Development of flexible automatic disassembly processes and cleaning technologies for the recycling of consumer goods

The development of disassembly processes and an appropriate reprocessing and cleaning technology are necessary for the recycling of used products and for the guiding of products, assemblies, components and materials in the respective product and material cycles. The aim of the collaborative research center 281 Disassembly Factories which is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and carried out at the Technical University Berlin is to develop a flexible automatic disassembly system for consumer goods. The paper presents disassembly processes and tools for separating multicomponent systems into singular components, parts and shapeless material. The plasma arc cutting process was optimized for the disassembly of washing machines with the aim to maximize feed speed and minimize removal particle emission. Thus automatic disassembly of interior parts can be done at lower costs compared to manual work. Expensive parts can be reused after cleaning. Cleaning with dry-ice blasting was analyzed for this process step.