Industrial processes

Industrial processes are procedures involving chemical, physical, electrical or mechanical steps to aid in the manufacturing of an item or items, usually carried out on a very large scale. Industrial processes are the key components of heavy industry.

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
Scrubbing – removal of pollution from exhaust gases

Chemical processes

Haber process – chemically binding gaseous nitrogen from the atmosphere to make ammonia
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

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 terms for giving non-metals a metallic coating

Cutting

Shearing
Sawing
Plasma cutting
Water-jet cutting
Oxyacetylene cutting
Electrical discharge machining (EDM)
Machining – the mechanical cutting and shaping of metal which involves the loss of the material
Laser cutting

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.

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
Progressive stamping – the production of components from a strip or roll
Stamping
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 in order 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 flotation
Liquid–liquid 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

Additive

Iron and steel

Early production of iron was from meteorites, or as a by-product of copper refining.

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 – part of the process to produce nylon
Oxo process – Produces aldehydes from alkenes
Polymerisation

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, Hooker process)
Fat – (rendering)
Fertilizer – (nitrophosphate process)
Glass – (Pilkington process)
Gold – (bacterial oxidation, Parkes process)
Graphite – (Acheson 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)
Silicon Carbide – (Acheson process, Lely 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
Perstorp Formox process – oxidation of methanol to produce formaldehyde