Industrial process
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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 large scale.
Industrial processes are the key components of heavy industry.
Most processes make the production of an otherwise rare material vastly cheaper, thus changing it into a commodity; i.e. the process makes it economically feasible for society to use the material on a large scale. One of the best examples of this is the change in aluminium from prices more expensive than silver to its use in recyclable/disposable beverage containers.
An industrial process differs from a craft, workshop or laboratory process by the scale or investment required. Most of the processes are complex and require large capital investments 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.
Contents
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
Physical reshaping
There are several processes for reshaping a material by cutting, folding, joining or polishing, developed on a large scale from workshop techniques.- Forge - the shaping of metal by use of heat and hammer
- 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
Moulding
The 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.
Purification
Many materials exist in an impure form, purification, refining or separation provides a usable product.- Froth flotation, Flotation - separating minerals through floatation
- Fractional distillation, Vacuum distillation - separating materials by their boiling point
- Solvent extraction - dissolving one substance in another
- Frasch process - for extracting molten sulfur from the ground
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 particals 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
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
- Crucible steel
- Cementation process
- Bessemer process
- Basic oxygen steelmaking, Linz-Donawitz process
- Electric arc furnace
Petroleum and organic compunds
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
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- Sulphuric acid - (Lead chamber process, Contact process)
- Titanium - (Hunter process, Kroll process)
- Zirconium - (Hunter process, Kroll process, Crystal bar process, Iodide process)
- Alberger process, Grainer evaporation process - produces salt from brine
- Industrial rendering - the separation of fat from bone and protein
- Chloralkali process, Weldon process - for producing chlorine and sodium hydroxide
- FFC Cambridge Process
- Bayer process - the extraction of aluminium from ore
- Lead chamber process, Contact process - production of sulphuric acid
- Bacterial oxidation - used to produce gold
- Hunter process, Kroll process - produces titanium and zirconium
- Crystal bar process, Iodide process - produces zirconium
- Pidgeon process - produces magnesium, reducing the oxide using silicon
- Dow process - produces bromine from brine
- Girdler sulfide process - for making heavy water
- Ostwald process - produces nitric acid
- Steam reforming, Water Gas Shift Reaction - produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide from methane or hydrogen and carbon dioxide from water and carbon monoxide
- Nitrophosphate process - a number of similar process for producing fertilizer
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