. I have done glass only repairs for a long time now and have used multiple methods. Here is the one I use currently and highly suggest. First things u will need are: an LCD separator machine(basically a hot plate) I recommend get one with a vacuum pump built in. That will cost 150-400 depending on model. Use the molybdenum wire method. This works best. Once you have LCD separated and cleaned apply your loca . Here is the trick I don’t think many ppl use. Go to Walmart buy a food saver vacuum sealer and bags (15 bucks). Place your glass LCD and mold into bag and seal it. Then watch the bubbles work themselves out. Finally cure and then profit.
If you are serious about getting into the business, the autoclave is a good investment Loca Glue can be messy and time consuming. In order to leverage your time, you will need the right equipment. The good news: It looks like the price of these machines is coming down recently.
… or we could start a Government Petition to make Laws on imported Mobiles and Tablets to have ‘cheap enough’ spare parts FROM the manufacturers, like it used to be with ANY electronics! Let alone they do not give schematic diagrams anymore! I am talking in general Electronics and Hardware parts. Oops, too democratic and not Business like?
I’m in reclamation team in Samsung and autoclave heat chamber do remove the bubbles from the LCD. For 6 capacity chamber recommended temperature is 60degree at 10 minutes
Dude, Don’t let anyone discourage you from progressing forward with learning new ways of creating income for yourself and growing mentally . As far as trying to decide which method you should use . I would say if you want to find out which method is a better fit for your business, here’s how I did the same thing except I did it in the screen printing industry. Here’s what I would suggest you do to really get a solid understanding of what your about to get yourself into. Contact the person selling the different brands of the equipment and ask him to provide you with 4-5 business owners that he has sold the same equipment to. Call the business owner and explain to him your looking to buy one of those units to do cheaper quicker repairs . Talk to the business owner and try and get him/her to let you come work with them for a day-a week whatever time your going to need to learn how to operate the machinery from someone who’s doing exactly what your wanting to do. Tell him you work for free for him for so many days if he in turn will teach you how operate the machinery in a proficient manner along with showing you his break outs on supplies and other costs related to the cost of actually making money off that operation. Then find someone with the other technology and do the same thing. Spending a few days learning from doing is invaluable experience to a business owner . As far as advice on which way is better, figure out your cost on each type of repair and the number one thing I would be interested in knowing is which method gives you the highest quality result for the least amount of money you have to spend to fix a screen. Your main objective with any type of business service Is to know which method will yield you the highest quality results For the least amount of money. I would put quality above all else, quality is your friend. As long as you put quality First, you’ll never have to make an excuse for anything.
or Simply get a faulty LCD and experiments yourself. That way you will know for certain, without school - the Scientific way - small changes, write them down and see what happens! Of course there might be differences depending on maker, etc.
I haven’t repaired the glass on any phones but have replaced the whole front a bunch of times, my 4 children have busted many phones. Lol ! I have glued pieces of glass together in the past with uv resin and a vacuum chamber, it bonds with 0 bubbles and crack disappears. I doubt this would work with a completely smashed or spiderweb screen but a lot of completely cracked screens start with a smaller crack then spread because the person waits to fix the screen and it gets worse. Why would it interfere with the digitizer function ? I was just wondering if anyone has tried it ? I don’t know about “rubbish” or “silly” unless it works and puts u out of a job?
Thanks for sharing such a wonderful article, really loved to read it.
Ive not had big problems with bubbles and screen replacements have you done these types of repairs before and keep having that problem? It may sound ghetto but when doing window tinting you can use a hairdryer to heat it up a bit and it will stretch out then use a kind of scraping tool to get the bubble out. Should work the same with a phone i wouldnt see why not. As far as the business goes i wouldn’t reccomend doign a glass only type of thing, i would highly reccomend if you’re going to do it repair all phone problems and if you can’t fix it or its totally shot thats fine just tell the customer and dont charge them. Im starting a game console and phone repair business where i am now and for someone your age i would reccomend you try that out unless you live somewhere that you have plenty of clients and opportunity to make money where i am theres not a lot of money going around so game consoles are pretty trendy along with the smartphones. One last thing don’t worry about spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on anything for a business until you already have the business going trust me you’ll get discouraged spending a thousand dollars on something and then finding out you can only make a hundred dollars a week or less on average so pace yourself and start with simple repairs work your way up to complex things and build a large understanding of what you want to work with. As a young person your biggest problem will be people not taking you seriously or trusting you have the knowledge to do something so work on speaking and knowledge and you should be able to get over that hurdle. Hope some of that us helpful. Update Well if you have a demand for that in your area then i would say go for it. I have honestly not heard of the things you’re talking about but i have not done many phone repairs just a couple and i didnt have any specific issues. Maybe some of the newer stuff is like that but i cant say i know anything about it. The best i can figure from a google search is that its cured by a screen/digitzer replacement and it could be caused from internal pressure or heat causing weird things to happen. Did you replace a screen on a phone and have problems with bubbles or something this is the first ive really heard of issues like this. Update Are you trying to figure out a way to fix the screen that has these issues without a full replacement ? Update I really don’t understand it seems like overkill to me because i would just buy broken iphones as is and keep a stock of extras rather than spending a ton of money on a machine that does one thing. Best thing i can say is try calling those people and talking to them about it because i like fully disassembling parts cleaning them making sure there are no internal problems and that everything is tight so this kind of thing im not interested in. Youre doing the right thing by seeking more information so just keep on that i couldnt justify getting into this one for the price and two because i like seeing the inside of the phone and double checking everything inside and out.
Hi fnqirepair, are you in the UK? I am in the same situation as you, i use LOCA but want to move towards OCA. I know everything that is required, start-up costs are high though. Maybe we can talk if you are based in the UK? email me at GizmoWishlist@gmail.com
Hi I am based in the UK and wanting to go down this route too. Iphone 6, 6+ and Samsung screens are still quite pricey so I now have all the loca and oca, so just in the process of making a high pressure vacuum pump and chamber! If anyone can help or advice please feel free to email me at mario29021980@hotmail.co.uk Maybe we can help each other :)
I have been doing glass only screen repairs using LOCA for just over a year, and am also thinking of moving up to using OCA. Firstly, I don’t use LOCA in the phone’s frame, I remove the LCD from the phone and manually align it. Yes I can remove LCD’s from all the Samsung Galaxy range. I want to start using OCA for the following reasons:
- No need to take LCD/AMOLED out of the frame, saving time, and money on adhesive.
- With LCD screens, no need to remove backlight to prevent LOCA leakage. No need to replace backlight, especially with iPhone 6’s where backlight is very hard to remove and reuse. And some phones I can’t find replacement backlights.
- No returns or discounts due to LOCA uncured, or backlight leakage.
- Less clean up. I think the method by dannyp1987 is unnecessary, if like me you rarely get bubbles in your LOCA to begin with. I have tried using OCA by just heating it up with a heat gun and trying to liquefy it slightly, but didn’t work. PS: I think the OP is in Far North Queensland (Australia).
Anybody tried to apply LOCA with adjustable pipettor(adjustable ml amount)?
Me too is interested in this OCA, rather than LOCA. Is this thread dead? It seems strange! I ‘attempted’ it too and yes LOCA is a messy business and also makes you work a lot for the same profit. I believe 80% of the tools advertised to do it are un-necessary really, maybe if/when the business picks up THEN it might be worth buying automated and better gear. Anyone wishes add anything?
Hi there i have just purchased all the equipment needed for oca glass repairs i will keep you updated wether it is good or not! Cheers!
Hi I have purchased the bubble remover it’s the mini bubble remover.I have tried removing the bubbles from LCD obviously using OCA. However the temperature is set to 60 degree’s and time 10 mine still not much of result. I have tried 8 minutes and 40 degrees won’t have it.Really need some advise as that’s the last thing needed for refurbished LCD ,it take me 60 second to remove glass honesty and cleaning 2 minutes ,just the OCA is taking step back would appreciate advise thank you
I been doing screen refurbishing for 4 years now and i can tell all of you are making mistakes here’s a clue remove the polarizer and apply a new one to prevent bubbles when installing the OCA sheet theres more steps that you can imagen to get it perfect plus i wont be giving free info is not free. Go to a Glass Refurbishing School is worth the money you spend and you will get that back fast!
LOCA is by far the best I believe from personal experience. It’s cheaper, stronger and it also fill scratches on the lcd. Of course LOCA is very hard to master. You have to know the exact ammount you need, you must not use too much for it will go under backlight (specially on Iphone6) and it requires UV lamp. BUT, its much more efficient for avoiding bubbles and it gives you the chance to center the glass as many times you want before using UV on it. So the best way to get the bubbles out would be with a vacuum chamber….unfortunately they are expensive and to make one isn’t the simpliest thing to do since the items you re gonna need to make one might even cost at the end more than the already assembled one. Fear not cause you can perform a vacuum process with just 30$…or even less. Get a vacuum gun, the one your mom uses to store food in those vacuum bags. Get the glue on the lcd, place the glass on it, put some kind of plastic clips in order to hold the glass and the lcd together (or put it very careful in the vacuum bag), and start sucking the air with the gun very very slowly. Don’t suck all the air at once cause glue will eventually will flow out and make a huge mess inside the bag and probably damage you backlight. I use this method and believe it does the same job as a vacuum chamber and even faster than it. After you have sucked the air and the bag is tight, place the UV lamp on top of it and leave it until it dries off. Best solution so far I got and it works like a charm. Make some practice before starting using to master the technique. Hope that helped.
Can’t you just repair cracked screen with vacuum chamber and resin? If u put the uv resin on the crack and then vacuum the whole phone till it penetrates crack then uv the glue? Would that work?
Hey Guys! If you have tried LOCA and have seen somewhat good results. Stick to that method. Keep using it and getting better. I worked at a major distributor with the very expensive machines ($20K) and even they can’t completely get bubbles out sometimes. They also get tutored directly from China for spending so much money on them. This is something they simply won’t bother to do when you spend $2000 on one of those machines.. There are TOO many things to factor.
- What Temp is it in your work area?
- How high are you from Sea level? LOCA is messy and you need to be patient.. but it also requires less accuracy It fills in scratches You do not have to replace polarizer in some circumstances You can reuse the backlight with a good process in place.
I totally agree with Michael R and I am waiting for a iPhone 6 4.7" mould - I prefer to work with a mould. The 2 critical parts are the ‘removing’ of the shattered glass and the LOCA glueing. I did give a good try one and a half years ago and it was 50-50 = BAD, but I saw it was doable with practice. But in the last few months I am getting back and self-train myself to find the best method ‘for me’! We all are different and something simple for me, might be difficult for others and vice-versa. It is the same with Tools, often I make my own special ones! The fact you need to keep it 10-20 minutes in the Autoclave, tells me all I needed to know and you can still get bubbles. Glad you confirmed my suspects - the ££££ tools to do the job ‘supposedly’ professionally is one of many other flops and a marketing tool to sell not-necessarily-needed equipment. Look at many Soldering Irons etc. around - you DO NOT need 90% of them and it all depends on your ‘innate’ [you were born with] abilities and of course you can grow and learn new ways of doing ’things’! I am exactly trying to do that ASAP - LOCA glueing and find my way of doing it. NICE post !
I’ve done screen refurb first with loca and now using oca with a komag machine Loca: Has anyone tried sealing the backlight? I used to use silicone sealant around the edges of the lcd where the backlight meets the glass. You can also use copydex latex adhesive. iPhone 6 is tricky though because there’s very little bezel around the backlight to absorb the glue. When squeezing the glue out to the edges, use central pressure only and watch the glue flow itself right to the edges. To do the corners, apply pressure to the top centre / bottom centre for a few seconds so the glue flows back inward toward the centre, then release. It’ll flow perfectly into the corners with minimal seep. Use xfactor or aps loca only. Uv light fur 10 secs Use a paintbrush and a baby wipe to sweep up the excess round the edges while it’s still wet, then cure for 5 mins Oca Best results with Mitsubishi sheets and polarisers Cheap ones cause bubbles and low touch sensitivity Sometimes small bubbles after autoclave disappear on their own overnight The rest of my knowledge is secret
Anybody knows what are the best glass are there yo use or mostglass will do? For iphones
I tried LOCA first and you can forget that junk! Too messy, too time consuming. I got the OCA sheets and ran into the bubble issues. No matter how careful I was it seems I always have bubbles. Now I have the autoclave and with no success. The machine comes with instructions all in Chinese and I’m wondering if there’s a setting that I have set wrong. I’m not sure if I have the temp right or wrong. I was under the impression you need 60 psi at 20 mins. The first 2 or so seemed to work but the longer they sat after being in the autoclave small tiny bubbles seam to appear out of no where. I’m thinking the temp may be wrong. It was preset at 100. I’m thinking maybe it’s not getting hot enough to remove the bubbles. I think someone posted around 140 is the right temp. So I guess I’ll try that. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The autoclave you need is basically nothing more than a pressure chamber with a temperature regulator and pressure gauge. You can also add a timer but that’s only if you need it for your own use.
Sealing the backlight with silicone is effective for iPhone 4, semi effective for 5 series and useless for the 6. Loca is too messy to really be practical these days, except for Samsung panels where it’s more preferable as the panel is more fragile (they can break if you laminate oca sheets on them) Therefore I use a 5 in 1 laminate and autoclave machine (it’s called a ko mag) for iPhone and other LCD based phones and loca for the Samsung stuff. The 5 in 1 machines have an air compressor and vacuum pump built in and require little maintenance. Oca is best applied to glass first, then to the LCD. You can buy now the glass with oca attached, which minimise dust problems. Autoclave temperature should be 40 degrees and for 16 minutes
Sounds like too high a temperature and / or incorrect position of the oca sheet Temperature should be 40 ish degrees, but because air is compressed in there you might find it as high as 60-70, so reduce the thermostat to 30-35 and check again. The oca sheet I’ve found is better being applied to the glass so you can check there’s enough overlap on the borders before bonding. 1/2mm all the way round is best
Hello I have to buy the machine Komax 12 inch I did all the steps before tournament of use I separated the lcd then I change the polarized then I glue the OCA on the glass I assemble all I press for 3 minutes at 95 degrees% Then I put on my screen in the autoclave for 45 minutes at 82 psi once I finished out the screen is nickel but a few minutes later there are plenty of micro bubbles especially at the edges Or can come to my problem? Maybe the oca movie that I have to buy on aliexpress? can you told me a place where I can buy very good quality of oca? What the best brand oca? Or if you know the problem and think you know the resolve ECLSG’d be nice to m helped because I am in distress I appealed to specialists Thank you thank you thank you very much cordially
Anyone need tips still? If you do list the machines you have I will tell you the right instructions.
Hi Xterminal, Are you familiar with the 2015 AK 2 in 1 laminating machine? I have run a couple sample screens and so far so good except for a few bubbles. The instructions I got don’t say anything about settings ect. All they say is hit the start button and it should work ha ha Any help here with the settings would be appreciated
Can you publish a link to this machine website? I am interested too. Thanks
If you guys have questions about machinery and or techniques feel free to reach out to me or ask below! We distribute equipment here in the USA.
Hi. What is the best glue remover (debonder) to remove the glue under the polarize? Goof off some times damage the lcd and Alcohol isopropyl damage the touch. What is the safer way to avoid damage the lcd, touch and the lcd line?
Hello. I have a question. I work with LOCA but i have a problem. I have a Samsung S4 Display that when i remove the glass i damage the polarizer. If i use Laminator machine to apply the new polarizer will be bubbles or not? I can use LOCA on top to glue the glass and is that? Thanks and sorry, i’m a newbie yet ;)
Hey guys, I also want to join this Business. I want to use LOCA cause it’s cheap and I don’t need any machines. What do you guys think is the best method to prevent the Backlight from damaging through the LOCA glue? Is it really necessary to seperate the Backlight from the lcd? Cant i just remove the LOCA from the sides with some Kind of cleaning wipes or so? Another question, how hot can an AMOLED get before the pixels go white and stop working? I thought of I hear up an AMOLED to 80 C or so, they break because of the organic in there? Amd is 99% alcohol practical to remove the old glue on the lcd? Someone said the Touch sensitivity could eventually break as reason of the alcohol. And what is the best method to remove the old glue? With a Razer Blade, or with my fingers, or with a plastic Tool? What do you think? And I saw Videos on YouTube where they didn’t even remove the lcd from the phone, only the glass itself and put the LOCA and the new glass on(S7 Edge or so I think). Is it Bullshit or is it probably safer cause the Backlight cannot be reached by the LOCA? Thanks for your answers and sorry for my bad english, im from Germany and only 15 years old ^-^ Henri
I am currently selling one of my OCA MACHINES it’s new, everything works perfectly. Selling because i bought three but will only basically be using one. so if interested here’s the link to it. asking $900.00 good price. http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/291976663063?s…
Which ones should i order, the ones with glass and frame allready glued together and oca allready glued ( like this : https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10pcs-lo… ) Or this one, where glass and back frame is separately and with no oca glued allready item like this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10pcs-lo… Sorry for the long links, Im new in this business and kinda confused what is what and which one would be better. Can anyone with experience explain all the goods and bads between those two? And which oca sheets I should prefer? Thanks
This is the machine for.sale
I had issues with bubbles for such a long time, after tinkering with the settings for what seemed like an eternity I finally found the right settings which left no bubbles. So I have a 5in1 TBK408 and my settings are as follows; Pressure 0.5 Vacuum Time 30 seconds Laminating Time 30 seconds Temperature 60 degrees Celsius bubble remover 10 minutes I hope this helped :)
I used to use Loca all the time what I did is I take a pressurized paint pot and an automotive vacuum pump and built a vacuum chamber out of them clean it apply the loca get as many little bubbles as possible out then put in the vacuum chamber for 15 to 20 minutes and see what it looks like I was pulling like -26 on my vacuum
