Emulation-based control of a disassembly system for LCD monitors

Growing environmental concern and increasing responsibility towards product stewardship lead companies to institute new concepts to improve the environmental performance of their products and processes. Particularly, end-of-life treatment of waste electrical and electronic (WEEE) is a challenge due to rapidly changing technologies and strongly growing volumes. Disassembly has great importance as a preliminary stage for a high-quality recycling. A partly automated disassembly system could adapt to a large variety of products and different degrees of devaluation. But developing control systems still require customization for each different product and process. Testing of them is a difficult and time-consuming process, and often impossible until all the equipment has been installed. Modern simulation technology allows one to connect simulation models with real controller systems. This paper will introduce advantages of an emulation approach for the control logic development and validation. The approach will be applied on a hybrid disassembly system for LCD monitors.