Is there a reason for this?
Is there a reason why there is not more electronic objects used in second-life designs?
To find the reason, if there is one, I have started to dismantle certain pieces of electronic equipment. Hopefully this breakdown of objects will lead to insights about their manufacture and assembly. Below are some photos showing stages in the dissassembling of a printer.
Item: Lecturer's printer
Fault: Broken fan
- Snap fittings, need a long flat screwdriver to unclip them. Do this too often and with too much force, the plastic will bend quite drastically and can break.
- Slide the side panels off, can take a few minutes to work out how. These are very form and function specific: several clasps located in the corrolating places on the main structure. Can they be used for any other function? Maybe, but almost certainly not another electronic object - different components, even as little as a few millimetre apart, would not fit together.
- Most of the larger components dissassembled, the motor, print cartridges, ect. It didn't take too long to get to this stage, but only after taking the casing apart.
Laying out the skeleton of the object like this can be quite daunting if one were to re-assemble the item, unless instructions were to hand or one had prior knowlegde about the assembly of similar objects.
All these components have been designed to fit together perfectly and so intricately. If one piece is missing, the printer will not work. If one piece breaks it is understandable why an individual may throw the item away rather than undertaking this task, especially as it is likely that a replacement component cannot be sourced, the manufacturers are foreign, and it is cheaper and easier to buy a new printer instead of repairing the broken one.
- All these smaller circuit board components have been soldered on, what am I to do with this? Recycle it? ... on your bike!
Is there a system that will allow the semi-precious metals, if any, to be harvested from this electronic waste? Apart from unethical eastern "chop-shops"? The WEEE initiative should give me an answer...
- This is the component that houses all the other smaller ones. This has been formed, punched, bent, etc so much that there is very little else that this could be used for, especially for electronic functions. The raw material could be recycled, but it is very tricky to dismantle an object down to this level, and this component is not even fully dismantled! If one were to pursue to this stage, recycling would prove difficult because identifying all the components and their materials would take a long time and would also require some knowledge of material identifications.
Insights: It seems that the main reason that some faulty electrical items are put to landfill rather than being repaired is due to the unfamiliarity of electronic components. Individuals are in contact with the outside casing of the objects, the shiny and pleasing veneers, never the 'guts' of an object like a computer or printer. This results in a barrier between consumer and object - one that is rarely broken to see whats on the other (in)side.
Design for dissassembly must be considered if the above is to change. Making products simpler to dismantle will potentially make it easier for individuals to dissassemble their faulty objects, if however they are that way inclined. Fixing a broken printer is much too daunting for any individual to try: what part is broken? how do I find it? what's that? do I need that screw? why are there no instructions? oh crap how do I put this thing back togther? ... where did that screw go??
The skill of fixing an electronic object such as a computer or printer is a taught and very specific skill, one which individuals do not usually possess. So maybe the answer is to ensure that individuals take the faulty item to a repair shop to get it fixed.
I and members of my family have taken our computer equipment to repair shops on several occasions, sometimes these trips have proved successful. However on other occasions and with other types of electrical objects, the trips have not been so fruitful. The answer from the repair man on the latter tends to be: "they don't make that component anymore" or "it'll be practically cheaper to buy a new videocamera", etc.
From experience of Design for Manufacturing, I understand how the costs of products and their components are calculated, along with related figures such as shipment of these items to their destined countries. Manufacturers are able to achieve lower production costs by increasing the production of components from a mould, making each one slightly cheaper in total. To buy a single component and have it shipped from the manufacturers and then have the repairman replace the faulty component with the new one can be very expensive, not to mention time consuming.
How do we ensure individuals are more knowledgeable about the components within their objects? See-through casings? Videos on dismantling? The internet?
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