I've taken 1000s of electronics apart in the last 20 years. These have all been the subject of 'Design for Disassembly' (DfD) study, from windup watches, automobiles to almost every time of electronic product you can think of.
This time, it's time to take apart the most complex laptop I've ever attempted. I'm going to analyze the parts and then model them and re-design it. I'll write up the development and apply a variety of 'Design for X' (DfX) strategies to it. I'll apply this same model to other products.
Here are is the test mule:
1. Outside casing intact: inside-top assembly
---
2. Outside casing intact: front view open
---
3. Outside casing intact: close-up of upper control board and speaker grill panel
---
4. Outside casing: upper keyboard control panel removed
---
5.1 Battery pack spring clip and lock unsnapped open
- no screws
5.2 Hard drive panel unscrewed and unhinged
- x1 machine screw, simple 3-pronged hinge and 5 snap fit release
5.3 Memory card panel unscrewed and unhinged
- x1 machine screw, simple 3-pronged hinge and 8 snap fit release release
---
6.1 Panel removed
- x24 snap fits
- x4 female brass captive bolts
---
7. Under upper control board and speaker grill panel:
- speaker
- manual volume controls
- mode controls
- power button (just under Speaker)
---
- upper control board and speaker grill panel (top)
- mainboard:
~ disk drive (top left)
~ fan (top right)
~ main PCB (middle)
~ connection board (bottom left - green upside down 'L' under disk drive)
- hard drive (bottom left of PCB main assembly)
- bottom plastic cover of laptop (large silver rectangular plastic molded)
- battery pack (bottom)
- hard drive panel (bottom right )
- memory card panel (bottom left)
---
9. Outside of bottom plastic cover of laptop
- all pieces separated
---
10. Under mainboard close-up:
- disk drive (top left)
- fan (top right)
- main PCB (middle)
- connection board (bottom left - green upside down 'L' under disk drive)
---
- all parts removed
---
12. Hard drive
- removed
---
These are all the main components removed and separated from each other. The first time you disassemble the laptop it obviously takes a bit of time to get used to. After a lot of practice:
- Time: 3min. This is mainly due to the amount of machine screws and complexity. It would be difficult to get under this 3min as I had the proper tools and 2 power drills with correct bits in place.
Conclusions
Design issues:
- too many screws (dozens)
- too many snap fits that break (dozens), snap fits are still preferable to screws.
- non-obvious disassembly
- mixed materials
- complexity
- brass captain bolts molded into injection molding
- nonstandardized screws
- under spec polymer casings (warping, cracking and wear)
- glued labels
- too time-consuming and complex for repair (PCB and battery pack etc.)
- too time-consuming for upgrade (memory board, hard drive etc.)
Some care in design had been taken into account since there were snap fits in places where previous designs might have had more screws and mixed material hinges. Overlapping of components was somewhat minimal. There were, however, various insulating materials mixed in with other smaller, break to snap off components. I will go into further detail in subsequent posts.
In the next post, I will disassemble the components' subassemblies.
No comments:
Post a Comment