Disassembly analysis for electromechanical products: a graph-based heuristic approach

Original equipment manufacturers are facing more pressure to improve the recyclability of their products. The concept of environmentally conscious design and manufacturing has been adopted in an effort to improve the environmental compatibility of manufactured goods. This new trend requires that environmental considerations be incorporated into design strategies. This paper presents a graph-based heuristic approach to perform disassembly analysis for electromechanical products. The components of a product and their assembly relationships are represented using a component-fastener graph. A cut-vertex search procedure is used to split the graph into sub-graphs representing modular sub-assemblies. Disassembly precedence analysis is then applied to generate a disassembly tree, From which a disassembly sequence can be derived. The results of the analysis can be used by designers to evaluate the 'disassemblability' and 'recyclability' of products they are designing. Desirable changes can then be made at the early stage of design.