Hybrid Remanufacturing System for Flat Screen Monitors

The remarketing of used flat screen desktop monitors is evolving into a profitable market segment. Demand for used or non-functional monitors is growing especially in Eastern European nations and cannot be covered by End-of-Life (EoL) products, yet. Non-functional phase-out models are often sold to repair shops in Eastern European countries, which is often associated with improper EoL treatment of non-reusable components. To avoid negative environmental impacts caused by today's practice in demand markets with slack environmental regulations, remanufacturing must start at the returned product's origin. This paper discusses remanufacturing alternatives for flat screen monitors regarding economical, technological and environmental criteria. Aspects from the remanufacturing process chain regarding collection, testing, disassembly, classification of quality classes for reuse, repair, component replacement and reassembly as well as recycling are discussed. Automated disassembly processes within a prototypical hybrid remanufacturing system currently under development as well as tools applied for the virtual start-up of the system are presented.