CAREER: Integrated Product and De- and Remanufacture Process Design

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9624787 Bras This NSF Career Award provides support for research on how to enhance the integrated design of products and de- and remanufacture processes. Demanufacture is defined as the entire process opposite to manufacture involved in recycling, reuse, incineration and/or disposal of products after they have been taken back by one or more companies. The specific objectives of the work are to establish (1) the operational parameters and models for an extended set of commercial and prototypical plastic-metal chemical and mechanical product de- and remanufacturing processes, (2) computer-based tools for integrated product and process design of plastic-metal products with associated appropriate high performance and robust de- and remanufacture processes, and (3) the efficient and effective integration of such new technologies in engineering education. These objectives will be achieved by (1) classifying the technical, economical and ecological performance of appropriate de- and remanfacture processes, (2) developing models for de- and remanufacturability performance and robustness assessments, (3) developing tools for de- and remanufacturability process selection and synthesis, (4) integrating this process selection and synthesis with product design and synthesis models, and (5) enhancing the education and learning about new technologies in general and de- and remanufacture in particular through the development and assessment of new courseware and educational facilities. Educational focal points are to (a) increase learning through doing by creating a facility where students can demanufacture real systems, (b) increase the outreach to practicing engineers (and others) by creating self-study (multi-media) courseware on product and process design for de- and remanufacture, and (c) increase the diversity of students and encourage holistic thinking by creating an international course on Environmentally Conscious Design. A primary issue is assessing the effectiveness of the learning that takes place by the students. A secondary issue is the efficiency of the delivery of the educational material. This award will provide advances in the field of recycling durable goods, like automobiles. It will help to increase the US competitiveness with respect to designing products and cost-effective recycling processes that will meet current and pending product take-back legislation in Europe. The research will contribute to new technologies for pursing recyclability, reusability, and other means of environmentally benign product disposal. Other tangible outcomes will be computer-based tools that will provide decision support and enable designers to explore different recycling process scenarios in conjunction with the product design.