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Component reuse -- it's a real thing

Hopefully stuff like this will push the industry to design for repairability. I think that could relieve some pressure on the re-qualifying procedure as well, since in the 3rd-party repair world we don't tend to care as much about the authenticity of a component, as long as it works. They could even sell "c-grade" components that just don't come with a certification, but are otherwise tested.
 
In the area that I work in, how the original assembly was managed/treated is just as important as testing the component itself.

I could be installing a component that tests OK, but is at the end of its active life due to how it has been operated by the original owner.

There is also component testing and component testing... How comprehensive the test vectors are and whether the test vectors are as defined by the original component manufacturer (OCM) or produced from a data sheet.

Dave
 
I wonder if China will recycle all the fake components they sell now? :devilish:

Or on the other hand, if Chinese ever does invade Taiwan I think recycling of used electronic components might become mainstream. That is if anyone is around to do the recycling.
 
Except for very expensive parts I don't see it as being cost effective to recycle individual chips.

Most everything outside of CPUs is either BGA or fine pin surface mount (good luck keeping the pins straight).

Major manufacturers buy chips in rolls for their machines since none of that is done by hand anymore except for repair work.

About the only industry using older model chips is defense, so recycling your dishwasher controller will probably end up in some Russian missile guidance system in 10 years.
 
China and various 3rd world countries have been "recycling" components this way for decades now. Problem with it is that there have always been a large market of counterfeit or remarked chips and there's no quality control anywhere. You could have a trustworthy agent getting you stuff, but even they can be duped with fake/relabeled parts.

It's quite profitable for brokers, and there are entire towns dedicated to recycling electronics. Because there are no environmental laws and parts are paid for per diem, the labor cost associated with recovering scrapped chips is pennies. All the while they poison the water, land and air they breathe with toxic substances and heavy metals like lead, cadmium and arsenic, among other things.

China has slowed way down in the recycling though, since they stopped accepting the world's eWaste being shipped back to them around a decade ago. Now it goes to poor African countries.
 
I think that it's a cottage industry in some locations, using charcoal braziers to heat up the PCB. At least it used to be. Now we have a major PCB assembly house talking about recycling, which is a change.
 
Yeah, there are several documentaries on it. Women sitting out in front of their house grilling PCBs over a fire and slapping the board to knock all of the chips off.
 
When I was a kid growing up in Taiwan, contract assemblies were common. Soldering was done with a pot of lead over charcoal fire. Kids populated the boards, adults dipped it in the pot of molten solder. We stripped wires with our teeth and made Christmas light strings. Kids were happy with little bit of money we've earned, we didn't know any better. Taiwan is too wealthy for that now, so it moved to different continent, different generation of people, but the same contract assemblies using kids. People will do anything to have jobs to get out of poverty.
Bill
 
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