Pulling stuff apart is fun. And because we didn't have to put it back together and make it work it was even better. Seriously though, work was done and the Professional series mixer was given a thorough rethink in respect to environmental impact.
Disassembling the mixer, as with most things, I was reminded of how much thinking is required to give parts the harmony to become a refined product. However, the shear amount of parts was reasoned to be the largest ecological short fall of the mixer.
Reasoning came about from a still-in-construction design tool "Greenfly" that assisted in categorizing and highlighting material issues in the PCB and multiple ABS housings. Although, cutting down the number of parts and making them work harder was a theory outside the scope of the program.
Essentially, the upper portion of the mixer (stainless steel shell, polycarbonate insert and numerous fixings) was made into a single piece and the most damaging part, the PCB, was replaced with an integral button to eliminate it from the design altogether.
A sketch should make this easier to understand
The reconsidered version of the device scored markedly better then the standard product from the Greenfly tool, highlighting heavily processed parts as something to be avoided in ecological product design.
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