Biomimetic design for remanufacture in the context of design for assembly

In this paper, a biomimetic design method is applied to a specific problem in design for remanufacture. First summarized is remanufacture as an option to disposal at product end of life, and how products may be designed for ease of remanufacture. Next identified is a contradiction between a design-for-remanufacture strategy and design-for-assembly preferences. Specifically, making failure-prone features into separate parts facilitates remanufacture but results in additional parts to assemble. An example involving snap fits as a method of fastening and joining is used to illustrate the contradiction. To obtain ideas on how to address this contradiction, a biomimetic search method was used to find biological phenomena that are analogous to remanufacture. One such phenomenon is described and used to develop a concept that satisfies both design-forremanufacture and design-forassembly preferences.