Monday, June 11, 2012

Laptop Disassembly - As complex as they get. Part 3

PART 3


Part 1 consisted of dismantling of the major components that made up the product architecture on the bottom half of the laptop.  Photos 1 - 12.

Part 2  consisted of the start of the dismantling of the subassembly components. I emphasize "start". Photos 13 - 29.

See all of these photos (1 - 37) in high definition in a matrix at www.ActiveDisassembly.com.

Part 3, below, consists of continuing on with the dismantling of the subassembly components. Images 30 - 37 described below.





30. Outside casing: close-up of upper control board with speaker grill panel
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31. Outside casing: close-up of upper control board with speaker grill panel and main keyboard removed
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32. Outside casing and keyboard: base portion of laptop, upside down, view of inside of the top of the top cover of that laptop base (opposite of where the keyboard sits).
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33. Outside casing and keyboard: base portion of laptop, upside down, view of inside of the top of the top cover of that laptop base (opposite of where the keyboard sits). Components in tact including copper heat transfer, main PCB, fan, volume and media control PCB etc.
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34. Laptop base: close-up of top right where volume and media control of upper control board sit with speaker grill panel (and main keyboard) removed
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35. Laptop base: as above in (34), opposite side of volume and media control PCB exposing opposite side of speaker.
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36. USB, speaker and mic input board: from underneath of top portion of base, front right
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37. USB, speaker and mic input board: from top of PCB as from above.
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Note the assembly dismantled:



26.  (Recap) Bottom  assembly, components dismantled and removed parts shown separated, parts from above photos:

     26.1 Panels removed and exposing under carriage (center and left)
          - upper control board and speaker grill panel (right)
          - mainboard: 
             ~ disk drive (top right)
             ~ main PCB (middle) 
          - hard drive (top left of PCB main assembly)
          - bottom plastic cover of laptop (left: gray rectangular plastic molded)
          - battery pack (bottom right)
          - hard drive panel (top middle left)
          - memory card panel (bottom middle left)
          - numerous fasteners
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1.  (1st photo again)  Note the original product.
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Some of these are the same components (from Part 1) removed and separated from each other with their subassemblies taken apart. This is just for the bottom portion of the laptop.  After many dismantling efforts, to recap:

- Time in Part 1, average was 3min
  
- Time in Part 2: 5min. As in Part 1., this is mainly due to the amount of machine screws and complexity. I had the proper tools and 2 power drills with correct bits in place. To get consistently under 5min would require mechanized or robotic systems. Alternatively DfD and www.ActiveDisassembly.com, which could do it in fractions of a second with batch processing.


- Time here in Part 3, average was 3min.  As in above, the similar parameters apply. If you want specific times, see there many publications on it. There are 100s on:
www.ActiveDisassembly.com (publications) related to this topic and future technology in 'Design for Disassembly; (DfD).
Conclusions (similar issues as in Part 1 and Part 2)
Design issues:
- too many screws (dozens), more than in Part 1, in this next level of dismantling

- too many snap fits that make it hard not to break the subassemblies - snap fits are usually better than screws

- non-obvious disassembly 

- mixed materials

- complexity

- numerous brass captain bolts molded into injection molding
- non-standardized screws
- under spec polymer casings (warping, cracking and wear)
- glued labels
- too time-consuming and complex for repair (PCB and battery pack etc.)
  ~ batter pack is bonded to ensure closure, contains high grade materials
- too time-consuming for upgrade (memory board, hard drive etc.) 


Even with numerous snap fits, they were breakable and at times required cracking of the assembly in order to open parts apart. Overlapping of components was  still somewhat minimal as in Part 1. There are still many insulating materials mixed in with others.



I will go into the next level of detail in subsequent posts.  In the next post,  I'll look inot the LCD sub-assembly.


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