Upcycled technology
We do not manufacture screens. We rescue them.
The electronics industry discards working laptop displays every year because the machine around them failed. Each GRID frame gives one of those panels a second life.
- 1
Recovery
High-lumen LCD panels are taken from laptops whose boards, hinges or casings have failed. The panel itself is almost never the reason a laptop is scrapped.
- 2
Testing
Every panel is powered up and checked for dead pixels, backlight evenness and brightness falloff. Panels that do not pass are stripped for parts rather than sold.
- 3
Driver and supply
A low-voltage DC driver is matched to the panel and set for continuous duty. This is the part we have been building for Railways and defence procurement for thirty years.
- 4
Print
The artwork is printed and sealed under a three-layer UV surface, which is why it does not fade the way an ordinary printed photograph behind glass does.
- 5
Frame and finish
Fibre as standard, wood or aluminium to order. Assembled ultra slim, fitted with a no-drill wall mount, and run for a burn-in period before it leaves the works.
Upcycling is not recycling
Recycling breaks a thing down to recover its materials, which costs energy, water and chemicals. Upcycling keeps the thing intact and gives it a better job. A recovered panel never gets melted, shredded or reprocessed — it goes straight into a frame.
Against a standard mass-produced LED photo frame, that is a 40.7% reduction in CO₂ emissions and a carbon footprint reduced by 70 to 80%. Every frame keeps 150 grams of electronic waste out of a landfill.
Why it is worth the extra work
- Keeps materials out of landfill rather than sending them there later
- Turns a used item into a higher-quality, functional product without breaking it down
- Saves water, energy and chemicals compared with industrial recycling
- Needs creativity, skill and time instead of a production line
- Process
- Repurposes an existing panel rather than breaking it down for materials.
- Energy use
- Low. The work is creativity and hand assembly, not reprocessing.
- Material value
- Adds value — a discarded part becomes a finished, upgraded product.
- Speciality
- Requires skill and time, which is why each frame is made to order.
The same frame photographed twice, at the same exposure. The only thing that changed is the panel behind the print.
- 150 g
- of e-waste upcycled per frame
- 40.7%
- less CO₂ than mass-produced frames
- 30,000 h
- of continuous operation, under 4W