Chapter 8
Designing for Vehicle Recyclability
from the Perspectives of Material
and Joining Choices
Vi Kie Soo, Paul Compston, and Matthew Doolan
Abstract The increasing use of lightweight materials and multi-material vehicle
designs has improved the environmental impacts during the use phase through
reduced vehicle mass. However, the growing complexity of vehicle designs has
led to challenges in the choice of joining techniques. Previous ecodesign guidelines encourage less use of joints to reduce potential weak spots. However, minimizing the number of joints contradict with the increasing variety of multi-material
combinations and their associated joining techniques. Consequently, the use of multimaterial designs and their associated joining choices further reduces the effectiveness
of current shredding and sorting recycling processes. This paper proposes a vehicle
design framework for material and joining preferences to assist in material recyclability. Observations from previous case studies in Australia and Europe supplemented by literature data are used to assess the correlation between different material
types, material separability through commonly used recycling practices, and material compatibility during the metallurgical processing. The method used to evaluate
the design preferences for material separation during recycling are discussed. This
work provides critical insights into the linkage between vehicle design and recycling
phases to promote environmentally conscious design of products.
Keywords Design for recycling · Joining choices · Multi-material designs ·
Vehicle recycling · End-of-life vehicles
8.1 Introduction
Lightweight vehicle concept is used extensively in the vehicle industry to reduce
fuel consumption towards achieving the strict CO 2 emission legislations. Vehicle
manufacturers have focussed on reducing the vehicle mass through the use of multimaterial designs which led to the growing complexity in vehicle designs and manufacturing over time. Vehicle structural parts are increasingly replaced with different
V. K. Soo (B) · P. Compston · M. Doolan
Research School of Electrical, Energy and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering and
Computer Science, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
e-mail: vikie.soo@anu.edu.au
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
Y. Kishita et al. (eds.), EcoDesign and Sustainability I, Sustainable Production, Life Cycle
Engineering and Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6779-7_8
103
Designing for Vehicle Recyclability
from the Perspectives of Material
and Joining Choices
Vi Kie Soo, Paul Compston, and Matthew Doolan
Abstract The increasing use of lightweight materials and multi-material vehicle
designs has improved the environmental impacts during the use phase through
reduced vehicle mass. However, the growing complexity of vehicle designs has
led to challenges in the choice of joining techniques. Previous ecodesign guidelines encourage less use of joints to reduce potential weak spots. However, minimizing the number of joints contradict with the increasing variety of multi-material
combinations and their associated joining techniques. Consequently, the use of multimaterial designs and their associated joining choices further reduces the effectiveness
of current shredding and sorting recycling processes. This paper proposes a vehicle
design framework for material and joining preferences to assist in material recyclability. Observations from previous case studies in Australia and Europe supplemented by literature data are used to assess the correlation between different material
types, material separability through commonly used recycling practices, and material compatibility during the metallurgical processing. The method used to evaluate
the design preferences for material separation during recycling are discussed. This
work provides critical insights into the linkage between vehicle design and recycling
phases to promote environmentally conscious design of products.
Keywords Design for recycling · Joining choices · Multi-material designs ·
Vehicle recycling · End-of-life vehicles
8.1 Introduction
Lightweight vehicle concept is used extensively in the vehicle industry to reduce
fuel consumption towards achieving the strict CO 2 emission legislations. Vehicle
manufacturers have focussed on reducing the vehicle mass through the use of multimaterial designs which led to the growing complexity in vehicle designs and manufacturing over time. Vehicle structural parts are increasingly replaced with different
V. K. Soo (B) · P. Compston · M. Doolan
Research School of Electrical, Energy and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering and
Computer Science, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
e-mail: vikie.soo@anu.edu.au
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
Y. Kishita et al. (eds.), EcoDesign and Sustainability I, Sustainable Production, Life Cycle
Engineering and Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6779-7_8
103