Monday, August 6, 2012

Design for Product Lifetime


Today’s team exercise was aimed to see how looking at a products assembly and the effort behind its dismantling contributes to the environment impact. It was interactive experience allowed us to see how the way we design impacts the life of a product. It demonstrates how the more difficult the disassembly and repair to recycle etc. the more likely the company doesn’t engage in its recycling as it cost more to commute with no market share gain as time can be spent creating a new one with profit. Seeing how its design, in terms of the amount of fasteners, materials choices, finishes and manufacturing processes impact its possibility to be even recycled or ending in landfill to begin with.  
As a team we analysed the design of a Breville Kettle, looking at the time of its disassembly…..1hr 16min 20sec 27ms and its difficulty in order to discovering possible solutions of improvement. We are to see how we could improve its disassembly &recycling – in terms of materials minimising, fastening standardising, component limiting (litre indicator), combining features  (5 buttons to 1), reducing manufacturing process (welding nozzle to main form), eliminating glues and aesthetical purpose parts, clear recycle labelling in order to encourage repair& upgrade – easier disassembly and standardising fixing encourages repair and upgrades of internal components (element) whereby the main kettle form that doesn’t change over time leading to improving durability –allowing for extended use of life were by internal component change and advance with existing main structure.
The below photos demosntrate the experince of difficulty and amount of matierals involved in the disassembly. Also the displaying the overall sketch solutions and exploration.









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