An integrated methodology for assessing physical and technological life of products for reuse. (2nd February 2010)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rugrungruang, Fatida; Kara, Sami; Kaebernick, Hartmut
• Is Part Of: International journal of sustainable manufacturing. Volume 1 Number 4(2009)
• Page Start: 463
• Page End: 490
• Publication Date: 2010-02-02
• Subjects: lifetime prediction -- remaining life -- physical lifetime -- technological lifetime -- product reuse -- component reuse -- domestic washing machines -- disassembly -- quality testing -- sustainable manufacturing -- sustainability; Sustainable design -- Periodicals; Design, Industrial -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Sustainable engineering -- Periodicals; 745.2
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1742-7223

Abstract

This paper seeks to develop methodologies that aid in predicting the remaining lifetime and reuse potential of used components. The methodologies integrate the physical and the technological life aspects for an integrated assessment. There are three core parts of this research. First, the remaining physical life of used components is derived based on the failure rate data and the statistical analysis of usage intensity. Second, the research presents the use of technology forecasting technique to predict the remaining technological life. Finally, the resulting estimations from the two aspects were combined to obtain an integrated assessment for estimating the remaining life of components. A domestic washing machine was used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology. The results show that the proposed method is a promising tool to support decision making for reuse prior to the time consuming and costly processes such as disassembly and quality testing.