Dell Unveils Updated Concept for Sustainable PC Design

Dell Technologies has unveiled key updates to the company’s concept for sustainable PC design.

Introduced a year ago, Concept Luna illustrates Dell’s vision of how it can reduce waste and emissions, reuse materials and achieve next-level innovation. The concept explores the bigger picture opportunities to change the way Dell tracks, assesses, repairs, refurbishes, supports, and even sells products and devices.

The world produces as much as 50 million tons of e-waste each year, less than 20% of which is recycled. In order to address e-waste, one of the fastest-growing global waste streams, technology innovations, recovery and recycling services, scalability and consumer education are needed. Concept Luna provides a future vision of how this could be achieved at scale.

Commenting on the evolved Concept Luna design, Glen Robson, Chief Technology Officer at Dell Technologies, said: “Imagine a future where we don’t simply discard used electronics. Rather, we harvest individual components for a second, third or even fourth life.

Once the device itself is truly at the end of life, we refurbish and recycle it to incorporate these same materials into next-generation laptops, monitors or phones. It’s a future where nothing goes to waste and the mountain of electronics discarded every year is dramatically reduced. Not only is technology dematerialized, but the materials we use fuel a robust circular economy. Thereby, reducing the need for new, raw materials.

By marrying Luna’s sustainable design with intelligent telemetry and robotic automation, we’ve created something with the potential to trigger a seismic shift in the industry and drive circularity at scale. A single sustainable device is one thing, but the real opportunity is the potential impact on millions of tech devices sold each year, and optimizing the materials in those devices for future reuse, refurbishment or recycling.”

“Driving breakthrough advancements and shaping a more sustainable future for all is what Luna is about”, Robson continues “I am honoured to be a part of this journey.”

Having unveiled details of the evolution of Concept Luna, Dell says it Experience Innovation Group engineers have worked over the last year to further refine the modular design of this vision, eliminating the need for adhesives and cables, and minimizing the use of screws.

These refinements make it easier to repair and dismantle a system. Concept Luna could dramatically simplify and accelerate repair and disassembly processes, making components more accessible and expanding opportunities for reuse.

It can take recycling firms more than an hour to disassemble a PC with today’s technology, held together with screws, glues and various soldered components. With the evolved Concept Luna design, Dell says it has reduced disassembly time to mere minutes. The company even commissioned a micro-factory to guide its design team, resulting in a device that robots can quickly and easily take apart.

The telemetry added to Luna also provides the opportunity to diagnose the health of individual system components to help ensure sure nothing goes to waste. Because the way customers use their technology varies, not all components reach end-of-life at the same time.

People working from home, for example, may use external components, such as keyboards and monitors. The laptop’s keyboard and monitor have barely been used, even when the motherboard is ready to be replaced. Concept Luna evolution can equip and connect individual components to telemetry to optimize their lifespans.