Daisy can recognise and disassemble any iPhone model from the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 12. — AFP Relaxnews
Launched in 2018, Daisy is a disassembly robot created by Apple. It can recover the various components of an iPhone in order to recycle them. Regularly updated, it is now capable of recognising and managing the disassembly of 23 different iPhone models.
There are only two Daisy robots in the world, one in Austin, Texas and the other in Breda, in the Netherlands. Each can process up to 200 smartphones per hour, or more than a million per year. Daisy consists of different articulated arms, each dedicated to a step in the disassembly of the smartphone. Everything takes place on a mini disassembly line inside a glassed-in, secure area. We were able to see Daisy at work in Breda.
Each smartphone is subject to a very precise procedure. It starts with the identification of the model (from iPhone 5 to iPhone 12) followed by the separation of the screen from the rest of the components. The device is then opened up and Daisy can remove its battery. This operation is tricky, because the iPhone battery is held in place by strong glue.
To get rid of this, it has to be blasted for several seconds with ice-cold air. The battery can then be recovered without damage. Then, the device’s various screws are removed in order to separate and recover each component.
These then fall onto a conveyor belt that leads to the exit, where a human worker takes over to sort all this waste into large dedicated bins. And this is how an iPhone is completely dismantled every 18 seconds.
The result is a series of large bins where screens, batteries, front and rear cameras, connectors, etc are collected separately. They will then be sent to different partners in the four corners of the world in order to be recycled, in one way or another, and reintroduced into the market.
A long history of disassembly robots
Daisy is actually the most advanced version of a series of robots developed since 2013 by Apple. The very first one, Liam 1.0, was in charge of disassembling iPhone 5 handsets, an operation that took it no less than 12 minutes at the time.
In 2015, its successor, Liam 2.0, was dedicated to the iPhone 6 only. Even if, this time, the process took just a few seconds, this solution was still far too limited. Today, Daisy is capable of working with over 20 models, and can be updated to deal with more recent iPhone releases.
In addition to Daisy, Apple is currently operating other robots involved in the recycling of iPhones. In the United States, for example, Taz is a crusher tasked with separating the magnets from device audio modules in order to recover rare earth elements, and in China, Dave is capable of recovering the same elements present in the iPhone’s vibrate module.
Note that in its program to achieve carbon neutrality for all its products by 2030, Apple hopes to quickly transition to the almost systematic use of recycled and renewable materials. The American manufacturer’s ambition is to use 100% recycled cobalt and rare earth elements in the production of its entire range of products, for example. – AFP Relaxnews
