Design For Disassembly (DfD)

By Tim ThornBy Tim Thorn

The Agenda• What is Design for Disassembly (DfD)?• Brainstorming exercise• Explanation • How DfD works?• An Example of DfD• A brief exercise• Summary• Readings

Design For Disassembly

• Definition: “The use of assembly methods and configurations that allow for cost-effective separation and recovery of reusable components and materials.”

Brainstorming Exercise• How can Design for disassembly

be applied to our organization to increase environmental awareness and cut costs?

Further Information about DfD

Reasons for Disassembly

• Enable maintenance• Enhance serviceability• End-of-life (EOL) objectives such

as product reuse, remanufacture, and recycling

End-Of-Life Objectives

• Most important reason to disassemble

• Component reuse• Remanufacture • Recycling

Types of Disassembly

• Destructive disassembly• Reverse Disassembly• Two types of reverse disassembly:

–Total–Selective

Cost-Savings with Disassembly

• Better selection of materials• More specific identification of

component materials • Assembly methods that provide for

more efficient and possibly automated disassembly

Benefits of DfD• Components which are of good quality

can be refurbished or reused. • Metallic parts can be separated easily

into categories which increases their recycling value.

• Disassembled plastic parts can be easily removed and recycled.

• Parts made from other material such as glass or hazardous material can easily be separated and reprocessed.

So how does Disassembly work?

• Product is reacquired • Product taken to special DfD facilities• Each component of the product is

taken off• The components are sorted • Then reused, recycled and

refurbished

How can products be designed more effectively to

aid disassembly?• Provide ready access to parts, fasteners, etc. to

support disassembly. • Design modular products to enable modules to

be disassembled for service or re-use. • Minimize weight of individual parts and modules

Crow Kenneth. http://www.npd-solutions.com/dfe.html

Crow Kenneth. http://www.npd-solutions.com/dfe.html

Effective Design (Cont.)• Use joining and fastening techniques to

facilitate disassembly (e.g., fasteners instead of adhesives)

• Minimize fragile parts and leads to enable re-use and re-assembly.

• Use connectors instead of hard-wired connections.

• Design to enable use of common hand tools for disassembly.

Crow Kenneth. http://www.npd-solutions.com/dfe.html

What industries use DfD?

• Construction• Technology• Furniture Manufacturing• Electronic Manufacturing• Automobile

Manufacturing

Real world application• Cell Phone Manufactures• Initially too costly to disassemble • Use of DfD• Phones will soon take seconds to

disassemble

Exercise• What is Desgin for

Disassembly?• Why do we use DfD?• What can be designed more

effectively to aid in disassembly?

• What industries use DfD?

Summary

By designing products that are easy to disassemble we can conserve natural resources, and if applied correctly can cut costs.

Readings List• Billatos, S.B. 1997, Green Technology and Design

for the Enviroment.• Desai, Anoop. Mital,Anil Journal of Manufacturing

Technology Management; 2005, Vol. 16 Issue 7, p712-732, 21p

• Dowie-Bhamra, Tracy. University of Manchester http://www.co-design.co.uk/design.htm

• Jana, Reena. Business Week Online Can Design Change the World? 10/26/2006

• Crow, Kenneth. http://www.npd-solutions.com/dfe.html