Most consumer electronic products are manufactured from various materials and assembled in complex ways which makes them difficult to disassemble economically. Unless products can be disassembled and the different streams of materials separated to a component level, the product cannot be recycled. For this reason, they are disposed of in landfills. The hazardous portions of these products pose a significantly increasing environmental threat.
Products are designed for their efficient manufacture and assembly. Manufacturers want the production of their products to be as cheap and efficient as possible. Traditionally the EoL disassembly of the product is not often taken into consideration.
It would be very difficult to economically automate the disassembly process of products, since different products have different connection methods, screws of different types and sizes in different locations and planes. To achieve non-destructive disassembly, the process would have to be done manually.
This is where ADSM can compete. ADSM will allow for the quick and easy non-destructive disassembly of products and/or their chosen subassemblies and constituent components. For example, numerous mobile phones which have been designed for Active Disassembly could be dropped into a tumble dryer at their EoL. The tumble dryer heats the components to the trigger temperature strategically loosening their assemblies. Within seconds, the mobile phones are dismantled.
Because a range of trigger temperatures can be incorporated into smart materials, hierarchical disassembly of products can be achieved through ADSM by using smart materials of different trigger temperatures within the same product. Therefore the first "tumble dry" disassembly cycle may only remove the surface shell of the product. The second run may disassembly some of the inner components, and so on for subsequent exposures. This process has also demonstrated the application for repair and module upgrade.
ADSM can allow for hazardous waste portions to be picked out and dealt with appropriately. These hazardous elements may have otherwise been disposed of in landfill posing an environmental threat.
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