Disassembly Layout in WEEE Recycling Process

With increasing awareness of potentially harmful life-cycle environmental impacts, preserving natural resources, government regulations against disposal of toxic substances in landfills, and the consequent development of markets for recycled components and materials, more options are now available for the disposal of post-use electronic equipment (e.g. personal computers, computer monitors etc.). Disassembly is the first stage in the WEEE recycling process. Manual disassembly has proven to be the most efficient method. Automated systems find their implementation only when relatively uniform-type equipment or assemblies are disassembled. Layout changes can enhance disassembly speeds by efficient material movement. This paper presents a proposal of disassembly line layout configuration which has been designed for disassembly of electronic equipment, typically found in residential waste stream, commonly referred to as consumer electronics. This paper introduces also a new concept as a possible solution for the known problems in existing layouts that occur during disassembly process such as disassembly speed, lifting, contamination risk, cluttering of tools and overloading of the sorting operator.