Industrial processes
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Industrial processes are procedures involving chemical or mechanical steps to aid in the manufacture of an item or items, usually carried out on a very large scale. Industrial processes are the key components of heavy industry.
Most processes make the production of an otherwise rare material vastly cheaper in price, thus changing it into a commodity; i.e. the process makes it economically feasible for society to use the material on a large scales, in machinery, or a substantial amount of raw materials, in comparison to batch or craft processes. Production of a specific material may involve more than one type of process. Most industrial processes result in both a desired product(s) and by-products, many of which are toxic, hazardous, or hard to deal with. Very, very few processes are self-contained.
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General processes
These may be applied on their own, or as part of a larger process.
- Liquefaction of gases - for ease of transportation
- Supercritical drying, Freeze drying - removal of excess liquid
- Scrubber - removing of pollution from exhaust gases
Chemical processes
- Smelting - chemically enhancing metals
- Disinfection - chemical treatment to kill bacteria and viruses
- Pyroprocessing - using heat to chemically combine materials, such as in cement.
Heat processes (smelting)
- Flash smelting - a refinement on smelting, for sulfur-containing ores (produces copper, nickel and lead)
Electrolysis
The availability of electricity and its effect on materials gave rise to several processes for plating or separating metals.
- Gilding, Electroplating, Anodization, Electrowinning - depositing a material on an electrode
- Electropolishing - the reverse of electroplating
- Electrofocusing - similar to electroplating, but separating molecules
- Electrolytic process - the generic process of using electrolysis
- Electrophoretic deposition - electrolytic deposition of colloidal particles in a liquid medium
- Electrotyping - using electroplating to produce printing plates
- Metallizing, Plating, Spin coating - the generic term for giving non-metals a metallic coating
Physical processes
There are several physical processes for reshaping a material by cutting, folding, joining or polishing, developed on a large scale from workshop techniques. Template:See also
- Forging - the shaping of metal by use of heat and hammer
- Casting - shaping of a liquid material by pouring it into moulds and letting it solidify
- Machining - the mechanical cutting and shaping of metal
- Progressive stamping - the production of components from a strip or roll
- Hydroforming - a tube of metal is expanded into a mould under pressure
- Sandblasting - cleaning of a surface using sand or other particles
- Soldering, Brazing, Welding - a process for joining metals
- Tumble polishing - for polishing
- Precipitation hardening - heat treatment used to strengthen malleable materials
- Work hardening - adding strength to metals, alloys, etc.
- Case hardening, Differential hardening, Shot peening - creating a wear resistant surface
- Die cutting - A "forme" or "die" is pressed onto a flat material to cut, score, punch and otherwise shape the material.
Moulding
The physical shaping of materials by forming their liquid form using a mould.
- Casting, Sand casting - the shaping of molten metal or plastics using a mould
- Sintering, Powder metallurgy - the making of objects from metal or ceramic powder
- Blow moulding as in plastic containers or in the Glass Container Industry - making hollow objects by blowing them into a mould.
- Compression molding
Separation
Many materials exist in an impure form, purification, or separation provides a usable product.
- Comminution - reduces the size of physical particles (it exists between crushing and grinding)
- Froth flotation, flotation process - separating minerals through floatation
- Solvent extraction - dissolving one substance in another
- Frasch process - for extracting molten sulfur from the ground
Distillation
- Fractional distillation, Steam distillation, Vacuum distillation - separating materials by their boiling point
- Batch distillation
- Continuous distillation
- Fractionating column
- Spinning cone
Iron and steel
Early production of iron was from meteorites, or as a by-product of copper refining. Heating iron ore and carbon in a crucible at 1000 K produces wrought iron. This process gained popularity during the Iron Age. Temperatures of 1300 K were produced around the 8th century by blowing air through the heated mixture in a bloomery or blast furnace (12th century); producing a strong but brittle cast iron. Furnaces were growing bigger, producing greater quantities; a factor contributing to the Industrial Revolution. In 1740 the temperature and carbon content could be controlled sufficiently to consistently produce steel; very strong and very workable. The 19th century saw the development of electric arc furnaces that produced steel in very large quantities, and are more easily controlled.
- Smelting - the generic process used in furnaces to produce steel, copper, etc.
- Catalan forge, Open hearth furnace, Bloomery, Siemens regenerative furnace - produced wrought iron
- Blast furnace - produced cast iron
- Direct Reduction - produced direct reduced iron
- Crucible steel
- Cementation process
- Bessemer process
- Basic oxygen steelmaking, Linz-Donawitz process
- Electric arc furnace
Petroleum and organic compounds
The nature of an organic molecule means it can be transformed at the molecular level to create a range of products.
- Cracking (chemistry) - the generic term for breaking up the larger molecules.
- Alkylation - refining of crude oil
- Burton process - cracking of hydrocarbons
- Cumene process - making phenol and acetone from benzene
- Friedel-Crafts reaction, Kolbe-Schmitt reaction
- Olefin metathesis, Thermal depolymerization
- Transesterification - organic chemicals
- Raschig process, Ketazine process, Peroxide process - part of the process to produce nylon
- Formox process - the oxidation of methanol to produce formaldehyde.
Others
Organized by product:
- Aluminium - (Deville process, Bayer process, Hall-Héroult process, Wöhler process)
- Ammonia, used in fertilizer & explosives - (Haber process)
- Bromine - (Dow process)
- Chlorine, used in chemicals - (Chloralkali process, Weldon process)
- Fat - (Rendering)
- Fertilizer - (Nitrophosphate process)
- Gold - (Bacterial oxidation, Parkes process)
- Heavy Water, used to refine radioactive products - (Girdler sulfide process)
- Hydrogen - (Steam reforming, Water Gas Shift Reaction)
- Lead (and Bismuth) - (Betts electrolytic process, Betterton-Kroll process)
- Nickel - (Mond process)
- Nitric acid - (Ostwald process)
- Paper - (Pulping, Kraft process, Fourdrinier machine)
- Rubber - (Vulcanization)
- Salt - (Alberger process, Grainer evaporation process)
- Semiconductor crystals - (Bridgeman technique, Czochralski process)
- Silver - (Patio process, Parkes process)
- Sodium carbonate, used for soap - (Leblanc process, Solvay process, Leblanc-Deacon process)
- Sulfuric acid - (Lead chamber process, Contact process)
- Titanium - (Hunter process, Kroll process)
- Zirconium - (Hunter process, Kroll process, Crystal bar process, Iodide process)
A list by process:
- Alberger process, Grainer evaporation process - produces salt from brine
- Bacterial oxidation - used to produce gold
- Bayer process - the extraction of aluminium from ore
- Chloralkali process, Weldon process - for producing chlorine and sodium hydroxide
- Crystal bar process, Iodide process - produces zirconium
- Dow process - produces bromine from brine
- FFC Cambridge Process
- Girdler sulfide process - for making heavy water
- Hunter process, Kroll process - produces titanium and zirconium
- Industrial rendering - the separation of fat from bone and protein
- Lead chamber process, Contact process - production of sulfuric acid
- Mond process - nickel
- Nitrophosphate process - a number of similar process for producing fertilizer
- Ostwald process - produces nitric acid
- Pidgeon process - produces magnesium, reducing the oxide using silicon
- Steam reforming, Water Gas Shift Reaction - produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide from methane or hydrogen and carbon dioxide from water and carbon monoxide
- Vacuum metalising - a finishing process
See also
