Remanufactured products, components, and their materials: A circularity engineering focused empirical status quo analysis

Abstract

Research on design for circularity and design for remanufacturing is mainly based on secondary data and assumptions. In this work comprehensive engineering data on nine automotive remanufacturing products, their components and materials is collected and analyzed. Investigations focus on the pre- and post-remanufacturing condition, mass, material value, materials, joints, geometry, load cases, surfaces, embodied energy, and circularity of every single component in the inventory. In-depth empirical product, component and material data was successfully used for a novel research approach to systematically identify or empirically verify design for circularity and design for remanufacturing solutions, challenges, and opportunities. The results contribute to a better understanding of the properties of automotive remanufacturing products, their components and materials, as well as a more robust theory on design for remanufacturing. The novel insights show exemplarily the fruitful complementary role of inductive and deductive circularity engineering research. A large empirical circularity engineering knowledge base on products of value-retention processes can pave the way toward empirically backed-up methods and tools for circular product design and material selection in future research.