Following on from aimlessly attempting to disassemble the Coomber 393, I began trying to find a manual for taking apart the device. Unable to find anything for the exact product itself despite finding several replacement parts/components, I started to research more loosely the idea of a 'deconstruction manual'.
When looking into this, I found several articles of people with similar issues. One in particular, by someone who initially tried to repair a faulty iron but left it in more pieces than necessary and having had to wrestle with proprietary head screws, plastic shells which would not come apart and a metal base covered in epoxy resin, described his experience as profoundly irritating and proclaimed that Design for Disassembly (DfD) could have prevented this mess.
My interest piqued, I too began researching the prospect of Design for Disassembly, a strategy which considers a future need to repair, refurbish or recycle a product by pre-empting when a product may need repair, which parts are most likely to require replacement and, if a product or component needs to be discarded, how can recycling be facilitated through simply disassembly. By responding to these needs, DfD increases the effectiveness of a product both during and after its life.
Ten seconds to full disassembly.
An example, this low-cost floss container embodies the essence of DfD—simple to assemble and disassemble. It’s easy to open, free of glues, screws, or heat stakes. The main component’s material is clearly labeled, and the parts are quickly separated ready for replacement, recycling or disposal.
The Design for Disassembly roadmap
Tear Down Reports
Considering the Coomber 393 and Maxell UR 90 were both unlikely to have been designed with DfD in mind, this lead me to reconsider the idea of a 'deconstruction manual'. The closest I was able to come on this front was find websites which had multitudes of Tear Down Reports such as ifixit.
Alongside articles encouraging and explaining how to replace and repair parts of products yourself and opinion pieces on why to buy older products, ifixit both allows users to create teardown reports and share them to help others to understand how and why components are fixed together within products. Encouraging self sufficiency in repairing and taking apart products are key parts of the ifixit manifesto (above) and allowing the sharing of skills and knowledge on the site has created a wide platform of over 67 thousand manuals for deconstruction.
Example of a Teardown
Final images of teardown reports (below) are reminiscent of Todd McEllan's organisation of components for the Things Come Apart series.
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