Redesigning Home Appliances for a Circular Economy

Sammanfattning

This thesis presents a case study on the redesign of an electric percolator with the aim of adapting it to a circular economy. The primary objective was to en- hance the percolator’s design in accordance with a Slowing the Loop strategy, focusing on longer product life and resistance toward obsolescence. A literature study was performed to identify sets of Design for X (DfX) rules for this purpose, resulting in five major areas of design: Design for Physical Durability/Reliability, Design for Emotional Durability, Design for Maintenance, Design for Modularity/Upgradeability and Design for Dematerialization. Ideas were generated through structured brainstorming and concepts were illustrated through renders in Creo Parametrics. One concept was developed to be easily implemented and two concepts were developed for a more well devel- oped circular product system. The realistic design case focused on an improved handle design while the advanced concepts considered more drastic design over- hauls. Two evaluation tools, CirCit Evaluation Tool and Circular Concept Eval- uation Tool, were used to confirm the improvements. The results concluded that the products improved in circularity, mostly in ar- eas connected to maintenance, repairability and robustness. Improvements were also made through the material selection, rendering the products more suitable for recycling. There is a lot more work to be done concerning these concepts, with testing and prototyping and further development and therefore, the main takeaway from this project should be a first showcase of how circular product design can look.