Case Study: Multi Life Cycle Center

R. Knoth, M. Brandsttter, B. Kopacek, P. Kopacek

Austrian Society for Systems Engineering and Automation Vienna, Austria

Abstract This case study shows the implementation of a highly innovative re-use and recycling system for waste of electric and electronic equipment (WEEE). This so called Multi Life Cycle Center will make use of the latest development in automation and information technology in order to obtain an efficient economical and ecological process. In this Center, implemented as pilot plant in Vienna, Austria, WEEE will be transformed back into valuable products. The product groups treated for re-use include IT and telecommunication equipment, consumer electronics, electrical and electronic tools, toys and leisure equipment. Regarding all other product groups the collection and recycling will be organized. The management of the reverse logistic system is based on RFID technology (radio frequency identification). The Multi Life Cycle Center follows the philosophy to recover WEEE at the highest possible level, starting with re-use of the whole product down to the subassembly and component level and finally to the recycling of materials. This approach is unique in the world and we are going to prove that an eco-efficient re-use of WEEE on a large scale can be feasible by using highly sophisticated technologies. The presented paper gives an overview of the various functions of the Multi Life Cycle Center and highlights two key technologies: semi automatic disassembling and reverse logistic based on RFIDs. Key words: Reuse, disassembly, take back logistic, waste of electric and electronic equipment, RFID

Figure 1. Hierarchy of end-of-life options

It will make use of the latest development in automation and information technology in order to create an efficient and cost beneficial process. The product groups treated for re-use in this facility include: IT and telecommunication equipment, Consumer electronics, Electrical and electronic tools and, Toys and leisure equipment.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Because of the fact that product innovation cycles are becoming shorter and shorter, the average lifetime of electronic products has been reduced dramatically. Today electronic products are often regarded as scrap after their first usephase, but in many cases, electronic equipment which is no longer useful to the original purchaser still has value for others or is still useful for other applications. For electric and electronic products, especially for computers, there are several EOL options existing, namely: upgrade, re-use, recondition, re-manufacture, recycling of materials and disposal. In Fig. 1 it is shown which priorities from an environmental as well as economic perspective generally apply. The Multi Life Cycle Center (MLC2) follows the above mentioned philosophy to recover waste of electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) at the highest possible level, starting with re-use of the whole product down to the subassembly and component level and finally to the recycling of materials.

Regarding the remaining product groups according to the WEEE directive [1] (e.g. white goods and small household appliances) the collection and recycling will be organized and coordinated. II. STATE-OF-THE ART AND THE NEW CONCEPT OF THE MULTI LIFE CYCLE CENTER

In many cases electr(on)ic products are collected and treated as scrap, meaning that there are no special containers available and products are even not separated from other metal waste streams. The latter have to be changed with the implementation of the WEEE Directive (separate collection will become mandatory) on August 13, 2005 at the latest. Further this regulation will not ensure that WEEE is collected in a way to be suitable for re-use, meaning an economical feasible take-back logistic without destroying or damaging the

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equipment. Several collection trials in Europe e.g. [2] has shown that reverse logistics costs for WEEE currently contribute 60-70% of the whole treatment of WEEE, thus optimization in this area is urgently needed. On the other hand re-use and repair activities are often carried out through so called socio-economic projects which are employing long-time unemployed or handicapped people and are heavily funded (up to 85%) by the public. Such initiatives are usually specialized in big household appliances like washing machines and TV sets, however are not capable to process large amounts of equipment. These initiatives are a direct result of the perception that e.g. repair/re-use does not pay. Re-use, repair and refurbishment are done by manual work, employing no advanced technology. Therefore WEEE recycling is mainly done by shredding the products in big plants. To some extent there is always manual work required even in these plants as big capacitors or mercury switches have to be picked out. The problem today is that nobody has demonstrated yet the economic feasibility of the integration of all kinds of re-use (including whole products and components) of WEEE in a normal business environment. The holding company Ecotronics1 and its operational branches ReUse and MTR in cooperation with the Vienna University of Technology and the Austrian Society for System Engineering and Automation have developed a pilot plant for semi-automated treatment of printed wire boards and mobile phones. Further research has been carried out in the fields of automated asset management systems for ICT products, take back-logistics, automated product identification, product and component testing, data erasure and disassembly technologies. These research activities have now come to the stage to be implemented on a large scale and to convince the experts that such activities are also feasible without socio-economic labor. Fig. 2 shows the different functions within the Multi Life Cycle Center.
Multi Life Cycle Center
Identification Unit

The reverse logistic system will incorporate the latest technology in RFID (radio frequency identification) for communication and organizational purposes. The incoming products at the MLC2 are then automatically identified and sorted for further treatment. Valuable products will be equipped with an individual RFID enabling closed loop information processing within the MLC2. The research results of the EU-funded project ELIMA will be used to install a life time prediction system which will facilitate the sorting process as well as enhance the remarketing value of the re-used products [3]. All products capable for re-use, however requiring further treatment like repair, refurbishment and/or upgrade will be transported to these workplaces and processed according to the instructions provided by the MLC2 information system. The next (lower) level of re-use will be the recovery of components by means of the developed semi automatic disassembly cells. Finally all remaining parts as well as non-reusable products will be treated in the material recycling station. Here manual and automated disassembly, inspection and sorting of parts (e.g. for plastics using spectrometry sensors). Among the various knowledge areas involved in the implementation of the MLC2 two key technologies are described in this paper: Intelligent disassembly technologies Intelligent take back logistic using RFID

III.

INTELLIGENT DISASSEMBLY TECHNOLOGIES

Design

Production

Use phase

Reverse Logistics

With the enormous increasing amount of products to be recycled and therefore also to be disassembled, it is necessary to automate component re-use as much as possible. The automation potential will be one of the most important productivity factors for the production processes within the MLC2 and becomes a new challenge for engineering (reduce the costs of disassembling for optimizing the recycling processes and create a human working environment in disassembly factories). A. Semi-automatic Disassembly of PWBs The process can be divided into several steps which are performed successively (Fig. 3) [4].

Repair

Product Re-use

Upgrade

Refurbishment

Test

ComponentRe-use Material Recycling Identification and sorting

At the beginning PCBs (printed circuit boards) are dismantled from collected electrical and electronic equipment manually. In this stage the flexibility of manual operators is used which allows the disassembly of equipment from various sources. After this manual disassembling procedure the PCBs are fixed on frames with special holding devices and enter the disassembly cell.

Figure 2. Functions within the MLC2

Ecotronics Eco-efficient Electronics and Services GmbH, Vienna, Austria. http://www.ecotronics.biz

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Disassembly Cell

Product Database
Information from manufacturer and the d market

Symbol Database Standardized Disassembling Operations

Summarizing the applied laser technique causes minimal thermal stress for the components, which results in an extended life-time for the re-use components. Additionally the infrared heating appliance unsoldering technology is used to extract components which are not suitable or valuable enough for the laser unsoldering station. By means of the infrared heating station through hole mounted components can be desoldered (e.g. electrolyte capacitors). Finally the disassembly process results in PCBs which are less environmentally relevant and electronic components suitable for re-use. B. Semi-automatic Disassembly of Mobile Phones Micrologic Research estimated a worldwide cellular telephone sale in 2003 of 475.9 million units [5]. After to slow market development in recent years and the nearly disappearance of the replacement market in e.g. Western Europe it is expected that the market will recover in the near future. Thus a very big number of used mobile phones will reach their End-of-Life. For that reason we developed a very flexible semi automatic disassembly cell for mobile phones, capable to process a broad spectrum of different types and models (Fig. 4) [6]. The concept for a disassembly cell for mobile phones consists of 7 modules, whereas the first module is the manual feeding station. The operator of the cell removes the battery, identifies the type of the phone via a recognition system and fixes it on a frame with especially designed and easy to handle fasteners.

Cell Control

PCBs

Recognition

Automatic Disassembly

PCBs free of hazardous components

Hazardous Components

Reusable Parts

Figure 3. Schematic of the semi automated disassembly cell for PWBs

The disassembly cell itself consists of the following stations: Vision system LASER desoldering system Robot removal station. Infrared heating removal station Stock for desoldered components

A recognition system with image processing - Vision System - 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. Beside this the system has to determine the position, size, and the center of area of the considered component and provide this data as input for the next stations To acquire the data, required for a selective disassembly, a high quality image detecting system is necessary. To localise and identify the reusable components on the PCB the vision systems must be able to reach a position in accuracy of 0,1 mm (coordinates, etc.) and recognize the characters on the part (OCR - Optical Character Recognition). Components which are recognised as valuable or potentially hazardous are desoldered by Laser or infrared heating and removed using special robotic grippers in the next process step. The combination of a special laser desoldering technology and special robot grippers allows us to remove a wide variety of electronic components from the processed PCB. The application of a laser desoldering process has several advantages compared to conventional techniques (e.g. hot air): the temperature of the desoldering process can be controlled effectively the laser is flexible in view of shape and position of the different components the necessary time for the desoldering process is very short due to the direct heat transfer the laser beam can be focused on the pins without heating the body of the components

Figure 4. Semi automated disassembly cell for mobile phones

The following disassembly process is done fully automatically in 6 stations. Due to the various used connection technologies for the different main parts of a mobile phone by the manufacturers many tests have been carried out to find the optimal combination of disassembly stations. Our aim was to cause minimum damage of the printed wire board and the display and sort the other parts according to their material composition.

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The fractions which are obtained after the disassembly process include: Batteries Plastic parts (e.g. front and back cover) Rubber (keys) Metals (e.g. screws, antennas) Printed Wire Boards Liquid Crystal Displays

The disassembly process optimally combines destructive and non-destructive disassembly technologies. The technologies used include milling, screwing, component desoldering and parts handling using vacuum grippers. IV. TAKE BACK LOGISTIC AND RFID

Due to the sophisticated technologies like automation in disassembling the economic benefit will increase in the future. However the realization of high level End-of-Life possibilities is dependent on the quality of the logistical background [7]. In order to ensure a proper, damage-free treatment of the discarded products at the collection points it is necessary that the collection containers fulfill several requirements: These containers will differ for the different product groups according to the End-of-Life solution. For example small household appliances are not considered for re-use, whereas IT and telecommunication products will play an important role. Further products differ in size and weight (e.g. mobile phones and CRTs). The design of the containers have to take transportability and stackability into account and they should have a standardized shape (e.g. euro-pallets). In the recent collection trials burglary safety has turned out to be an important issue in this context (e.g. for mobile phones) and should be integrated as well. The design of the container should also minimize the handling of the products, thus avoiding damages through untrained workers. Finally the logistic system has to enable the monitoring and tracking of collected products. This function is necessary to fulfill the reporting requirements towards the European Commission and the OEMs which are affected by the WEEE Directive. The system which will be demonstrated in the MLC2 is based on the RFID technology which stands for Radio Frequency Identification, an emerging, contact free data communication technology. By applying this technology a tracking system can be realized which will make the WEEE streams transparent and avoid misuse. There are several additional advantages of the RFIDs: back tracing, alerts in case of process deviations, process status, documentation of process, reduced handling effort. Further a level measurement within the container is currently investigated, thus allowing the optimization of the collection route of the truck and avoiding theft. In order to collect the RFID information special reading stations will be located on site of the collection point in order to allow continuous monitoring. Fig. 5 shows the logistic system of the MLC2.

Figure 5. Schematic of the RFID Logistic System

V.

CONCLUSION

The presented MLC2 system will be highly integrated by implementing a tailor made take back system using the latest RFID technology in combination with adopted state of the art logistic software. Further the RFID technology is used for an internal information system. The novel semi automated disassembly technologies allow the industrial scale recovery of subassemblies and even electronic components. After the implementation of the IDU (Information Data Unit) in new products remaining life time estimation will become possible in the near future and enhancing the re-use value of discarded electronic products significantly. This will be possible by having the information about the environmental conditions during the use phase and the load the equipment has been exposed e.g. [3, 8]. The already mentioned tailor made internal MLC2 information system will network all workplaces thus allowing guidance of the operators and assessment of the processed equipment to an extent required for the reporting of processed equipment for the WEEE directive.

REFERENCES
[1] European Union, Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), Brussels, 2003 Collection and Treatment of Waste from Electrical & Electronic Equipment in Austria and Switzerland, sterreichisches Forschungsinstitut fr Chemie und Technik, Vienna, March 2000. ELIMA Environmental Life Cycle Information Management and Acquisition for Consumer Products. Research project under the EU GROWTH Programme, Contract No G1RD-CT-2001-00562, www.elima.org a) R. Knoth, M. Hoffmann, B. Kopacek, P. Kopacek, Intelligent Disassembly of Electronic Equipment, Proceedings of IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and Environment, Denver, USA, 2001.

[2]

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[4]

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[5]

b) Knoth, R.; Hoffmann, M., Kopacek, B.; Kopacek, P.: Intelligent Disassembly of Electronic Equipment with a Flexible Semi-automatic Disassembly Cell. In: Proceedings of the Joint International Congress Electronics goes green 2000+, Berlin, Sept. 11-13, 2000. c) B. Kopacek and P. Kopacek, "Intelligent Disassembly of Electronic Equipment", in Proceedings of the 1st IFAC Workshop on Intelligent Assembly and Disassembly IAD'98, pp. 87-92, Oxford, UK, 1998. d) B. Kopacek and P. Kopacek, "Intelligent Disassembly of Electronic Products", in Proceedings of the 2nd Symposium Eco-Efficient Concepts for the Electronics Industry Towards Sustainability - CARE INNOVATION`98, pp. 130 136, Vienna, Austria, 1998. Micrologic Research, Cellular2002, A Study of the Worldwide Cellular Telephone Market, PHOENIX and DUSSELDORF, Germany February 19, 2002, http://www.mosmicro.com/

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R. Knoth1, M. Brandsttter, Examples for Intelligent Disassembly Systems, in Proceedings of the 4th Symposium Eco-Efficiency and the Drive Towards Sustainability for the Electronics & Aautomotive Industry - CARE INNOVATION`2002, Vienna, Austria, 2002. SCARE Green Book, Version 4.0, International SCARE Office, Vienna, Sept. 2000. A. Middendorf, H. Griese, H. Ptter, H. Reichl, I. Stobbe, Estimating the (Remaining) Lifetime for Maintenance and Reuse, Joint Int. Congr. EGG2000+, VDE Verlag Berlin-Offenbach, Sept. 11 13, 2000

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