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Apple cranks out millions of iPhones every quarter, simply have you ever wondered what happens to all those devices when they reach the end of their lives? Many of them end up in landfills with other mobile devices that have outlived their usefulness, simply some will be recycled. Apple recently decided to accept iPhone recycling seriously and the consequence is Liam. No, Liam is non a factory worker or engineer. Liam is a robot with 29 arms built for the purpose of tearing former iPhones downwardly at breakneck speed.

While some steps in the construction of an iPhone are done by machines, much of the process is handled past homo assembly line workers. In fact, Foxconn recently had to admit that it's ongoing efforts to develop an assembly robot had hit a crude patch. The robot arms just aren't accurate enough to put an iPhone together. However, afterwards three years of piece of work in secret, Apple engineers take designed i that'south able to take them apart.

The video posted past Apple doesn't make information technology entirely apparent, simply Liam is a huge robot. It's really more of a reverse assembly line with 29 individual arms, each tasked with belongings the phone or liberating different components from the chassis. Equally many every bit forty phones can be queued up on the conveyor belt that feeds Liam. It all starts with an arm that pulls the screen assembly off so a camera can scan the device and figure out which model it is. This is of import as the location of screws and components can change from i generation to the next.

Before all the bits and pieces are grabbed past Liam's multitude of robotic arms, the battery is removed. Even a long unplugged lithium-ion battery can be dangerous if it'south damaged during the disassembly process. Apple says that Liam tin detach 350 iPhones per hour (1.2 million per year), which is thanks to its ability to multitask. At some stations, there may exist more than than ane arm working to remove screws and pull out circuit boards. That's a lot of phones, and Liam doesn't even have to work weekends.

The goal is to get all the useful materials out of an iPhone as efficiently equally possible. Gold, copper, cobalt, and other minerals are all constitute in phones. If y'all simply throw abroad an old phone, someone has to mine more minerals out of the ground to build new ones. Sometimes those minerals are mined or sold under suspicious circumstances, then at that place'due south the environmental touch of increased mining. Recycled materials come up with fewer ethical concerns, but it can cut costs likewise.

Apple tree is looking to increment Liam'south supply of old iPhones to take autonomously with a new recycling programme called Apple Renew. You can send your old Apple devices in to be recycled and yous'll get a gift bill of fare back with the value of the device, bold it has any.