Motor vehicle assembly industry

Table 14.17.1. Reported solvent releases from the motor vehicle assembly industry in 1995 [Data from Ref. 2]...

EPA Office of Compliance Sector Notebook Project. Profile of the Motor Vehicle Assembly Industry. US Environmental Protection Agency, 1995. 

Tables 14.17.1 and 14.17.2 contain information on the reported solvent releases and transfers from the motor vehicle assembly industry. The data show that solvent use is very large compared with all industries covered so far in om discussion except for the steel and iron industry. The motor vehicle assembly industry is the sixth largest producer of VOC and also the sixth largest industry in reported emissions and transfers.

Asbestos S P Chrysolite Amosite Crocidolite Building products Insulation and removal operations Fillers in various industries Motor vehicle assembly Polymers, plastics filler... 

Black, A., An Industrial Strategy for the Motor Vehicle Assembly and Component Sectors, UCT Press, Rondebosch, RSA. 

Five industries are flie largest contributors to the second tier solvents rubber and plastics (23.8%), metal fabricating (18.1%), motor vehicle assembly (11.8%), organic chemicals (11.7%), and polymer and fiber (9.4%). Their joint contribution accounts for 74.8% of the releases and transfers of these solvents. 

It is characteristic that traditional industries which maintain older plants (metal fabrications, polymer fiber, rubber plastics, wood furniture, organic chemicals) contribute more to releases and transfers of solvents (as measured by releases plus transfers per 1000 sales), than industries which invest capital in the improvement of equipment, safety, and research and development (e.g., printing, motor vehicle assembly). This suggests that the avoidance of cost of the required investment is one reason for pollution. This reason was illustrated in the discussion of the petroleum industry where one manufacturer almost eliminated pollution by fixing leaking valves. 

When plastics progress beyond separate components or minor parts of sub-assemblies, they run into a different order of problem the problem of being incompatible with existing motor industry practices. This concerns not only the birth of the vehicle, but also its demise not only its construction, but also the stripping and shredding processes. 

Raw materials. These vary widely in characteristics, depending on the industry. A few examples are raw foods and ingredients for food processors, thousands of small parts for electronics assemblers, engines and motors for manufacturers of vehicles, and wood and finishes for furniture manufacturers. Raw materials are the goods on which the manufac-tirring process will operate to produce salable products. Indeed, the finished goods of one manufacturer often become the raw materials of another. 

The first major industrial use of thermoplastics (a filled blend of polycarbonate [PC] and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene [ABS]) in an automotive exterior door panel, rocker panel, and rear panel was introduced by The Dow Chemical Company in a special process developed for the General Motors Saturn line of vehicles. A formulated blend of nylon 6,6 and polyphenylene oxide (PPO), known as Noryl GTX, also was introduced at the same time in those same Saturn vehicles by General Electric Plastics (now SABIC) using a special assembly line procedure (Figures 9 and 10). 

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