Developing an Integrated Framework to Guide the Ecological Design of Electrical and Electronic Equipment

There is growing concern about the environmental issues of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). Accordingly, ecological design is promoted as a solution to mitigate environmental impacts at the design stage. However, there is no effective tool to generate ecological design schemes while considering the requirements of regulation and customers, the technical feasibility of the scheme, and the trade-off between environmental impacts and costs. This study developed a framework that integrates knowledge graphs, quality function deployment, and a Pareto-optimal algorithm to guide the ecological design of EEE, achieving market demand evaluation, technical feasibility analysis, and optimal design scheme generation. It was used to conduct contactor ecological design for a leading EEE manufacturer. Key findings include the following: (1) 25 ecological design indicators across 5 categories were identified from 230 documents covering 13 product types, 25 segments, and 3 regions; (2) for a contactor used in the Chinese building segment, 12 indicators were identified from 28 documents, with “recycled material”, “lead-free”, and “energy consumption” as design focuses; (3) the ecological design scheme included 18 improvements across 8 core parts, primarily through material replacement; and (4) the optimal design scheme reduced carbon emissions by 70%, fossil resource depletion by 68%, and abiotic resource depletion by 24% and saved 7% in cost. This study enhances the EEE ecological design process, offering a comprehensive and intelligent solution for sustainable product development.