Mercury Switches in Underhood and Trunk Lamp Applications: A Detailed Environmental and Economic Analysis of Alternatives 970698
The largest application of mercury in automotive applications occurs in underhood and trunk lamp activation switches. A reduction of mercury in this application will have a significant impact on automotive mercury usage. Using environmentally conscious design and manufacturing principles, this paper will investigate functional alternatives for the activation of underhood (U/H) and trunk lamp applications.
Five alternatives to perform the activation function will be analyzed in four areas over their life cycles:
Environmental
Economic
Engineering
Manufacturing
Each alternative will be ranked on criteria in each of these four areas using documented LCA processes. Totals will be generated for each area, then weighted and added to arrive at an overall score. Four groups of weightings will be used based on the vehicle type: small cars, mid-size cars, large/luxury cars, and trucks. The alternative with the highest score for each vehicle type will be recommended as the best alternative for that vehicle when all factors are included.
Citation: Bainbridge, K. and Hill, D., "Mercury Switches in Underhood and Trunk Lamp Applications: A Detailed Environmental and Economic Analysis of Alternatives," SAE Technical Paper 970698, 1997, https://doi.org/10.4271/970698. Download Citation
Author(s):
Kevin Bainbridge, Doris Hill
Affiliated:
General Motors
Pages: 11
Event:
International Congress & Exposition
ISSN:
0148-7191
e-ISSN:
2688-3627
Also in:
Design for Environmentally Safe Automotive Products and Processes-SP-1263, SAE 1997 Transactions - Journal of Materials & Manufacturing-V106-5
Related Topics:
Trunks
Switches
Trucks
Documentation
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