Some Geog Questions

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, 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.
[edit] 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

[edit] 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

[edit] 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.

[edit] Purification
Many materials exist in an impure form, purification, refining or separation provides a usable product.

Froth flotation, flotation process - 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

[edit] 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