Dell’s Concept Luna, the company’s sustainable PC design project unveiled last year, will receive further upgrades. The concept embraces a new way of designing laptops that requires fewer cables, screws and glue during assembly, making disassembly and repair easier. Dell presented an evolved version of its prototype laptop, where everything from the motherboard to the display can be taken apart in minutes without removing a single screw.
The company has even added robotic automation, said to be able to disassemble and swap out faulty components inside the laptop. Telemetry data helps the robots detect the health of individual components in the laptop and swap out the failed parts so they can be reused and extend the life of the product.
Dell is one of many tech companies working to reduce their carbon footprint and e-waste. The company says it has commissioned a proof-of-concept micro-factory where robots can disassemble a laptop and even use telemetry data to check for faulty components.
The company provides an example of a scenario where users working from home connect their laptop to an external monitor and keyboard, leaving the laptop’s keyboard and screen unused. In such a case, it would be wasteful to recycle the entire laptop after a few years when only the motherboard might need to be replaced or upgraded.
Dell hopes that all future technology products will be developed with some kind of modular design that extends the lifespan of the device so that it can be used for longer.
While Concept Luna is exactly what the name suggests, a concept, Dell and many other tech companies have been using sustainable materials in their products and packaging for a number of years. Acer for example introduced called a separate line of laptops Aspire Vero which mainly uses PCR plastics (post-consumer recycling) for the case and keyboard.
