MANUFACTURING


“Design for disassembly is what the world needs” In2tec’s Emma Armstrong on the future of manufacturing


By Emma Armstrong, sustainable electronics ambassador and group commercial director at In2tec.


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omponent reuse has become an important strategic issue as it allows the tech sector to reduce its reliance on volatile international supply chains and  components, such as the current eye- 


  Another advantage that is growing in   Scrap is an unavoidable reality in  become increasingly complex, yield losses  delamination, or layer mismanagement can 


    When scrap occurs, the traditional approach is simple: discard the board along with the valuable components attached  conventional processes, many components become damaged or contaminated,  The consequences are both economic  components must be replaced with newly  costs and driving additional resource 





     product iteration requires a sensor installation, but when another component  modular assembly allows you to just take    accreditation and validation costs because 


Unique technology


 is reduced to a minimum and components and boards can be unzipped back to the  


  process, boards can be ‘unzipped’, allowing components to be removed intact and  the scrap stream, components can be  This dramatically reduces scrap rates while preserving the value already embedded in  assemblies into recoverable resources,  


Legislation compliance Governments around the world are introducing increasingly strict legislation to   Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive      electronic equipment were placed on 


  is currently recycled, despite EU targets  


At the same time, regulations such as the         valuable components cannot easily be  


 closely with emerging circular economy  recycling, reducing waste generation    embed compliance directly into the design 


 struggle with waste and legislation issues when modular, repairable and recyclable 


We believe society does not have to  


MAY 2026 | ELECTRONICS FOR ENGINEERS 39


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