A novel approach to design for 3R-abilities

In recent years, the production of electric and electronic equipment (EEE) is one of the fastest growing areas. The recent European Community waste EEE directive aims to promote the recycle, reuse and reduce (3R) of such waste. The 3Rs are becoming increasingly importance due to current strict environmental regulations. However, research related to enhance 3R-abilities in design have certain drawbacks, such as that there is no analysis of the impact on each of 3R, methods are often too complicated, and there is a need for practical and simple guidelines. To resolve these issues, this paper develops a novel approach to model the product modularity and analyze the product disassembly for design. The discussion of disassembly patterns and product modularity which aims at enhancing 3Rs in design is presented along with conclusions.