PhD Position (f/m/d): Ecodesign for Inspection and Functional Performance Testing of Mechatronic Products

About this position

Are you excited about making circular products easier to inspect, test and bring back to life? Join one of Germany's largest production-engineering institutes and develop the design methods that let optical, computed-tomography (CT) and functional inspection guide the next generation of repairable, remanufacturable products — while completing your doctorate.

About the host. The wbk Institute of Production Science at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is one of Germany's largest production-engineering institutes. Within the Production Systems research group led by Prof. Dr.-Ing.

Gisela Lanza, the Quality Assurance team develops measurement, inspection and data-driven assessment methods for advanced and circular manufacturing. You will have access to state-of-the-art metrology and inspection infrastructure — including optical measurement systems and industrial computed tomography — and to the Karlsruhe Research Factory. The doctorate is embedded in KIT's structured doctoral training within the Collaborative Research Centre CRC 1574 "Circular Factory", in close cooperation with European industrial and academic partners.

The project. This PhD position is part of a European doctoral training network on ecodesign and the circular economy (a Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network). The network trains researchers to ensure that, in future, only environmentally sustainable and circular products enter the EU market, in line with the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and the Digital Product Passport (DPP).

Research background. Inspection of mechatronic and mechanical components is today still dominated by manual visual checks or stand-alone functional testing. Where automated and AI-based methods exist, they focus on detecting defects rather than on understanding how design decisions shape inspectability.

At the same time, ecodesign approaches prioritise disassembly and recycling but rarely integrate inspection and functional testing into the design stage. As a result, reliable pre-disassembly condition assessment of returned products remains difficult and costly.

Research objectives. The objective is to develop an ecodesign-for-inspection framework for mechatronic products, focusing on optical inspection, CT-based structural assessment and functional testing prior to disassembly. The aim is to enhance inspectability by optimising product geometries and adding features that enable efficient, reliable condition assessment, and to connect inspection-relevant information to DPP-compliant data structures.

Expected results: guidelines for ecodesign that integrate design-for-inspection principles; quantitative metrics and indicators that make inspectability and functionality retention assessable; data models and interfaces linking inspection outputs (optical, CT-based and functional test information) to DPP-compliant structures; and experimental validation on representative mechatronic assemblies.

Validation and secondments. The methods will be validated through industrial case studies with European partners. The PhD includes two mandatory international secondments (2–3 months each) — for example in the drive-systems sector and in consumer-electronics remanufacturing — giving direct exposure to industrial practice and real-world remanufacturing constraints.

Please note: this position is offered within a Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network and is subject to the final signature of the corresponding Grant Agreement. No formal employment commitment can be made before the Grant Agreement is signed.