End-of-life management in new product development

Developing a sustainable and environmentally friendly product has become the primary concern in the car manufacturing industry. The new legislation “End of Life Vehicle” increased design complexities of car modules, subsystems, and components in a way that achieves the goals of reducing, reusing and recycling materials. The car bumper system is a complicated exterior module designed to prevent physical damage, reduce aerodynamic drag force, and be aesthetically pleasing to the consumer in addition to End of Life vehicle processing, which employs dismantling, shredding and land-filling. Design for dismantling is the first step in ELV’s implementation to optimize, the separating of the components and recycling of the materials of the bumper system. This study focused on the analysis of the ELV’s value in redesigned solutions of a new car bumper system in comparison to the current bumper one (case study). It provided a guideline to address the critical considerations in selecting materials, dismantling bumpers’ components and joining bracket to facilitate dismantling, separating, and recycling.