The Open Mechanical Engineering Journal

2015, 9 : 546-551
Published online 2015 September 10. DOI: 10.2174/1874155X01509010546
Publisher ID: TOMEJ-9-546

Fuzzy-Clustering Based Cost Modeling of Disassembly Planning for EOL Products

Zhou Ziqiang , Dai Guohong , Wu Zhaoren and Zhang Xiangyan
School of Mechanical Engineering, Changshu Institute of Technology, Changshu, Jiangsu, 215500 Chang.

ABSTRACT

Cost model is a key issue in the disassembly process planning, because the optimized disassembly sequence is determined by ranking several possible disassembly operations. In this study, a fuzzy cost model for disassembly processes was developed based on the fuzzy clustering method. The objective was to solve the problems in the practical applications of currently used quantitative models of disassembly cost model, which is based on the change times of the tools operation or the disassembly time. The sample data were obtained through the disassembly tests of the typical EOL (end-of-life) products. Following this , the transitive closure operations were performed after standardization and normalization. Dynamic clustering was carried out on the basis of above results, and appropriate clustering results were selected to construct the membership function of fuzzy costs. This study also proposed a method of proportional interpolation to expand the directly built membership function to the uncovered discourse domain, resulting in more practical fuzzy cost models. Finally, the disassembly process of a general reducer was adopted as an example to verify the feasibility of the above method.

Keywords:

Disassembly, Disassembly cost model, Fuzzy clustering, Recycling, Remanufacturing.