What are vacuum cleaners made of?
Vacuum cleaners take 7 things directly, among them plastic, vulcanized rubber, steel, sheet steel, electric motor and copper wire. Trace them back and you pass 39 made things on the way to 17 raw materials.
How vacuum cleaners are made See it on the map
What goes straight in
From the ground: 17 raw materials
- Natural gas through plastic
- Natural rubber latex through vulcanized rubber
- Sulfur through vulcanized rubber
- Water through paper
- Kaolin through paper
- Limestone through paper
- Crude oil through plastic, propylene
- Air through vulcanized rubber, carbon black
- Iron ore through steel, manganese
- Dolomite through steel, magnesium
- Manganese ore through steel, manganese
- Zinc ore through sheet steel, zinc
- Copper ore through copper wire, copper
- Timber through paper, wood pulp
- Coal through steel, manganese, coke
- Quartz through steel, magnesium, metallurgical silicon
- Rock salt through electric motor, epoxy, caustic soda
Made along the way: 32 things
Metals 8
Metal goods 1
Chemicals and fuels 19
NaphthaEthylenePropyleneCarbon blackOxygen gasQuicklimeArgonHydrogenBenzeneStyrenePropaneSulfuric acidPhenolAcetoneChlorineCaustic sodaHydrogen peroxideTolueneCharcoal
Plastics and fibers 2
Wood and paper 1
Electronics 1
What it is packed in
On the line, but left out of everything above, because it holds the finished thing rather than goes into it.