Laptop Life Cycle (Essay Sample)

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Laptop Life Cycle
Introduction
The product life cycle assessment looks into the lifestyle of a Laptop. The exploration attempts to describe the various stages in the life cycle of a Laptop, environmental effects and specific processes associated with each stage. Six stages of the Laptop life cycle are described. These stages are extraction, manufacturing and production, packaging, transportation, use and end of life. Each of the stages is associated with environmental impacts, which are described briefly. The figure below gives a schematic summary of the life cycle of a laptop (Curran).


Lifecycle of a Laptop (Ngeswaro, Rao)
Extraction
Laptop parts are made from a wide variety of raw materials, which are extracted from various parts of the world. These raw materials include lead, gold, petroleum, aluminum, copper, silicon and sand. Most Laptop manufacturers obtain these raw materials from separate entities due to the complex processes involved in their extraction and preparation. Each and every part of a laptop, including liquid crystal displays, memory, processors, power supply, casing, integrated circuits and motors, they come from specific raw materials that are mined from the earth’s surface. Major raw materials extracted for the manufacture of laptops include:
• Bauxite, which is used in making aluminum castings for the motherboard. Bauxite is mined in various parts of the world, including Amazons Forest and West Africa.
• Petroleum, which is used in the manufacture of polymers for the outer casings
• Silicon anesthetized with other elements such as boron to make semiconductors for the manufacture of electronic chips. Silicon is also oxidized to make insulators. Silicon is mined mainly from sand.
• Sand is made use of in the manufacture of liquid crystal displays.
• Gold is used in the manufacture of processor pins (Fitzgerald 27).
The amount of gold used in a laptop has been estimated to be considerably high as compared to other devices such as smart phones. Five troy ounces of gold can be used to make approximately 200 laptops. This estimation is arrived at by looking at the amount of gold collected from disposal sites where laptops and computers are dumped. For a disposal site of approximately, 400 computers about ten troy ounces of gold can be collected.Since the rate at which gold degrades is extremely low , around the same amount of gold must have been used to manufacture the laptops (Fitzgearald, 28).
Manufacturing and Production
The second stage in the life cycle of a laptop is the manufacturing and production step. Here, various raw materials are used to produce components that are later assembled to make laptop parts (O’Moraa 57). Petroleum, for example, is refined to produce polymers that are molded to make casings. Sand is refined to produce glass used in the fabrication of Liquid Clay displays (LCDs) (Fleischmann 94). Silicon is used in the fabrication of various electronics, which are used in the manufacture of the motherboard. Once every raw material is used to make components, the components are later assembled to manufacture the laptop (Jim). The fabrication of various components involves complex processes. A hard disk, for instance, is assembled using magnetic and nonmagnetic materials. Magnetic materials may include iron fillings while non-magnetic ones include glass. Disks are also made from alloys of materials such as phosphorous and nickel. Assembling of various parts also requires the use of complex mechanized systems (O’Moraa 58-59). The number of computers manufactured this year is expected to be around 322 million. This is estimated by looking at the number of laptops manufactured in 2010 which were approximately 19million (Sigle) and multiplying by the estimated percentage percentage annual increase then multiplying by the number of years.
2010= 19,000,000 laptops
2015=?
Annual Percentage increase = 14%
14/100 X 19000000 X 5=133,000,000
19,000,000+ 133,000,000= 323, 000,000
Packaging
The next significant step is the packaging process. Since laptops are delicate components that fetch very high costs, they require standardized packaging materials that can protect them from harm during transportation. Modern methods of packaging make use of thermoformed cushions, which have very high abilities of absorbing shocks (Reflex). These materials are manufactured from recycled materials, making them environmentally friendly. The protected laptops are then wrapped in polythene bags and packed in cartons for transportation. Packaging is done according to certain international principles. The larger the weight of the laptop the, the bigger the protecting material.The approximate thickness (in inches) of packaging materials for various laptops are listed below.
1/16th –Light weight laptops and surface protection
1/8th –Medium Weight Laptops
5/16th –Separating various items in a laptop box such as charger from the laptop
½ -Heavy weight laptops .
These numbers are approximated using international standards on packaging of electronic materials (Fitzgerald 27).
The figure shown below describes the packaging process of a laptop
Packaging of Laptops (Reflex)
Transportation and Retailing
Once the laptops are packaged, they are then transported to various parts of the world through different forms of transportation. The most common form of transport is shipment, which is used to move laptops from one continent to another. Retailing is done at various stages. Some are sold directly by manufacturers to different users. Some are sold to distributors who sell them to wholesalers, consumers, and retailers. Online shopping and over the counter sales are the most common modes of retailing laptops. According to Gartner, around one billion computers were shipped between 2002 and 2007. Consequently, around half a billion laptops were shipped since according to Gartner around hhalf of the computers used in the world today are laptops (Gartner Newsroom). Shipment time is dependent on the destination. Dell, for example, takes approximately two months to ship a laptopn to Africa and Asia. Shipment time is estimated bylooking at normal travelling time of a ship from the Unitred States to the meditterrenean sea (14days ) then adding afew days for purcvhase modalities around 14days and then adding the time it may take to deliver to particular countries and reach the intended destination (14 days) .
Use
The end users require access to power to use laptops. They are used for various purposes, including office work, personal work, academics, and business operations among others. Laptops are used mainly for accessing information, communication, preparing documentation, making presentations, and running various processes. Users also require installing additional software to make use of laptops. The software are categorized as application and operating software. Laptops do not consume a lot of energy. On average, a single laptop may consume around 2KWH in a month. For laptops with low charging efficiencies, this may go up to 3KWH (Forbes). These estimates are arrived at buy calculating the amount of power consumed per hour with the number of hours in a day. An average laptop consumes around 67WH in a day. Consequently it is expected to consume 67WHX 30=2010WH in a month. This is approximately...