Destructive disassembly to support virtual prototyping

The design paradigm called virtual prototyping (VP) is important because of the need to manufacture products in a short period of time and in a cost effective manner. By replacing the building of physical prototypes for testing various design issues such as usability, life-cycle analysis, functionality and so on with so called ‘virtual models’ on a computer and analyzing them, virtual prototyping is achieved. One of the design issues that has become increasingly important is the ‘design-for-disassembly (DFD)’ paradigm. A well designed product that is easy to disassemble has the obvious advantages when it needs to be taken apart for service or end-of-life recycling. Therefore a design tool that can tie the DFD issues into a virtual prototyping system is of considerable interest. This paper attempts to address this particular issue in the virtual prototyping area: DFD as applied to VP. This paper presents an overview of a detailed DFD method. An algorithm that can be readily tied into a computer aided design system, therefore also useful for virtual prototyping, is discussed. Some implementation issues and an evaluation of the effectiveness of the DFD method currently employed are explained. Even though this research is still in its early stages, the paper presents a general framework of DFD methodology and its potential to be used as a virtual prototyping tool.