Development of multi-value circulation based on remanufacturing

Remanufacturing is an industrial process that turns used products into new ones with the same quality, functionality, and warranty as new products; it is a critical element for realizing a resource-efficient manufacturing industry and a circular economy. Remanufacturing may involve adding new and better functionality to used products, such as adding more wear-resistant materials to the surface or new sensor systems. Remanufacturing has been undertaken for products such as: automobile parts, machinery, photocopiers, single-use cameras, furniture, and turbine components, etc. It is generally superior to material recycling in terms of energy and material savings. Our project aims to develop technologies necessary for the promotion of remanufacturing and to establish a cooperative network related to remanufacturing. As technical development items, our aim is to develop methods to assess the reliability of parts/components, develop technologies to restore deteriorated metal surfaces of used products, introduce production management methods for remanufacturing, and design a circulation system to retain the added values of products. In this paper, we introduce an outline of the project and present some preliminary results. This paper shows the possibility to quantitatively evaluate the carbide distribution (size and density) of the carburized surface of a gear, and also shows the potential to repair materials exposed to a high-temperature oxidative atmosphere by Pr-Ir coating technology.