Automated demanufacturing studies in detecting and destroying, threaded connections for processing electronic waste

Automation can be used to supplement the manual processing of used electronic products in order to offset the increasing volumes in electronic waste streams. The application of automation to demanufacturing requires high levels of flexibility. In order to study the utility of automation for demanufacturing of used products, a flexible cover removal process was implemented within an automated demanufacturing work cell. The process demonstrates two of the key objectives in automated processing of used products: feature identification and connection removal. The study is limited to threaded connections that can be detected on the external surface of the product. Feature detection is performed through the use of stereo machine vision with a simple search algorithm. Once a positive feature is discovered, a material removal approach is used to eliminate the threaded connections. A flexible material removal platform has been established with on hand tooling mounted to a 6 DOF industrial robot. Experiments identified key issues in the recognition and removal process. Constraints to the range of product that can be processed are identified based on feature recognition and material cutting limits. Product design considerations for automated demanufacturing are presented.