A graph-based approach to disassembly model for end-of-life product recycling

Manufacturing industries are beginning to face one of the consequences resulting from the rapid development which has occurred during the last decade. The most evident effect is that landfill capacity is being used up. Therefore, a systematic approach to recycling is both urgent and imperative. It has been also recognized that appropriate disassembly of used products is necessary in order to make recycling economically and environmentally viable in the current state of the art reprocessing technology. This paper proposes a graph-based heuristic approach to the disassembly model. The model is embedded on a graph representation and object-oriented modeling, which is obtained by generating disassembly sequences. Information exchange within the disassembly model is done through three phases: (1) disassembly analysis, (2) database and data management, and (3) recycling cost minimization. With graph representation, the problem of identifying the optimal disassembly and recycling strategy is transformed into a graph search problem. By solving the graph search problem, one can determine the termination of disassembly, generate the disassembly sequence, calculate the disassembly cost, select recycling plans, monitor the material flow, and evaluate environmental compatibility of the product. In addition, this paper illustrates the prototype using personal computer disassembly as an example.