Connector-link-part-based disassembly sequence planning

Under the trend of concurrent engineering, the correspondence between functions and physical structures in product design is gaining importance. Between the functions and parts, connectors are the basic unit for engineers to consider. Moreover, the relationship between connector-liaison-part will help accomplish the integration of information. Such efforts will help the development of the Knowledge Intensive CAD (KICAD) system. Therefore, we proposed a Connector-liaison-part-based disassembly sequence planning (DSP) in this study. First, the authors construct a release diagram through an interference relationship to express the priority of disassembly between parts. The release diagram will allow designers to review the rationality of product disassembly planning. Then, the cost calculation method and disassembly time matrix are established. Last, the greedy algorithm is used to find an appropriate disassembly sequence and seek suggestions for design improvement. Through the reference information, the function and corresponding modules are improved, from which the disassembly value of a product can be reviewed from a functional perspective. In this study, a fixed support holder is used as an example to validate the proposed method. The discussion of the connector-liaison-part will help the integration of the DSP and the functional connector approach.

Optimization of disassembly line balancing using an improved multi-objective Genetic Algorithm

Disassembly activities take place in various recovery operations including remanufacturing, recycling, and disposal. Product disassembly is an effective way to recycle waste products, and it is a necessary condition to make the product life cycle complete. According to the characteristics of the product disassembly line, based on minimizing the number of workstations and balancing the idle time in the station, the harmful index, the demand index, and the number of direction changes are proposed as new optimization objectives. So based on the analysis of the traditional genetic algorithm into the precocious phenomenon, this paper constructed the multi-objective relationship of the disassembly line balance problem. The disassembly line balance problem belongs to the NP-hard problem, and the intelligent optimization algorithm shows excellent performance in solving this problem. Considering the characteristics of the traditional method solving the multi-objective disassembly line balance problem that the solution result was single and could not meet many objectives of balance, a multi-objective improved genetic algorithm was proposed to solve the model. The algorithm speeds up the convergence speed of the algorithm. Based on the example of the basic disassembly task, by comparing with the existing single objective heuristic algorithm, the multi-objective improved genetic algorithm was verified to be effective and feasible, and it was applied to the actual disassembly example to obtain the balance optimization scheme. Two case studies are given: a disassembly process of the automobile engine and a disassembly of the computer components.

Disassembly Sequence Planning for Intelligent Manufacturing Using Social Engineering Optimizer

Product disassembly and recycling are important issues in green design. Disassembly sequence planning (DSP) is an important problem in the product disassembly process. The core idea is to generate the best or approximately optimal disassembly sequence to reduce disassembly costs and time. According to the characteristics of the DSP problem, a new algorithm to solve the DSP problem is proposed. Firstly, a disassembly hybrid graph is introduced, and a disassembly constraint matrix is established. Secondly, the disassembling time, replacement frequency of disassembly tool and replacement frequency of disassembly direction are taken as evaluation criteria to establish the product fitness function. Then, an improved social engineering optimizer (SEO) method is proposed. In order to enable the algorithm to solve the problem of disassembly sequence planning, a swap operator and swap sequence are introduced, and steps of the social engineering optimizer are redefined. Finally, taking a worm reducer as an example, the proposed algorithm is used to generate the disassembly sequence, and the influence of the parameters on the optimization results is analyzed. Compared with several heuristic intelligent optimization methods, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified.