Active Disassembly

Abstract: The aim of the work was to demonstrate an alternative to conventional end-of-life (EOL) disassembly strategies such as robotic or hand dismantling. This initial investigation reports the disassembly of consumer electronic products using smart materials in the design of embedded releasable fasteners. A series of products was tested in a variety of different ways using shape memory polymers (SMPs). Tests were run on macroassemblies and subassemblies of telecommunications goods. The devices designed with SMP used two distinct properties of the material suited to active disassembly:the mechanical property loss (MPL), in this case a loss of rigidity in the thread of the SMP screws;the shape memory effect (SME), a change in form, resulting in this case in the loss of moulded thread from SMP shape memory effect screws.Once SMP components were developed and embedded into the candidate products, timed disassembly experiments were conducted. These tests used infrared, air jet and water bath methods for appl...

Abstract: This paper reports results the application of shape memory polymer (SMP) technology to the active disassembly of modern mobile phones. The smart material SMP of polyurethane (PU) composition was employed. Two different types of SMP fasteners were created for these experiments. With these smart material devices, it is possible for products to disassemble themselves at specific triggering temperatures at EoL. The two designs were compared for disassembly effectiveness. The disassembly technique is termed active disassembly using smart materials (ADSM), and has been successfully demonstrated on a variety of mobile phones. Whilst developed primarily as a universal disassembly technique, cost effectiveness and time performance is apparent. Heat sources of +90, +100 and a range of +67 to +120/spl deg/C were employed to raise the releasable fasteners above their trigger temperatures: in the case of SMP this would be the glass transition temperature (Tg). The development of releasable fasteners and applications in electronic products is described.