Apple's Mac Brick Rumors and the Environmental Impact
by Jaymi Heimbuch, Central Coast, California on 10. 9.08
Supposed spy photo of Apple Brick via Engadget
If you’re a Mac-ophiliac or a gadget lover, you’ve likely heard the rumors circulating about a new manufacturing process Apple is keeping hush-hush. Well, the only thing anyone has right now is rumors and fairy dust, though some interesting conclusions are being drawn about this new process.
The Mac Brick Rumor Summed Up
Essentially, the “brick” rumor revolves around the notion that Apple is going to unveil a way to carve a Macbook out of a single brick of aluminum using “3D lasers and water jet cutting.” According to Engadget, the technique would eliminate the need to bend and fold parts, eliminate screws, and would mean faster prototype production.
Stepping In for Some Analysis
With the Steve Jobs heart attack fiasco aside, it can be equally tough to toss out a Mac rumor as to accept it – after all, they sometimes turn out to be true. But photos of the supposed prototype have been circulating, so we’ve decided to assume the rumor about a water jet cutting process is true in order to have a little fun researching what the new process might mean for the environment.
Water Jet Cutting Basics
The method of water jet cutting is used in a lot of capacities. In fact, your dentist just may be making your crowns and veneers out of this type of technology.
Basically, a jet of water pressurized as high as 60,000 psi, and often mixed with an abrasive like garnet, is aimed at a chunk of material such as stainless steel, aluminum, ceramics, or even titanium, and it carves away at the material in a highly precise manner.
It generates a whole lot of noise, is a very dangerous process, and all that material carved away becomes waste, which would have to be collected and reprocessed to be used again, or, more likely, tossed. In fact, it is a very wasteful process as a big percentage of the material is carved away and mixes with the water and abrasives. All that would have to go through some sort of (likely energy-intensive) processing if any of it were to be re-used.
As for energy use of the cutting process itself, if a 20 kW pump is used, it would consume 22-35 kW of electricity, and about 2.6 gallons of water per hour. Not really a big deal. The big deal comes with the fact that it is wasteful of raw material.
Would Apple's Brick be a Step Forward or Step Back?
Yet, does this make it any better or worse than current manufacturing processes? When it provides for the elimination of screws and folds, it means less energy going into the production of these items, and the production of the device as a whole. It would also mean fewer folks in the sourcing line-up, so carbon emissions and the use of energy are potentially reduced.
Apple Brick Could Actually Mean Welding, Not Carving
And of course we have to return to the fact that all of this Mac Brick business is speculation. Gizmodo just reported that it looks more like Mac is looking into a new welding process, not a water jet cutting process.
US Patent 7310872, which Business Week quotes in the article as an indication that Apple may be working in this method. However, far from describing the process the brick rumor is referring to, it describes a unique welding process…this laptop building technique is all about welding and not about carving. According to the description, the new welding method will result in a strong single composite structure. It won't avoid the seams and screws, but it will reduce them.
This is really interesting, in that it would reduce materials without drastically altering the current manufacturing process.
Our Conclusion on the Apple Brick
Let’s wait to see if the rumors are true or not.
UPDATE: Looks like the rumors of a new manufacturing process are more speculation than anything else. Still, it's fun to play "What if..."
More on Greening Manufacturing Processes:
3M – a sticky business on its way to eco-safe manufacturing
Nike Talks Trash With Shoe Made From Manufacturing Waste
GM Promises 40% Less Manufacturing Emissions
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You could recycle the AL, of course, but flowjet and laser-cutting is still a very time-consuming, energy-intensive process that's not well suited at all to mass-produced products such as the MacBook.
More likely it's the welding process coupled with the kind of high-precision stamping process that produced the Air. The net effect of both being that of a seemingly solid shell that "feels" like it could have been carved out of a single "brick" of aluminum.
Milling the entire shape with water jets and lasers would be silly. If it is made from a single piece, it will first be rough milled removing most of the scrap which will be sold back to the aluminum companies at 80% of the original cost. That means the total cost of recycling and reselling it as new aluminum is about 20 cents a pound. I don't know now much of that is energy, probably a fair bit, but it isn't too bad.
Look at those opening around the keys. Those are a beast to mill. The force from the tool would deflect the thin part. Using a water jet or a laser and you cut an infinitesimal amount of aluminum out around the edge leaving a nice bit of scrap to recycle.
They aren't just going to vaporize 19 pounds of aluminum to leave their perfect 1 pound shape.
You're making the wrong comparison here. Macbook Pros aren't the bread and butter of Apple's sales - Macbooks are. Macbooks are currently molded plastic - nasty PVC it isn't easy to recycle, and likely isn't even worth it for scraps.
The entire point of going all-aluminum is to reduce plastic use in the laptops dramatically. Yes, Apple will be recycling what Al scraps they get - they're trying to go cradle-to-cradle, removing all toxic chemicals from the manufacture of their products.
This seems like comparing an electric car line to a gas and hybrid car line and asking which one is more energy efficient. Don't miss the forest for the trees - we can produce electricity however we want. We can't produce plastic macbooks however we want.
A waterjet is a cutter, not a carver. They can't make that piece shown above using only a waterjet. They can cut the holes using one, but that's about it.
Also, a waterjet isn't wasteful. It actually wastes less material than using a saw as the cut is narrower. The pieces it cuts out can then be recycled. As I said before, it's not a carving machine, mill, or lathe. It's a water jet cutter. The entire inside of that computer case above isn't wasted, they probably are just using a combination of tools.
It's not dangerous, either. Water at that pressure is dangerous, but water jet cutters are always in housings which protect the user from everything.
Nice piece of research you did here.
This whole discussion about how the case of this new computer is formed is BS (basically stupid).
Water-jet and laser cutting are used to cut through flat sheet metal. This can be used with materials even over an inch thick. Unfortunately the process also leaves a bit of a ragged edge unless the speed of the cutting process is slowed down (slow and costly).
And milling... Are you kidding? This case is NOT milled from a solid piece of metal.
For anything made in these quantities, speed and finish quality are the characteristics that need to be optimized. This is probably done by forming a flat sheet of aluminum into a 3-d piece with a hydraulic press (kind of like the way car body panels are made) then the keyboard (and other) holes are made all at once with a custom, precision die, in a punch press.
And also, "Brick" is just a pseudonym, not a description of the physical hunk of aluminum it starts from. M'k?
While I hope this isn't true and that Apple approaches this as responsibly as possible, what are the alternatives for the consumer? Dell? Windows? Please. There are none.
You can't sacrifice quality and performance for some small measure of environmental impact. We have to put pressure on Apple and do what we can to influence their CSR. But until a greener product comes along that can compete with Apple, the consumer is left with no choice.
We all make these compromises every day. Most of us could take the bus, but we need the convenience of driving. Until taking public transit becomes a viable alternative in certain urban areas or driving becomes prohibitively expensive, we'll continue to drive and choose the less-green option. Same with choosing Apple products over the alternatives.
Max,
What do you hope isn't true? please be specific.
Aluminum (and steel too) are materials that are easier to recycle than plastic cases. The manufacturing processes are efficient. And I expect that the high conductivity of aluminum will be used as an aid to passive cooling.
Max (Headroom),
are they sacrificing quality or performance? maybe their being more green by using an aluminum case instead of titanium. it is a much cheaper material per unit and lower mfg costs as well.
as pointed out previously your post lacks details.
Good techniques for creating prototypes, not so much for mass production.
They could be using a process utilising superplastiform technology which would produce a complex one piece case of uniform thickness. The only thing is that it is very expensive and most SPF plants are small volume aero parts producers.
It's a bit quick to be assessing the environmental impact before we actually know the details of the process!
Of course the manufacturer would recycle the aluminium waste. It's vastly more energy efficient, (and cheaper!) to recycle aluminium than to refine it. This is a no-brainer.
And you CAN sacrifice a little quality and performance for an environmental improvement. But if Apple is investing in developing such such a major process change, you can bet it's win, win, win. Better quality, better performance, less environmental impact, reduced cost.
Wow, certainly some interesting comments already here. A few points I feel worth mentioning:
1) This is a rumor, and from what I've read on AppleInsider this would by no means eliminate screws. Already the author's interpretation seems dubious...
2) Again, this is a rumor. An Apple rumor. It belongs on Apple rumor sites like AppleInsider (which I read daily) and not on a website dedicated to all things green. If it was a rumor that Apple was going to have a cradle-to-cradle completely recyclable (or even more significantly repairable) product, that would be appropriate for this site.
3) to bob—Apple hasn't used titanium cases in years. they switched to anodized aluminum when they introduced the 12, 15, and 17 inch G4 PowerBooks.
I think that "brick" refers to the power brick (i.e. the big AC/DC power adapter that comes with every laptop). Apple made the iPhone power adapter really small. They could just integrate the brick into the laptop or just make it much, much smaller. This would be doable with efficient processors and screens, which would be awesome all around.
Also, everyone can go to hell. Take that, intelligent and civil commenters!
Just so you know, 22kW to 35kW worth of energy isn't insignificant. It's around 160 amps at 220volts -- or 318 amps at 110volts. For comparison, a typical 3-prong household outlet can deliver 15 amps at 110 volts. Also, my house has 100amp*220volt electrical service (and we've been thinking of upgrading it to 200amps so that we can have a geothermal heat-pump installed) so pulling 160amps*220volts amps should give you an idea of the scale of this machine.
As to how big of a deal this is, we have to know how many of these widgets this machine can make in an hour. If it takes an hour to make one part, that's making the part is like running a moderately-sized microwave for 20-some hours. On the other hand, if the machine makes 60 widgits an hour, then the amount of energy used is comparable to cooking a baked potato. That's probably pretty efficient as industrial-scale electricity goes.
Anyway, I don't disagree with the article or with the comments I've read -- but I just through that the author dismissed the electrical power used, without fully exploring it.
But then we are presented with another problem. If you have an imperfection in the process you would have to scrape the entire piece. Its like having a car body made entirely out of one sheet of aluminum... its going to be costly to repair in the case of a fender bender.
But then we are presented with another problem. If you have an imperfection in the process you would have to scrape the entire piece. Its like having a car body made entirely out of one sheet of aluminum... its going to be costly to repair in the case of a fender bender.
I work for Apple and we have lots of environmental consultants and have them involved at every level of our business, don't underestimate how much we value the World around us and profit isn't the only driver in our business.
I always thought that "Mac Brick" rumors were that they were going to announce a new product that would make predecessors as useful as a brick.
@ Pedantic Grouch
Perhaps this is too pedantic, even for you, but Watts are a unit of power, not energy.