Evaluation of disassemblability to enable design for disassembly in mass production

A comprehensive methodology to enhance disassemblability of products has been presented in this paper. Disassemblability of a product is a function of several parameters such as exertion of manual force for disassembly, degree of precision required for effective tool placement, weight, size, material and shape of components being disassembled, use of hand tools, etc. The study of relevant literature indicates the presence of disassembly evaluation criteria and methodologies that address the problem partially such as disassembly sequence planning or economic analysis. As far as design for disassembly is concerned, there is a plethora of literature on rules to improve recycling end-of-life components. A systematic methodology to incorporate disassembly considerations in product design and enable quantitative evaluation of the design is absent. The current methodology assigns time-based numeric indices to each design factor, which make for easy and quick determination of disassembly time. A higher score indicates anomalies in product design from the disassembly perspective. Addressing these anomalies can result in significant design modifications rendering an overall increase in disassemblability of the product. Decisions regarding design modifications are based on weighing several factors such as technical and economic feasibility, overall functionality and structural rigidity of the product as a whole. Relevance to industry A comprehensive Design for Disassembly methodology is developed which is intended to act as a tool in life cycle engineering. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.