Feature

Design for disassembly: a critical twenty-first

century discipline
Robert Bogue
Okehampton, UK

Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to highlight the importance of the design for disassembly (DFD) concept and to consider the key DFD principles.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper first considers the motivations for applying DFD. It then identifies and discusses the key DFD
principles.
Findings – This paper shows that legislation and consumer pressure are driving product recycling and that DFD is a critical enabling technology. It
shows that a series of simple design rules concerning product architecture, materials and fasteners can be used to implement DFD. It highlights the
benefits arising from this strategy which include compliance with legislation and reduced component counts and material inventories.
Originality/value – This paper provides an insight into the motivations behind the use of DFD and describes the techniques used in its
implementation.

Keywords Assembly, Recycling, Materials handling, Legislation

Paper type Viewpoint

Introduction and sub-assemblies. This is particularly critical today as low-

cost plastics (drinks bottles, grocery bags) are quickly being
Design for assembly (DFA) and design for manufacture and outpaced by more complex and costly products such as
assembly are well known and widely applied concepts, consumer electronics (computers, cell phones, televisions)
established during the 1970 and which gained prominence and household accessories (washing machines, cookers,
in the following decade, principally as a result of the work by dryers) as the dominant waste streams in the developed
Geoff Boothroyd from the University of Massachusetts. They world. Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)
are structured techniques, now often supported by software, constitutes around 4 per cent of Europe’s municipal
which allow manufacturers to implement product designs waste today (Figure 1) and is increasing by between 16 and
with reduced numbers of parts, simplified parts handling and 28 per cent every five years – three times as fast as the growth
improved assembly. They are driven principally by economic in other municipal wastes. Vehicles are also responsible for
considerations and allow the design of products that can be considerable quantities of waste, as 8-10 million cars, trucks
manufactured at minimum cost and with maximum quality and vans are disposed of every year in the USA, in Europe the
and reliability and were pioneered by large companies such as number is around 14 million and growing (Figure 2) and the
Ford, Xerox and Hitachi. Today, however, other design world figure is about 30 million. Whilst around 75 per cent of
considerations need to be borne in mind, as manufacturers the weight of a vehicle is already recycled, it is almost
are coming under mounting pressure from legislators and exclusively metals, i.e. steel, cast iron and aluminium parts
consumers alike to minimise their impact on the environment, that are readily identified and salvaged, together with easily
leading to the design for the environment (DFE) concept. retrieved components such as batteries. This leaves many kg
This embodies all manner of issues, such as reduced energy per vehicle of glass, cloth, rubber, carpeting, plastics and
usage, transportation, packaging, recycling and waste electronics that frequently end up in landfill.
reduction and disposal and one discipline to emerge from
these considerations is design for disassembly (DFD). Legislation
The aims of DFD are to design a product that can be
readily dismantled at the end of its life and thus optimise the Most industrialised countries and regions have laws governing
recycling which have obvious DFD implications and reflect
reuse, remanufacturing or recycling of materials, components
both a heightened environmental awareness and the practical
aspects of waste disposal. For instance, in 2001 Japan
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at calculated that it was soon to run out of space for landfill so
www.emeraldinsight.com/0144-5154.htm government passed a law which added the cost of recycling
home appliances to the retail price. Now, over 80 per cent of
Japan’s TVs are recycled and another bill passed in the same
Assembly Automation year made it law for computer manufacturers to take back and
27/4 (2007) 285– 289
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0144-5154] recycle obsolete products. Evidence of Japan’s lead in this
[DOI 10.1108/01445150710827069] field is illustrated by companies such as Hitachi and Toshiba

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Robert Bogue Volume 27 · Number 4 · 2007 · 285 –289

Figure 1 Scrapped electronic and electrical products. Legislation aims to overcome this problem

Figure 2 The number of vehicles scrapped annually in Europe will WEEE Directive (2002/96/EC). This aims to reduce the
continue to rise quantity of waste from electrical and electronic equipment
(EEE) and increase its reuse, recovery and recycling. In
million scrapped passenger cars addition to EEE, vehicles are subject to disposal and recycling
18 legislation in the EU, namely the ELVs Regulations. The
objective of the ELV Directive (2005/64/EC) is to reduce the
16 amount of waste arising from vehicles when they are scrapped.
Specifically, it aims to ensure that all ELVs are only treated by
14
authorised dismantlers; provide free take-back of all ELVs for
12 new vehicles put on the market after 2002 and from 2007
provide free take-back for all vehicles including those put on
10 market before 2002; restrict the use of heavy metals in
vehicles from July 2003; and ensure that a minimum of 85 per
8 cent of vehicles are reused or recovered. German car
manufacturers are presently considered to be the world
6
leaders in designing cars for recyclability.
4

2 DFD techniques
0 Whilst vehicle dismantling and recycling is relatively mature
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 and reflected now in many features of vehicle design, waste
sources such as EEE are often complex assemblies that do not
who are developing DFD software to help create more lend themselves to easy reuse or recycling. Designers need to
sustainable products. How a product will be recycled is now acknowledge that these products will ultimately fail or become
built into the design process and governs how the product is redundant and must be recycled rather that disposed of to
made. In 2005, the Japanese the end of life vehicle (ELV) landfill. Manufacturers must therefore implement a DFD
recycling law became effective and is unique in that it imposes strategy but despite the activities of the vehicle and computer
responsibility on the manufacturers and importers to recover firms many designers still have little knowledge of the
and recycle three designated items rather than the whole fundamental DFD concepts. This was illustrated well by a
vehicle: CFCs/HFCs, pyrotechnic devices and automotive recent “Ecodesign” survey of around 100 members of the
shredder residue. In comparison, the European Union has not Industrial Designers Society of America, which showed that
been nearly as successful as Japan at dealing with the WEEE information on DFD guidelines was ranked the fourth highest
problem, although these products are now covered by the information need (Figure 3).

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Figure 3 A survey of the information needs of professional US designers showed that DFD featured highly
Ecodesign information needs of working product designers

Internatational environmental regulations

Comparison of env. impact of processes
Comparison of env. impact of materials
Design for disassembly guidelines
Lifecycle impact assessment
Plastic recycling symbols
Comparison of env. impacts of paints/finishes
Ecodesign education
PVC alternatives
Green market & consumer research
Flame retardand alternatives for plastic
Environmental news
General ecodesign & sustainable design
Model materials and alternatives
Recycled engineering thermoplastic sources
Recycled commodity thermoplastic sources
Recycled intermediate thermoplastic sources
Green energy
Recycled elastomer sources
Certified sustainable wood sources
Recycled metals sources
IDEA award ecocriteria
How to engage stakeholders
Recycled thermoset plastic & composites
Biomaterial sources
Recycled or green paper sources
Ecodesign competitions
Green architecture or interiors
Lead (solder) alternatives
Environmental impact software
Certified sustainable agricultural products
Ecodesign employment opportunities
0 1 2 3 4
0 = no need 4 = extreme need

Successful DFD entails the application of three critical recycling processes. These functions are largely governed by
disciplines: the plastics’ chemical compositions and physical properties and
1 the selection and use of materials; incompatibility between materials often limits reuse. For
2 the design of components and the product architecture; example, polyethylene (PE) is compatible with polypropylene
and but not with PVC; PVC is compatible with PMMA but this is
3 the selection and use of joints, connectors and fasteners. incompatible with PE. The design rule is simple: use a few
These have been embodied in a series of widely publicised, different plastics as possible and where multiple materials are
simple design rules (Table I). essential, try to select those that are mutually compatible. When
The importance of materials cannot be overstated. In this is impossible, aim to use plastics whose densities differs by
addition to the points listed in Table I, a number of other at least 0.03, as this aids the widely used automated separation
considerations need to be taken into account. Plastics, in by density technique. Televisions are a good example of the
particular are problematic and designers must think implementation of this design strategy. In 1984, a typical TV
beyond DFD to the post-disassembly separation and sold in Japan contained 13 types of plastic; now only two types

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Table I DFD design rules of assessing this aspect of a design is to attribute a

“separability rating” to each connection, as shown in
Factors affecting the
Table II (examples shown are from vehicles). A
disassembly process Guides to improve disassembly
technological option which can aid disassembly times is the
Product structure Create a modular design use of fasteners made from smart materials such as shape
Minimise the component count memory polymers and shape memory alloys. These
Optimise component standardisation change their shape when exposed to elevated temperatures,
Minimise product variants the trigger temperature, typically between 65 and 1208C. In
Materials Minimise the use of different materials the case of a screw, for example, the thread disappears when
Use recyclable materials exposed to the trigger temperature, allowing it to fall out
Eliminate toxic or hazardous materials without any further effort.
Fasteners, joints and Minimise the number of joints and It is important to recognise is that DFD is not simply the
connections connections reverse of DFA. The trade-offs between DFA and DFD have
Make joints visible and accessible, been the topic of much debate and they are often seen as
eliminate hidden joints being in conflict. For instance, the simplest and most cost-
Use joints that are easy to disassemble effective assembly technique may result in a product that
Mark non-obvious joints turns out to be exceedingly difficult to disassemble. However,
Use fasteners rather than adhesives there is much commonality between these two disciplines
Characteristics of Good accessibility (e.g. reduced component counts, modular designs, etc.) and a
components for disassembly Low weight growing recognition that, in addition to compliance with
Robust, minimise fragile parts legislation, products designed with DFD in mind very often
Non hazardous prove to be more profitable, with economic benefits arising
Preferably unpainted from reduced component counts, reduced parts and materials
Disassembly conditions Design for automated disassembly inventories and fewer joints and connectors. Further, in
Eliminate the need for specialised certain instances manufacturers can benefit from generating a
disassembly procedures continuing revenue stream from the original materials by
DFD with simple and standard tools
refurbishing their products. A good example is Kodak’s
“Funsaver” disposable camera. This has been designed to
simply snap apart, allowing between 77 and 90 per cent of the
are used and the associated disassembly times have fallen from
parts to be recycled or remanufactured into new cameras and
140 to 78 s.
87 per cent of these are now returned to be refurbished. This
Metals are generally far easier to recycle than plastics but
the following considerations should be borne in mind during was achieved by adhering to three key DFE principles
the DFD process: (Figure 4):
.
unplated metals are more easy to recycle than plated ones; 1 reducing the material content and energy required in the
.
low-alloy metals are more recyclable than high alloy ones; manufacturing process;
.
most cast irons are easily recycled; 2 increase the number of recycled parts; and
.
aluminium alloys, steel, and magnesium alloys are readily 3 increase the number of parts that are reused in the
separated and recycled from shredder outputs; and camera.
.
contamination of iron or steel with copper, tin, zinc, lead
or aluminium reduces recyclability; contamination of Table II Separability ratings
aluminium with iron, steel, chromium, zinc, lead, copper
Rating Description Examples
or magnesium reduces recyclability; and contamination of
zinc with iron, steel, lead, tin or cadmium reduces 1 May be disassembled easily Pull-apart plastics
recyclability. by manual techniques in less
A further factor to be considered is that some materials which than 1 min
are toxic or environmentally damaging (e.g. metals such as 2 May be disassembled Instrument cluster, radio
lead, cadmium and mercury; CFCs and HFCs) are covered manually with effort in less
by legislation which stipulates that they must be recycled, or than 3 min
at least separated/removed from host assemblies before 3 May be disassembled with Engine, sheet metal, un-
disposal. The aim should be to eliminate such materials effort and some mechanical corroded screws
where possible. Finally, materials, particularly plastics, should separation or shredding to
be marked in accordance with standards (e.g. ISO 1043) for separate. Process fully proven
identification purposes. Markings which are moulded into the 4 May be disassembled with Instrument panels, corroded
part are preferable because they are permanent and do not effort and some mechanical screws, adhesives
require additional manufacturing operations. separation or shredding to
The aspect of jointing is also critical, as a significant separate. Process under
proportion of the disassembly time is frequently associated development
with undoing fasteners and connectors. According to German 5 Cannot be disassembled, no Heated backlight
recycling guideline VDI 2243, this accounts for 54 per cent of known separation process
a simple four-cylinder car engine’s disassembly time. One way

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Figure 4 Kodak’s single use cameras embody key DFD principles and up to 90 per cent of the parts are recycled or remanufactured (Kodak)

Conclusions to comply with these laws but also to design products which
are both more cost-effective to produce and more
DFD has emerged as a critical discipline within the broader environmentally-friendly.
DFE field and can be implemented through the adoption of a
series of simple design guidelines. These should be conducted
with both DFA and the broader DFE concepts in mind.
Extant and anticipated legislation will require the recycling of
Corresponding author
a growing number of products and DFD is seen as a critical
enabling technology which will not only allow manufacturers Robert Bogue can be contacted at: [email protected]

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