Enhancing end-of-life sustainability through modularity and interface design in product development

This study highlights the importance of interface design in sustainable product development within a circular economy. By focusing on the end-of-life (EOL) phase, the research emphasizes modular product architectures’ role in improving component separability, reusability, and recyclability. An extended Module Interface Graph (MIG) was developed to assess interface variance, detachability, and material pairings, enabling the identification of critical interfaces that significantly influence EOL outcomes. The approach was successfully applied to a portal milling machine, demonstrating its ability to highlight key areas for design improvements, such as transitioning from non-detachable to standardized, detachable interfaces. This method showcases the potential for early interface considerations to enhance both environmental sustainability and product lifecycle management.