Fault Diagnosis in Household Appliances: A Design Perspective

Abstract

Today’s industrialized societies face the challenge of integrating economic activity with sustainable consumption. Prosperity has come hand in hand with environmental damage. Product lifetimes are decreasing and there is a rising demand for high-tech products for which no effective recycling is in place. Hence, the value from products is lost to waste. The current use and management of the Earth’s resources is unsustainable.
The circular economy (CE) aims at slowing, closing, and regenerating the flow of goods and materials that enter the economic system. It posits retaining the value from products and encourages a shift to renewable energy resources. In this way, the CE will help reduce our current accelerated resource depletion. In particular, product repairs can help slow down the flow of goods. Repairing products provides an alternative to premature product replacement, and contributes to a significant reduction of waste.
In this thesis, I look in detail at the process of fault diagnosis, one of the initial steps to be taken when repairing products. Fault diagnosis identifies the faulty component(s) or cause of failure in a malfunctioning appliance and is therefore essential for efficiently repair. It enables the time, cost, and skills required for the component repair to be established.