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Abstract

The original motivation for this project came from an interest in preserving the quality of recycled steel by reducing the amount of copper that ultimately ends up in steel production. There are a number of factors propelling this kind of research. One is that our newly mined iron resources are finite, expensive and non-renewable. By working on a project with a large motivation in recycling and environmental issues, students become aware of contemporary issues surrounding the global environment and green engineering.

One design path to reduce copper is to reduce the amount going into automobiles during their production. Another is to provide efficient means for retrieving the copper before recycling. The student design team followed both paths; substituting fiber optic switching for part of the copper circuit that controls electrically powered components in a car, and re-designing the electrical power distribution in the car so that it can be efficiently removed at end-of-life, before recycling.

Introduction

The objective of this project is redesigning the conventional automotive switching technology in cars with a fiber optic model in conjunction with a redesigned power distribution that is easy to remove. The primary advantage of this redesign is that it reduces the overall copper that is left in the car at its end life. If the costs of the redesign are comparable to current design and manufacture costs, then this is a viable, environmentally knowledgeable engineering solution.

Currently, automobiles are a primary source of scrap steel. There is a slow continual increase in copper content that occurs with each iteration of recycling steel from automobiles. Removing copper from the steel smelt or even from the car before recycling is currently cost prohibitive. The copper causes inconsistencies and degradations in steel’s mechanical and welding properties. As a result, recycled steel is not currently used in critical safety areas of automobile manufacture, but is confined to less vital parts. Today there is a requirement in the European Union for car bodies to be made from a maximum of 25% recycled steel from car bodies. They would like to increase the amount of recycled steel required, but because of the safety concerns currently can not. If the amount of copper in the recycled steel was less, then its mechanical properties would be better and more could be used, thereby reducing the amount of new steel that would be needed. The construction and dismantling of cars with an eye towards environmental factors and recyclability becomes a crucial factor in curbing the copper creep in steel and thus increasing its value in the marketplace as a source of quality recycled steel.

By centralizing the copper wire power distribution system and thus allowing its retrieval to be economically viable and by substituting portions of conventional wiring methods with a new fiber optic model we hope to effectively reduce the overall amount of copper that ends up in steel smelt without substantial raising manufacturing costs.

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Keilson, S., & pond, R., & karasz, W., & bates, K., & christopher, R. (2006, June), Efficient Copper Reduction And Recycling By Fiber Optic Switching For Automotive Lighting Systems Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--311