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| Original Nespresso VirtuoLine Coffee Machine |
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| Teardown Analysis of Nespresso Coffee Maker : + Ethical Recycling of Components |
This $400 laser guided centrifugal electric coffee machine by Nespresso was given to me for specialized recycling. The unit was defective & the owner already replaced it with a new unit.
Using specialized bits & drivers + a cutter & some effort, the machine came apart without any adhesive or annoying glue. Tight plastic clips along with torx security screws held the machine together, though I had to break plastics to open because of some interlocking metal post clip closures that were not plausible to undo easily.
All the plastics were recycled into our mixed use domestic curbside city funded recycling program. The electrical parts were harvested for specialized recycling at an e-waste facility.
Using specialized bits & drivers + a cutter & some effort, the machine came apart without any adhesive or annoying glue. Tight plastic clips along with torx security screws held the machine together, though I had to break plastics to open because of some interlocking metal post clip closures that were not plausible to undo easily.
All the plastics were recycled into our mixed use domestic curbside city funded recycling program. The electrical parts were harvested for specialized recycling at an e-waste facility.
I was surprised at the amount of plastic in the design. At such at a high cost I expected to find more metal. The board logic did contain a fairly large for its design aluminum heat sink to cool a pair of power transistors.
Primary high power switching of the heating loop in the lid was switch via a mechanical relay. The board assembly has strong solder points and looks more like an appliance board than that from normal consumer electronics. This makes sense given the power level of the heater core and electric motor driver. I was surprised to find a infrared laser RPM monitoring setup.
The motor, water pump, and heater core are 120v ac line powere units. It was cool to see how the device was designed by breaking it down. Multiple thermal fuses throughout the design indicate product safety was a priority. The extremely judicious use of metal where it most counts was indicative of careful cost cutting accounting that maximized the profit potential of the design.
The bushed AC motor was a surprise, I would have expected a high performance DC switched reluctance motor like the ones that Dyson uses in its battery powered handheld vacuums, like the V10 motor in their latest units.
Some of the plastics used were super high strength machinable plastics with very high precision in terms of part tolerances, especially the brittle plastic motor mount. Rubber gaskets along with vibration absorbing mounting points makes the unit smooth running by absorbing unwanted harmonics. There was even a motor brush dust filter in the housing. Good build quality, obviously not very durable, it failed after 2 years of daily use, or less than ~1000 cycles.
Some of the plastics used were super high strength machinable plastics with very high precision in terms of part tolerances, especially the brittle plastic motor mount. Rubber gaskets along with vibration absorbing mounting points makes the unit smooth running by absorbing unwanted harmonics. There was even a motor brush dust filter in the housing. Good build quality, obviously not very durable, it failed after 2 years of daily use, or less than ~1000 cycles.
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