A Method for Improving the Process and Cost of Nondestructive Disassembly

The ever-increasing global environmental concerns demand that strong emphasis be given to the decision-making process pertaining to the strategy of design for nondestructive disassembly during the product evaluation stage. The ultimate objective is to considerably increase the percentage of product components and materials suitable for recycling, recovery, and/or reuse. In this context, this paper proposes a method for improving the nondestructive disassembly of a final product. This method analyzes the nondestructive disassembly by determining a disassembly interference matrix, feasible disassembly sequences, and improved nondestructive disassembly sequences. The innovative element of the nondestructive disassembly method proposed in this paper is integrating the generated conceptual design solutions for a given technical device with a software package developed for determining its improved disassembly sequence embedded within a 3D CAD platform. The developed procedure is based on information obtained from a 3D CAD model of a product, such as geometric constraints, automatic identification of fasteners and components, determination of component-to-component and component-to-fastener connection graphs, and AND/OR logic operations. The goal is for product designers to predict, evaluate, and define improved disassembly sequences while minimizing the cost of disassembly operations as early in the design stage as possible after a CAD model of the product becomes available. The applicability of the integrated method for determining the improved disassembly sequence is presented through an illustrative example.