Process information
| Key Data Set Information | |
| Reference year | 2023 |
| Name |
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| Use advice for data set | The life cycle assessment of the vacuum interrupter VG6 family, an EEPS (Electronic and Electrical Products and Systems), is a “cradle-to-grave” analysis. The figure below shows the stages of the product life cycle and the information considered in the LCA. In terms of exclusions from the system boundary, according to PCR, capital goods such as machinery, tools, buildings, infrastructure, packaging for internal transports, and administrative activities, which cannot be allocated directly to the production of the reference product, are excluded. Infrastructures, when present, such as in processes deriving from the ecoinvent database, have not been excluded. Scraps for metal working and plastic processes are also included when already defined in ecoinvent. |
| Technical purpose of product or process | Vacuum interrupters (VIs) are the core component for all switching applications in medium voltage. The main purpose of the vacuum interrupter is to establish or to interrupt a current flow by separation of the electrical contacts which results in a metal vapor arc. This arc is quickly extinguished due to the insulating properties of vacuum. |
| Classification |
Class name
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Hierarchy level
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| General comment on data set | Both primary and secondary data are used. The main sources for primary data are the bill of materials and technical drawings, while site specific foreground data are provided by ABB. Furthermore, information and data obtained from other LCA studies are also used. For all other processes for which primary data are not available, generic data originating from the ecoinvent v3.8 database, “allocation, cut-off by classification”, are used. The LCA software used for the calculations is SimaPro 9.4.0.2. The utility consumption and waste generation of ABB’s plant in the manufacturing stage are allocated to the production of one vacuum interrupter by using allocation rules. Because the factory produces several products (components, apparatus and switchgears), only a part of the environmental impact has been allocated to the specific production line. The values for the electricity, heat, pressurized air, water consumption have been read and recorded from the counters which are distributed in the whole factory and are connected to certain areas or even single machines or single workstations. Thus, the total utility consumption and waste generation for 2022 is simply divided by the total output of vacuum interrupters during the same year. For the end-of-life allocation, the “Polluter Pays” principle is adopted according to what is defined in the CEN/TR 16970 standard, as required by the PCR EPDItaly007. This means, waste treatment processes are allocated to the product system that generates the waste until the end-of-waste state is reached. The environmental burdens of recycling and energy recovery processes are therefore allocated to the product system that generates the waste, while the product system that uses the exported energy and recycled materials receives it burden-free. However, the potential benefits and avoided loads from recovery and recycling processes are not considered because it is not required by EPDItaly007. According to PCR, the cut-off criteria can be set to a maximum of 2 % of the total weight. For the packaging small parts such as sticking labels and grease, which are representing a smaller fraction of the total mass, are neglected as their mass represents less than 2 % of that of the whole component, as stated in the paragraph of cut-off criteria of EPDItaly 012: “Materials making up the switch itself whose total mass does not exceed 2 % of the total weight of the device”. Scraps for metal working and plastic processes are included when already defined in ecoinvent. |
| Copyright | Yes |
| Owner of data set | |
| Quantitative reference | |
| Reference flow(s) |
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| Biogenic carbon content |
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| Time representativeness | |
| Data set valid until | 2028 |
| Time representativeness description | 2023-08-04 - 2028-08-04 |
| Technological representativeness | |
Modelling and validation
| Subtype | specific dataset | ||||
| LCA methodology report | |||||
| Data sources, treatment and representativeness | |||||
| Documentation of data quality management | |||||
| Data source(s) used for this data set | |||||
| Completeness | |||||
| Validation | |||||
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| Compliance Declarations | |||||
| Compliance |
Compliance system name
EN 15804+A2
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Approval of overall compliance
Fully compliant |
Nomenclature compliance
Fully compliant |
Methodological compliance
Fully compliant |
Review compliance
Fully compliant |
Documentation compliance
Fully compliant |
Quality compliance
Fully compliant |
| Compliance |
Compliance system name
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Approval of overall compliance
Fully compliant |
Nomenclature compliance
Fully compliant |
Methodological compliance
Fully compliant |
Review compliance
Fully compliant |
Documentation compliance
Fully compliant |
Quality compliance
Fully compliant |
| Compliance |
Compliance system name
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Approval of overall compliance
Fully compliant |
Nomenclature compliance
Fully compliant |
Methodological compliance
Fully compliant |
Review compliance
Fully compliant |
Documentation compliance
Fully compliant |
Quality compliance
Fully compliant |
Administrative information
| Data generator | |
| Data set generator / modeller |
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| Data entry by | |
| Time stamp (last saved) | 2025-08-07T16:48:20 |
| Data set format(s) | |
| Publication and ownership | |
| UUID | 46f401a4-911d-45a6-ad6c-f7ec6481ba1e |
| Date of last revision | 2025-08-07T13:30:37.2807342Z |
| Data set version | 00.03.000 |
| Registration authority | |
| Registration number | NEPD-4755-3991-EN |
| Owner of data set | |
| Copyright | Yes |
| License type | Free of charge for all users and uses |
| Access and use restrictions | None |
Environmental indicators
Indicators of life cycle