Structure representation for concurrent analysis of product assembly and disassembly

This paper presents a simple and novel structure representation supporting the assembly and disassembly planning of electromechanical products. The proposed Relationship Matrix derived from a directed graph represents both the information of the component connectivity and the layout precedence of functional elements. The feasible assembly and disassembly sequences and the minimum service steps for the malfunction component can be easily derived with the corresponding inference rules. The structure representation and the inference kernel can be readily applied to future concurrent design review for assemblability, serviceability, and recyclability. A prototype software tool is introduced to demonstrate the application of the proposed scheme.