Picture: Dell.
As part of sustainable product design, Dell showed how it’s using telemetry and robotics to speed laptop repairs by showcasing updates to its “Luna” concept laptop.
Some Dell laptops, like the Latitude E5270, scored 10 out of 10 for repairability, according to the iFixit site. Dell’s Concept Luna laptop, unveiled last December, aims to go the extra mile with a design that features only four screws, with minimal adhesives and solder to hold internal components in place.
The design would allow a repairman to insert a screwdriver-like tool into the side of the device to unlock the chassis and from there remove the keyboard, display, fans, battery, motherboard, and the speakers by hand or with a robot.
Telemetry system and automation
The latest iteration of its modular laptop project plans to add a telemetry system to monitor individual components and a robot, like Apple’s iPhone disassembler, Daisy.
The telemetry part of Concept Luna aims to solve the problem of wear and tear on hardware components at various stages, for example a motherboard that fails while the keyboard and screen are still in good condition. “Our Concept Luna can equip and connect individual components to telemetry to optimize their lifespan. In its simplest form, it’s akin to how we maintain our vehicles: we don’t throw the whole car away when we need new tires or new brakes,” Dell explains in a blog post.
The industrial robot has two arms designed for dismantling and sorting parts. “The exciting addition of robotics and automation serves as a catalyst for accelerating the efficient disassembly of devices, measuring the condition of components and their remaining usefulness, and better understanding which components can be reused, refurbished or recycled, so nothing goes to waste,” Dell says.
“This vision has broad and lasting implications for us, our customers and the industry as a whole, as we work together to reduce e-waste. »
A non-marketed concept
The concept progressed to the point that a Dell representative was able to disassemble the laptop in a demo for Ars Technica within a minute. He demonstrated that the display could be removed by inserting a pin at the base of the display which releases a latch allowing it to be removed from the chassis.
Durability and repairability are increasingly on the agenda for consumers and computer hardware manufacturers. US and European lawmakers who want to reduce e-waste are also advancing right to repair laws.
Dell’s device is still a concept – and therefore not for sale. But some vendors have already capitalized on the appetite for more repairable hardware, such as Dutch smartphone maker Fairphone, which released its fourth-generation 5G modular Fairphone 4 last October. The American manufacturer Framework updated its modular laptop last year and recently released a Chromebook edition, with an Intel Core i5-1240P processor of 12e generation.
Source: ZDNet.com