The idea of highly affordable solar products for low-income customers being manufactured in a high-income country like Hong Kong might look contradictory. But at IONA, we’re here to challenge that assumption and demonstrate how innovative design and engineering can reimagine affordability and deliver at the same time the most environmentally friendly products available.

The Challenge

The traditional methods for consumer electronics design and engineering take for granted low labor cost production assembly in regions like China, India, Malaysia and Vietnam. This focus, while understandable, can lead to complex product and mechanical designs that rely on a high degree of manual labor in assembly which drive up labor costs per product. This often leads to products with:

• Multiple Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs): Adding unnecessary complexity, hand soldering, cables, plugs > extra assembly costs and additional waste at end of life.

• Excessive Screws and Cabling > adding labor costs and additional waste at end of life.

• Glue > The ultimate killer for recycling at end of life.

The IONA Solution: Design for Efficiency in Production

Here’s how IONA’s approach disrupts the status quo:

• One PCB only
• Zero Screws
• No Glue
• No hand soldering
• Less Number of plastics parts

Optimised Carbon Footprint

The result of this effort is not only reduced labor cost for assembly but also the lowest carbon footprint possible with up to 70% savings compared to similar products in this category as confirmed in LCAs (Life Cycle Analysis). Stay tuned for our next posts for more stories about carbon footprint optimisation.

Automation for Scalability and Consistency

While our minimalist design reduces labor costs in production significantly, we’ve gone a step further. Partnering with German Industrial Automation experts, we are implementing automated assembly, test and packing processes, ensuring consistent quality and further speed at scale. Stay tuned for our next posts our next posts for more stories about Industry 4.0 automation and robotics.

Summary

Our approach demonstrates that manufacturing in high income countries is possible by reimagining product design and assembly production fundamentally with great extra benefits for our environment.

About IONA

IONA is a global innovation leader in many product categories including solar lanterns, solar home systems, solar laptops and solar air fans to impact the lives of millions of people. Our mission is to transform the lives of 10 million people with solar products by 2026. Learn more about IONA Solar: https://ionasolar.com