An elegant laptop but easy to disassemble and repair without having to turn to sector specialists, so as to be able to extend its life cycle and reduce electronic waste. A laudable and necessary ambition for the entire technology sector, which Dell tries to achieve with the Concept Luna prototype, an idea that promises, for now only on paper, to reduce the weight of PCs on the environment.
The prototype of the US company (third world producer of notebooks, desktops and workstations behind Lenovo and HP) is presented in the sign of the circular design, which should facilitate maintenance and replacement of parts, making the entire operation convenient.
What if we could push reuse to the limit? Concept Luna is a vision for sustainable PC design that explores revolutionary ideas to make components immediately accessible, replaceable and reusable.
Read on to explore the possibilities: https://t.co/RBGlrUy3Yo #CircularEconomy pic.twitter.com/EQIqDhw8GQ
— Dell Technologies (@DellTech) December 14, 2021
With the concept that Dell has created together with Intel, reconsidering the arrangement of all the internal components, it will not be necessary to replace the cooling fan or damage to detach the keyboard or replace the screen, because there are no fans. The motherboard located in the top cover will take care of the passive cooling of the machine. To disassemble Luna, just remove the four screws used (a much lower number than the models on the market), while the aluminum for the frame will be obtained by hydroelectric energy and the bio-based printed circuit is composed of linen fiber and polymer soluble in water, so as to facilitate the separation of metals and board components.
There is more, because the same motherboard, thanks to a new design, could have a reduced impact, requiring 20% less than the components normally installed on the body, when compared to the integrated card in the Latitude 7300 Anniversary Edition. The ecological footprint would drop by 50%. This is crucial since, according to a life cycle analysis of the 7300 AE itself, the production phase represents 65% of the impact on the device’s environment, with the motherboard weighing more than all the other components.
If Dell’s attention to the issue derives from the desire to use only renewable energy by 2040, with the commitment to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade, the relevance of Luna lies in the possibility of updating and so do not replace the notebook, lightening the dumps. When a product is disposed of, each piece can be reused on other models, before moving on to recycling, which is triggered when it can no longer be used in its original form.
The company’s intent is to succeed where Google failed with Project Ara, the modular smartphone that proved to be one of the company’s loudest flops. Dell instead wants to replicate what Fairphone did for the notebook, with smart phones that allow each owner to repair all the elements, with a vision similar to Framework, a San Francisco startup that has developed a screwless laptop, upgradeable and customizable according to your tastes and the options proposed.
Another aspect on which Dell intends to work is the possibility of updating the laptop in view of its longevity, with batteries, screens and other spare parts that must always be available and have identical dimensions while improving in effectiveness, otherwise no compatibility and goodbye dreams of glory. In any case, the Luna concept is for now only “an example to get to provide more sustainable products in the future”, as stated in the note with which the company presents the project.
Chief design Drew Tosh who says he is optimistic about “seeing many of these solutions aboard laptops by 2030”.
