INTELLIGENT DISASSEMBLY OF ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT WITH A

FLEXIBLE SEMI-AUTOMATIC DISASSEMBLY CELL

R. Knoth, M. Hoffmann, B. Kopacek, P. Kopacek, and C. Lembacher; Austrian Society for
Systems Engineering and Automation
Brunhildengasse 1A/5, A 1150 Vienna, Austria
Tel.: +43-1-786 46 03 0, Fax: +43-1-786 46 03 - 99
E-mail: knoth@ihrtnt.ihrt.tuwien.ac.at

Abstract:

Fully or semi-automated disassembly will gain importance in the nearest future

especially for electr(on)ic waste. A flexible, modular system for intelligent disassembly
for this purpose is presented on the basis of disassembly families. As a practical
application we demonstrate the concept of disassembly cells on printed circuit boards
(PCB). The robots used in such systems have special features which are discussed in
detail.
At the disassembly cell re-usable and hazardous components on the PCB are
automatically identified by a vision system and removed with the help of a robot.
1. Introduction
The electric and electronic industry has been proven to be innovative and flexible by activities in
the past. High growth rates and short product innovation cycles characterise this sector (e.g. ITequipment). But the high amount of waste (Germany: 1.5 millions tons of WEEE (Waste from
electrical and electronic equipment) every year) [1], which is generally regarded environmental
relevant put this sector in the focus of environmental issues [2]. Consumer behaviour and
legislation require that the products fulfil sustainable principles and are environmental friendly
from cradle to grave.
The European Commission prepared the widely discussed WEEE-directive with the goals to

Prevent waste from electrical and electronic equipment,

Increase re-use, recycling and other forms of recovery from such waste and to
Minimise the risks and impacts to the environment associated with the treatment and
disposal of end-of-life EEE.
In order to achieve this challenge environmental consideration must be incorporated in the
classical product chain and the classical product chain must be extended through various

operation at the end of the product use time, generally called end-of-life (EOL) techniques (e.g.
re-use or recycling).
Especially the end-of-life treatment of electr(on)ic equipment has attracted a lot of interest in the
last decade and is pushed forward through legislation. Such EOL-EEE can be regarded as a
valuable source. The value arises because there is a gap between the product use time and the
product life time. One way to minimise this gap is to re-use components. In this way electronic
components are used for a second time in order to extend the product use time to its physical
life time. On the other hand EOL-EEE is attributed with a negative price, due to the
environmental relevant substances present in the equipment.
Summarising cost effective methods have to be developed in order to remove environmental
relevant substance and to make use of components suitable for a re-use.
2. Disassembly (State of the art and outlook)
Disassembling, as the first and most important point in the recycling process, will be a part of
the industry with a high rate of expansion. Currently disassembly for recycling, if it is done
anyway, is mainly a manual and sometimes also mechanized process. But with the enormous
increasing amount of products to be recycled and therefore also to be disassembled, such as
computers, printers, telephones, all sort of household-machines and other electr(on)ic devices,
it is necessary to automate this aim to increase the effort. High flexibility and low-cost of
disassembly processes will be necessary.
Until now a very high standard in the field of automation and robotics have been reached, but
focused only on assembly. Few parts of electronic scrap are recycled after disassembling,
however, the degree of automation is still very small - only some pilot or demonstration projects
are realized mainly in research institutes. For the expected mass of products which will come
back to recycling and disassembling companies in the future, the existing manual disassembly
is totally insufficient. At the moment especially parts of high quality products, i.e. those which
contain precious metals, are disassembled in order to re-use some components. For a lot of
products, especially those used in private households, the effort of manual work would not be
worth it. Today most household products are shredded without any disassembly. In this case a
separation of toxic components is not economically feasible and therefore not done at all.
Because of the tremendous increasing amount of electronic products to be recycled (and also to
be disassembled), makes it necessary to (partially) automate this separation process to
increase the efficiency.

A broad realisation of a mechanised disassembly has been prevented mainly due to the
following limitations:
Unfavourable design of the products
High variety and diversity of the products
But nevertheless these limitations still exist the automation potential will be one of the most
important productivity factors for this new production process and becomes a new challenge for
engineering.
The main goals are
(a) to reduce the costs of disassembling for optimizing the recycling processes and
(b) to create a humane working environment in disassembly factories.
3. Disassembly using disassembly cells [3]
Existing concepts are very inflexible and only developed for a specific task or product. Stiff
automatized disassembly in single purpose cells only for one product (e.g. one type of PC`s)
cannot be economically feasible today. For example in the case of computer-keyboards of a
distinct type all keyboards from whole Europe per year could be disassembled in three month
by one fully automatized cell.
Therefore establishing relevant product groups (disassembly families) will be the key factor for
the whole system. Here the optimum for the characteristics of disassembly, design and
recycling must be found. These so called disassembly families are groups of similar or
different products which are requiring nearly the same disassembly operations carried out with
the same disassembly tools.
Figure 1 shows all different parts of a modular, flexible disassembly cell.
According to the figure the main modules
of such a disassembly cell are [4], [5]:
Industrial robots or handling devices
with special features like high
accuracy, path- and force control
(disassembly robot).
Special gripping devices for a broad
spectrum of parts with different
geometries and dimensions.
Disassembly
tools
especially
developed for robots.
Feeding systems for the products to be
disassembled.
Transport systems similar as for
assembly cells.

(Intell.) Cell
Control Unit

Disassembly
Robot
Robot
Gripper
Disassembly
Tools

Storage
Devices

Disassembly
Cell

Components
Database

Transport
System
Clamping
Device
Manual Disassembly station

Sensors
Force
Torque

Visual

Pos.
Dist.

Figure 1: Modular, flexible disassembly cell

Fixture systems for parts with different geometric properties and dimensions.
Manual disassembly stations.
Intelligent control units able to process information from extended sensors.
Electronic component database including data of re-usable and remanufacturable parts.
(low cost) vision systems for part recognition.
Various sensors for force and moment limitations, position, distance, etc.
Storage systems for tools and parts
These modules can be chosen and combined according to the necessities of a cell for a distinct
disassembly family.
For our development of a modular, flexible disassembly cell for printed circuit boards some of
the modules are available from assembly cells, but research on the following subjects was
necessary:

Conception of sensor guided robots for disassembly.

Evaluation of necessary tools and grippers which fit to the required separation techniques.
Conception of extremely flexible and modular gripping devices for disassembly.
Evaluation of possible implementation of methods of artificial intelligence in the cell control
with a minimum of software costs and computing time.
Evaluation of best suiting vision system and product groups, considering present product
categories and discernible future design trends.
Evaluation of interfaces for the integration of a vision system to semi-automated cells,
adding visual identification and physical measurement methods for the activation of the
robot control:
pre-selection of parts,
sample to measurement device, or vice versa,
sample or surface preparation.
Cost estimation of adapting a vision system to the identified needs of the product and the
necessary robot manipulation considering the industrial environment.
4. Semi-automic disassembly of printed circuit boards
In our approach electrical and electronic equipment from various sources is collected and
manual dismantled. In this stage we make use of the flexibility of our manual operator and this
allows us the disassembly of equipment from various sources. At the disassembly centre the
equipment is fractionised, with one fraction printed circuit boards.
The cleaned PCBs are further fixed on frames. After this manual process they enter the
automatic disassembly line. The further disassembly process is shown schematically in figure 2.

Disassembly Cell
Product
Database

Symbol
Database
Standardized
Disassembling
Operations

Information from
manufacturer and
the market

Cell Control

PCBs

Recognition

Automatic Disassembly

PCBs free of
hazardous components

Hazardous
Components
Reusable Parts

Figure 2. Schematic description of the disassembly cell

A recognition system with image processing identifies re-usable parts and toxic components on
the PCB. This is done by comparing the shape and labels of the parts with a database
containing information from manufacturers and information from the re-use market.
Components which are recognised as valuable or potentially hazardous are removed. The
combination of a special laser dissoldering technology with special robot grippers allows us to
remove a wide variety of electronic components from the processed PCB. The laser
dissoldering process has several advantages compared to conventional techniques (e.g. hot
air):

the temperature of the dissoldering process can be controlled effectively

the laser is flexible in view of shape and position of the different components

the necessary time for the dissoldering process is very short due to the direct heat
transfer

the laser beam can be focussed on the pins without heating the body of the
components

Summarising our applied laser technique causes minimal thermal stress for the components,
which results in an extended life-time for the re-use components.
Finally the disassembly process results in PCBs which are less environmental relevant and
electronic components suitable for re-use.

5. Conclusions
Disassembly automation especially for electr(on)ic devices is absolutely necessary world-wide in
the nearest future because of the dramatically increasing amount of electr(on)ic scrap.
Today only some pilot projects in form of fully automated single purpose solutions and only for
one distinct type of one product are realized. Main problem is the collection and transportation
of a sufficient amount of these products to one place.
In our approach we make use of disassembly families these are products which are
disassembled similar.
Our presented disassembly cell removes re-useable and hazardous components from various
PCBs and results in PCBs which are less environmental relevant and electronic components
suitable for re-use.
Resulting from semi-automated disassembly, the system will improve the working conditions
considerably. The quality of the whole recycling process will be enhanced and the skill of the
workers can be used for more sophisticated jobs. When this system proves a success it can be
built world-wide and thereby create new jobs. In addition, the demands for disassembly systems
will stimulate the industry to develop products which can be disassembled and re-qualified more
easily. The improved quality of the sorted materials will have a direct feedback to reduce the
volume of landfills and decrease the use of primary materials. Both effects have an
incontestable influence on the improvement of environmental conditions.
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1996,
R. Gabriel, Bauteile mit potentiell gefhrlichen Inhaltsstoffen in Elektro- und
Elektronikaltgerten, Diplomarbeit, Universitt fr Bodenkultur, Wien, 1995,
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