What are smoke detectors made of?
Smoke detectors take 7 things directly, among them gold, silver, printed circuit board, solder, plastic and polystyrene. Trace them back and you pass 41 made things on the way to 21 raw materials.
How smoke detectors are made See it on the map
What goes straight in
From the ground: 21 raw materials
- Gold ore through gold
- Water through PVC
- Silver ore through silver
- Lead ore through silver
- Zinc ore through silver
- Copper ore through silver
- Natural gas through plastic
- Limestone through silver, quicklime
- Air through silver, zinc
- Rock salt through PVC, chlorine
- Sulfur through silver, sulfuric acid
- Silica sand through printed circuit board, fiberglass
- Tin ore through solder, tin
- Crude oil through plastic, propylene
- Iron ore through PVC, pigment
- Trona through printed circuit board, fiberglass, soda ash
- Coal through polystyrene, benzene, toluene
- Titanium ore through PVC, pigment, titanium dioxide
- Corn through printed circuit board, fiberglass, soda ash, carbon dioxide
- Sugarcane through printed circuit board, fiberglass, soda ash, carbon dioxide, baker's yeast, molasses
- Sugar beet through printed circuit board, fiberglass, soda ash, carbon dioxide, baker's yeast, molasses
Made along the way: 34 things
Metals 5
Chemicals and fuels 23
QuicklimeChlorineSulfuric acidNaphthaEthylenePropyleneBenzeneStyrenePigmentPlasticizerOxygen gasSoda ashPhenolAcetoneCaustic sodaHydrogenTolueneTitanium dioxideCarbon blackAmmoniaCarbon dioxideFormaldehydeMethanol
Plastics and fibers 3
Electronics 1
Food 2
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.