Forensic Report: Group 5
===============

| Identity of the reporting agency | MDEF |
|----------------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| Case identifier | Forensics of the Obsolescence |
| Identity of the submitter | Víctor Barberán Soler |
| Date of receipt | 08/11/2022 |
| Date of report | 08/11/2022 |
| Identity and signature of the examiner | Wen, Sami, Marielle, Mariana, Caglar |

## Examination

:::warning
Descriptive list of items submitted for examination, including serial number, brand and model
:::

**Serial number:** 92600068
**Brand:** Electrolux
**Model:** ESB2500
**Colour:** Black and Stainless steel
**Made in:** China

## Forensic Questions

**Full name**
Sports Blender

**What does it do?**
It appears to be a personal blender for one serving. This is an electrical kitchen appliance used for mixing liquids and soft foods together or turning fruit or vegetables into liquid.

**How does it work?**
We can call it a primitive piece of electronic which turns the electricity to motion basicly to cut fruits or vegetables and mix/blend them. You fill the container and screw on the blade attachment. It then locks into to the base where a button is pushed to blend. The button activates the motor which spins the blade and blends the contents. There is a build in fan that cools down the motor while it runs.

**How it's built?**
The motor is encased in a plastic structure with stainless steel cladding. It is a simple switch system, where holding the power button will run the machine. When the button is released the blender stops. The motor functions from an electromagnetic system made from a bundle of copperwires.

**Why it failed, or it wasn't used anymore?**
We believe the blender failed as the nut bolt that keeps the blade together misaligned due to the polypropylene casing not being sturdy enough. The connection between the blade and the base would no longer click into place.
Generally, this is a common manufacturing model to not to provide spare parts to force the consumers to get a new one instead of get it repaired.

## Steps taken

:::warning
Research we carried out, i.e. Separating the components by type, searching for specific parts datasheets. Link datasheets and other relative documents.
:::

1. First, we removed the anti-slip rubber smoothly.
2. Then, we tried to find longer screw drivers to unscrew the casing. However, one corner has a special fork shaped screw.
3. In order to take apart, we had to use a drill and pliers to make the hole bigger so that we can unscrew the special shaped screw.
4. We end up cutting and breaking a lot of the plastic that binds them together.
5. We noticed that the motor is elevated and there is a fan that cools it down.
6. The button is stuck in stainless steel casing, there is three springs inside.
7. The motor has a long screw attached to it.
8. Blender container cap: the nut bolt holding the screw was misaligned from the casing in the plastic so it was difficult to take a part.

## Results

**How many motors did we find inside?**
1

**Does it contain a computer or microcontroller?**
No

**Did you found any sensors?**
No

**We found other variation for the blender**

This is the blender with a switch that has different speed adjustment levels.


https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005001331656462.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2fra

## Conclusions

:::warning
A summary of the overall report, in particular about the results.
:::

In conclusion, this blender is not made to be fixed. Even though it is a very simple motor system, they made the exterior really hard to be dissembled. You have to break it when you try to fix it. The installation of a security screw highlights our hypothesis that the blender was purposely built for obscelecense.

## Opinions

**What did you learn?**
As a contrast, we took apart a WileyFox phone and we learned that it is much more easier to dissemble it. This might be because a phone is designed to be fixed, on the other hand the blender is not. To some extent, this makes sense considering a phone is built for a longer-term usage in contrast to a low-cost blender.

**What surprised you?**
This surprises us because the blender is a straightforward system that does not have any micro-computer or sensor. We were surprised how little interactıon there is to run and use it; the power button doesn't work with adjustment options. However it takes us so much time and effort, and we even broke part of the supporting structure of the blender that made it impossible to put it back together.

**What is the object's life cycle?**
3-5 years

**How recycable the product is?**
Components: Plastic, Iron, Copper, Stainless Steel
In theory, these are all recycable materials. Yet, it takes a lot of effort to take apart all the components. This means that the final product is very hard to recycle.

**Why is it hard to recycle?**
The machinery holds a stainless shell cover to make it looks premium. While this mantains an aesthetic standard for brand identity, the way it is ensembled made it very hard to separate the individual material components for recycling purposes.

**Why do they use Spanner Screw?**
They don't want people to copy thier design, knock offs, don't allow the user to take it apart, to protect their intelectual properties. Most likely, the screw was also intalled to keep consumers from fixing potential issues, and incentivize the purchase of an entirely new product.

## Images

**First Interaction**


**Before**


**We have to use the drill to break the plastic**


**Forensic Scene**


**Misaligned Bolt**


**Interior Motor**


**AC Motor**


**Spanner Slotted Screw**

Also known as security screws, spanner screws makes it more difficult to remove it from the artifact. It has a unique shape that requires a special kind of driver to remove. A spanner screw has a head with two holes.