If we consider the huge amounts of WEEE (Waste from electrical and electronic equipment) which will become available for recovery we have to strengthen various end-of-life possibilities such as upgrade, re-use, recondition, re-manufacture, resale or recycling of materials. The quality of these end-of-life possibilities are decisively determined by the quality of the logistic systems. Today the end-of-life electric and electronic equipment is mostly regarded as scrap and treated like it is usual for scrap-in a destructive way. This makes it impossible to re-use equipment, components and parts. This paper describes the development of a logistic solution which meets the demands for several re-use strategies and also increases the effectiveness in material recycling

Due to the short innovation cycles of electrical and electronic equipment there is a tremendous need to extend the life-time of these products. Life-time extension can be achieved through easily replaceable and reusable subassemblies or devices, which reduce the risks and costs of disassembling activities. However, at the moment end-of-life products are hardly reused due to the high disassembling costs, which are often corresponding to the complex product structure of EEE. Within the Strategic CARE initiative a consortium of different international companies and research organisations (Austria, Germany and Netherlands) was established in order to build a flexible semi-automatic disassembling cell "/spl Sigma/! 1592-Disassembly Factory" for extracting valuable components from printed wired boards (PWBs). In addition, design impacts for a concept of a "disassembly-oriented product structure" are studied.

Design for Environment (DFE) is becoming more and more important, especially as there is a tremendous need to increase resource productivity because of the decreasing capacities of non renewable resources. One way to achieve this goal is to enhance a product's lifetime.Therefore the Austrian Society for Systems Engineering and Automation started to build a demonstration plant within the Strategic CARE initiative: "Sigma! 1592 -Disassembly Factory".The idea of this project is to develop a flexible semiautomatic disassembling cell for extracting valuable and reusable components from printed circuit boards [PCB]. Furthermore design impacts for a concept of a "disassembly-oriented product structure" will be investigated, This paper illustrates how the experiences of the Disassembly Factory will influence DFE methodologies in the future.

If one considers the huge amounts of WEEE (waste from electrical and electronic equipment) which will become available for recovery, one has to strengthen various end-of-life possibilities such as upgrade, re-use, recondition, re-manufacture, resale or recycling of materials. The quality of these end-of-life possibilities are decisively determined by the quality of the logistic systems. Today the end-of-life electric and electronic equipment is mostly regarded as scrap and treated like it is usual for scrap-in a destructive way. This makes it impossible to re-use equipment, components and parts. This paper describes the development of a logistic solution which meets the demands for several re-use strategies and also increases the effectiveness in material recycling

The growing amount of WEEE requires a need for a drastic increase of resource productivity. This can be done by the creation of long life - products and the re-usage of product's waste. In order to enhance the use of 7 2 product's components, the Austrian Society for Systems Engineering and Automation started to build a demonstration plant within the Strategic CARE initiative: "E! 1592 - Disassembly Factory". The idea of this subproject is to develop a flexible semi-automatic disassembling cell for extracting valuable components from printed circuit boards [PCB] and to investigate the necessary design impacts in order to develop a concept for a "disassembly-oriented product structure". This paper illustrates the working methodology in order to develop a concept for a "disassembly oriented product structure"

Sustainable development will be a key to competitiveness in the new century. Large corporations have begun to understand this, and have built a growing body of experience in this field. Smaller and medium-sized companies are still lacking access and understanding of that knowledge. The concept of the Virtual University of Sustainability presented in this paper allows to bring knowledge and appreciation of sustainable development to a world-wide audience through combining the latest distance learning and information technology with proven training traditions.

The development of a flexible semi - automatic disassembly cell for printed circuit boards (PCB) will be described and discussed. PCB from various devices are collected and manually dismantled. In the disassembly cell the components on the PCB are first identified by a vision system and classified in environmental relevant, valuable and remaining components. This classification based on a database containing information from the market. The first two groups are disassembled by means of a robot and finally the process results in PCBs which are less environmental relevant and electronic components suitable for re-use.