Bachelor and Master Theses

Context and Motivation: Steel safety doors are critical components in industrial and public buildings, designed to meet strict standards for fire protection, security, and durability. CH Industry produces thousands of steel doors annually, each composed of steel, insulation, electronics, fasteners, and surface coatings sourced globally. Despite their long lifespan—often exceeding 50 years—the current door designs offer limited repairability, disassembly, or material recovery, and the company lacks a take-back or traceability system. As a result, significant value is lost at end-of-life, and compliance with emerging circular economy regulations remains challenging. The company sees the opportunity to redesign steel doors using circular design principles, such as modularity, material standardization, Design for X (DfX), and system integration, to enable easier repair, refurbishment, reuse, and recycling. The goal is to demonstrate sustainability, safety, and performance can be achieved simultaneously when circularity is embedded early in the design process. This thesis investigates how circularity can be systematically integrated into the design of steel doors to support CH Industry’s transition toward sustainable and value-creating product lifecycles.

Aim and Research Question: The aim of this thesis is to analyze customer needs and current design requirements for steel doors, and based on this understanding, to develop circular design requirements, circular design principles, and traceability guidelines that enable repair, disassembly, reuse, repurposing, and recycling throughout the product lifecycle.

1.      What customer needs and current design requirements influence steel door design, and how do existing practices support or limit circularity? (focus on current state)

2.       How can modularity, standardization, and Design for X principles be applied to steel door components and subsystems to enable circularity? (focus on future design solutions)

Expected Deliverables

·        An assessment of customer needs, current steel door design practices, and factors that limit or enable circularity today.

·      A set of actionable requirements derived from the analysis, specifying what is needed for repairability, disassembly, reuse, repurposing, and recycling without compromising safety or certification.

·     Application of modularity, standardization, and Design for X (e.g., Design for Disassembly, Design for Repair, Design for Reuse) to develop conceptual design solutions for a circular steel door.

·       Recommendations for traceability mechanisms—such as digital product passports, component identification, and lifecycle data structures—to support maintenance, refurbishment, and end-of-life management.

·       Guidance on implementing circular design in practice, enabling take-back and refurbishment systems, and supporting future circular business models aligned with regulatory and market developments.

Research setting and research group 

Thesis work will be performed as part of research project, SmartCircle (Smart Circularity Implementation) research project at Mälardalen University, Eskilstuna. You can search for the project on MDU webpage for more information. This thesis will be part of the research group DigiCircle (Digital and Circular Industrial Services). The group is currently leading research projects on circular economy, digital and circular business models, digital servitization, and circular ecosystems with more than 20 industrial companies, public funded companies, municipalities, and industrial clusters. Your thesis work will be used as a knowledge development as part of the group and will be used in the relevant courses, projects or publications upon completion. 

Education in one of these areas (Industrial engineering and management, product development, product and process development, innovation management, and business management) and familiar with circular economy, ecodesign or circular design, business models, Industry 4.0 or digital transformation.

https://chindustry.se