This video tutorial is dedicated to the topic “Metallurgical complex: composition, significance, placement factors.” At the beginning of this lesson we will define what construction materials are and what they are. Then we will discuss the composition of the metallurgical complex, its importance for the industry of our country, and also consider location factors.

Subject: General characteristics Russian economy

Lesson:Metallurgical complex: composition, significance, placement factors

One of the main construction materials are metals. Metals are produced by the Metallurgical Complex.

The metallurgical complex is a collection of industries that produce a variety of metals.

Composition of the metallurgical complex.

The metallurgical complex includes two large industries: ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy.

Ferrous metallurgy is the production of metals based on iron (cast iron, steel, ferroalloys), as well as manganese and chromium.

Non-ferrous metallurgy- production of more than 70 metals with valuable properties (copper, aluminum, lead, zinc, etc.)

Enterprises of the metallurgical complex are engaged in the extraction and enrichment of metal ores, smelting of various metals, production of rolled products, metal processing in various ways to obtain specified properties, processing of secondary raw materials, production of auxiliary materials.

1. The products of the metallurgical complex serve as the foundation for mechanical engineering.

2. The products are widely used in construction, transportation, electrical engineering, nuclear industry and chemical industry.

3. Metallurgy accounts for 16% of the total industrial production Russia, 10% of the population employed in industry.

4. The complex consumes 25% of the country's coal, 25% of the electricity produced, and 30% of rail freight traffic.

5. Metallurgy products are one of Russia’s main exports.

6. Russia ranks 1st in the world in steel exports, 4th in steel production after China, Japan, and the USA

7. Metallurgy is a major polluter of nature. Its enterprises emit tens of millions of tons into the atmosphere harmful substances. Large metallurgical centers are cities with an unfavorable environmental situation. Causes great harm to nature open method ore mining

1. Material intensity - the cost of materials per unit of production.

The consumption of initial ore raw materials is high, so metallurgy enterprises are located near sources of raw materials. For example, to produce 1 ton of steel, 5 tons of ore are required, and to produce 1 ton of tin, more than 300 tons of ore are required.

2. Energy intensity - energy costs per unit of output.

Many enterprises of the complex are located near sources of cheap electrical energy, because production requires a lot of energy. For example, to produce 1 ton of aluminum you need 17 thousand kWh, and to produce 1 ton of titanium 30-60 thousand kWh of electricity.

1. Labor intensity - labor costs per unit of production.

On average, a metallurgical plant employs from 20 to 40 thousand people, and this is the population of a small city.

2. Concentration - concentration of large volumes of production in one enterprise.

More than 50% of ferrous metals and 49% of non-ferrous metals are smelted at 5% industrial enterprises. Such high concentration helps reduce the cost of products, but makes it difficult to respond to market changes.

3. Combination - the combination at one enterprise, in addition to the main production, of production related to the main one technologically and economically.

In addition to metallurgical production, the metallurgical plant includes the production of cement and building materials, production of nitrogen fertilizers.

4. Environmental factor - negative influence on environment.

About 20% of emissions into the atmosphere and waste water. Ferrous metallurgy accounts for 15% of industrial emissions into the atmosphere and 22% for non-ferrous metallurgy

5. Transport factor - a modern metallurgical plant receives and sends as much cargo as a large city, so it cannot operate without a railway.

It is profitable to create metallurgical enterprises in areas of ore mining (Ural, Norilsk), in areas of fuel extraction (Kuzbass) or production of cheap electricity (Southern Siberia), at the intersection of ore and coal flows (Cherepovets), in areas of consumption of finished products (St. Petersburg or Moscow).

Main

1. Customs E.A. Geography of Russia: economy and regions: 9th grade textbook for students educational institutions M. Ventana-Graf. 2011.
2. Economic and social geography. Fromberg A.E.(2011, 416 pp.)
3. Atlas of economic geography, grade 9, from Bustard, 2012.
4. Geography. The entire school curriculum in diagrams and tables. (2007, 127 pp.)
5. Geography. Schoolchildren's Handbook. Comp. Mayorova T.A. (1996, 576 pp.)
6. Cheat sheet on economic geography. (For schoolchildren, applicants.) (2003, 96 p.)

Additional

1. Gladky Yu.N., Dobroskok V.A., Semenov S.P. Economic geography of Russia: Textbook - M.: Gardariki, 2000 - 752 pp.: ill.
2. Rodionova I.A., Tutorial in geography. Economic geography of Russia, M., Moscow Lyceum, 2001. - 189 p. :
3. Smetanin S.I., Konotopov M.V. History of ferrous metallurgy in Russia. Moscow, ed. "Paleotype" 2002
4. Economic and social geography of Russia: Textbook for universities / Ed. prof. A.T. Khrushchev. - M.: Bustard, 2001. - 672 p.: ill., map.: color. on

Encyclopedias, dictionaries, reference books and statistical collections

1. Geography of Russia. Encyclopedic Dictionary/ Ch. ed. A.P. Gorkin.-M.: Bol. Ross. enc., 1998.- 800 pp.: ill., maps.
2. Russian statistical yearbook. 2011: Statistical collection/Goskomstat of Russia. - M., 2002. - 690 p.
3. Russia in numbers. 2011: Brief statistical collection/Goskomstat of Russia. - M., 2003. - 398 p.

Literature for preparing for the State Exam and the Unified State Exam

1. GIA-2013. Geography: standard exam options: 10 options / Ed. EM. Ambartsumova. - M.: Publishing house "National Education", 2012. - (GIA-2013. FIPI-school)
2. GIA-2013. Geography: thematic and standard examination options: 25 options / Ed. EM. Ambartsumova. - M.: Publishing house "National Education", 2012. - (GIA-2013. FIPI-school)
3. GIA-2013 Exam in new form. Geography. 9th grade / FIPI authors - compilers: E.M. Ambartsumova, S.E. Dyukova - M.: Astrel, 2012. Excellent student in the Unified State Exam. Geography. Solving complex problems / FIPI authors-compilers: Ambartsumova E.M., Dyukova S.E., Pyatunin V.B. - M.: Intellect-Center, 2012.

1. Geo.september.ru (). N. Mazein Metallurgical world records
2. Geo.september.ru ().Non-ferrous metallurgy of Russia. Part three. Aluminum industry
3. Geo.september.ru (). Manganese of Kuzbass
4. Youtube.com(). Metallurgy steel part 1
5. Youtube.com(). Science 2.0 NOT simple things. Clip
6. Youtube.com(). Science 2.0 NOT simple things. Car wheels

1. Read § “Metallurgy” and answer the questions:

1) What is a metallurgical complex?

2) What is the importance of the metallurgical complex in the country’s economy?

3) What factors influence the location of metallurgical enterprises?

4) Is there any in your area metallurgical enterprise. What factors do you think influenced its placement?

1. Complete the task: Mark large metallurgical centers on a contour map.

1) Ferrous metallurgy centers: Cherepovets, Lipetsk, Stary Oskol, Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Tagil, Chelyabinsk, Novokuznetsk.

2) Centers of pigment metallurgy: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Izhevsk, Zlatoust, Komsomolsk-on-Amur.

3) Non-ferrous metallurgy centers: Monchegorsk, Kandalaksha, Volkhov, Mednogorsk, Kamensk-Uralsky, Orsk, Norilsk, Bratsk, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk

Practical work “Determination of factors for locating ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgical enterprises”

Fill out the table using the textbook paragraph, lesson materials, atlas maps “Metallurgy” or “Ferrous Metallurgy” and “Non-Ferrous Metallurgy”

The metallurgical complex includes all stages of the production of ferrous and non-ferrous metals: mining and beneficiation of ore, smelting of metals, production of alloys and rolled products, secondary processing of metals. The complex also includes other industries related to metal smelting - coke, refractory, flux, magnesite, etc.

Along with the fuel and energy complex, metallurgy is a basic branch of the industry. Therefore, the first places in metal smelting are held by developed countries - the USA, Japan, Germany, Russia and China. But, as in the case of energy resources, the extraction of metal ores is moving from developed countries to developing ones.

The USSR created a powerful metallurgical complex that produced almost all types of ferrous and non-ferrous metals and their alloys, occupying first or third places in the world in steel smelting, rolled products, aluminum, platinum, gold and other metals. After the collapse of the country, half of the metallurgical capacity remained in Russia. Due to the severe recession, the demand for metals fell. The overall decline in Russian metallurgy is estimated at 35-40%, but by 2000 its growth began and has now reached a level close to 1990. In terms of metal production, Russia is in the top five countries in the world, and can increase its output by 1.5 -2.0 times. The country exports metals to Europe, the USA, and China, which accounts for about 20% of the country's foreign exchange earnings. However, due to strong competition and customs barriers in individual countries, Russia cannot, although it has the opportunity, increase the export of ferrous and non-ferrous metals.

Ferrous metallurgy is one of the oldest industries in Russia, which arose in the 18th century in the Urals. Today it produces 66 million tons of steel, ranking 4th in the world. Ferrous metallurgy includes the production of manganese, chromium and iron and their alloys. Due to the fall in demand in mechanical engineering, especially from outside, more than half of the steel is exported. To preserve this industry in market conditions, its technological restructuring is required.

There are several technologies in modern metallurgy. Until now, it has been based on large metallurgical plants full cycle(blast furnace metallurgy), producing cast iron, steel, and rolled products. They require the proximity of large reserves of ore, coking coal, water resources, the creation of many auxiliary industries, a large workforce, developed infrastructure and energy. Although they provide cheaper metal, they are difficult to upgrade technologically and are a strong source of environmental pollution. 8 such plants have been created in Russia - in the Urals, in Central Russia and , which provide 2/3 of the production of ferrous metals.

More modern is electrometallurgy, which allows steel to be smelted without going through the blast furnace process (i.e., cast iron production), as well as the widespread use of scrap and secondary metal for remelting (conversion metallurgy). IN European countries The accumulated secondary raw materials already satisfy half of the demand for iron ore. Electrometallurgy makes it possible to more freely locate small steelmaking shops in any mechanical engineering center, using its waste and producing steel grades of the required range and quality. There are such production facilities in Russia, but they are not enough to produce a wide range of modern metals.

The main areas of ferrous metallurgy in Russia are:

• The Urals provide half of the country's steel and rolled products, the main smelting of which takes place at large full-cycle plants - Magnitogorsk - one of the largest in the world, Nizhny Tagil, Orsko-Khalilovsky. In the Urals there are also many factories for processing metallurgy, ferroalloys, alloy steels, long rolled products, producing high quality metal. The Urals have almost exhausted their raw materials and import iron ore from KMA and coal from Kuzbass and Kazakhstan.
• Center - produces 1/4 of the country's steel and uses KMA iron ore. Steel is smelted at plants in Lipetsk and Stary Oskol (blastless electrometallurgy) and at pig metallurgy plants in Tula, Moscow, Elektrostal. This area also includes the largest Cherepovets plant, created at the intersection of coal flows from the Vorkuta basin and iron ore from the Murmansk region.
• Kuzbass is the base of metallurgy in Siberia, producing 1/5 of the country's metal through two full-cycle plants in Novokuznetsk. Local is used here coal and iron ore from Gornaya Shoria (Khakassia) and Irkutsk region. However, the raw material base limits the development of metallurgy.

There are also pig metallurgy plants in Siberia - in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Krasnoyarsk, etc. In general, ferrous metallurgy is an industry with strong concentration production at a small number of large enterprises.

The prospects for ferrous metallurgy are connected not with the growth of its production, the capacity of which is sufficient, but with its technological improvement. The development of electrical and conversion technologies will help it be positioned in accordance with the specific needs of mechanical engineering, as well as solve other problems - improve environmental characteristics industry, improve the quality and diversify the range of products, which is important both for the country’s reviving mechanical engineering industry and for strengthening its position in the global market.

Non-ferrous metallurgy, like ferrous metals, is one of the old industries, but in the 20th century it was significantly updated. At the beginning of the century, it was based on “heavy” metals - copper, nickel, lead, zinc; then “light” metals came into first place - aluminum, magnesium, titanium in connection with the development of communications, aviation, space technology, etc. In the 80-90s. great value acquire alloying and rare metals - tungsten, molybdenum, vanadium, mercury, zirconium, etc., necessary to obtain alloys with special properties. The noble metals - gold, silver, platinum - have always retained their special role.

More than 70 types of non-ferrous metals are produced in the world, but only 4 countries have a complete set of them - the USA, Russia,. Russia has almost all the ores of non-ferrous metals and only imports some, for example, bauxite, chromite, manganese. The production of most non-ferrous metals falls into 2-3 stages: ore enrichment, which is located at raw material sources; smelting of rough metal - near sources of heat, energy and water, the consumption of which is quite high; obtaining pure metal in areas of its consumption.

In Russia, the main region for aluminum smelting became the Angaro-Yenisei region with factories in Krasnoyarsk, Sayanogorsk, Bratsk, Shelekhov (Irkutsk region), as well as Novokuznetsk. It ranks second in the world in terms of production volume. The Urals are distinguished for the smelting of copper and other metals, where local and imported ores, as well as secondary raw materials, are used. A special place in non-ferrous metallurgy is occupied by the complex ores of Taimyr and the Murmansk region, the largest metallurgical plants of which smelt copper, nickel, platinum and other rarer metals. The production of lead and zinc, tungsten and molybdenum is located in the Primorsky Territory and on. Russia is a traditional producer of gold and silver with its mining in the Magadan region, Chukotka district, Yakutia, and since the 60s. Diamonds are also mined in Yakutia.

The largest regions for producing pure metals are Central and Ural, and they are also their consumers. The main consumer industries are aviation, communications, space technology, electronics, nuclear energy, robotics and other high-tech industries.

Due to the economic crisis of the 90s, the demand for non-ferrous metals decreased sharply, especially in the aircraft industry, the defense complex, and communications - among their largest consumers. The smelting of aluminum, nickel, titanium, magnesium, and cobalt decreased by more than 2/3; in general, enterprises are 40-50% loaded. Non-ferrous metallurgy survives due to the export of aluminum, gold, platinum, palladium, titanium, being in the top five countries in the world in terms of their volume.

The prospects for the restoration of non-ferrous metallurgy are associated with the general revival of the economy, and, first of all, with the development of branches of scientific and technological progress, as well as the production of modern household appliances, lungs vehicles. Russia, having a wide range of non-ferrous metallurgy sectors, can develop them in the sought-after direction.

Why is metal called the “bread” of the economy?

The entire history of mankind is inextricably linked with the use of metals. Not by chance the most important stages in development human society named after the metals used: copper, bronze and iron age A.

The metallurgical complex includes the extraction and beneficiation of metal ores, smelting of metals, production of rolled products and processing of secondary raw materials (metal scrap). It includes ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy.

Ferrous metals include iron and its alloys. Non-ferrous metals are divided into several groups: light (aluminum, magnesium); heavy (copper, zinc, lead, nickel); noble (gold, silver, platinum). Modern economies need special grades of steel, for the production of which so-called alloying metals are used as additives. For example, tungsten makes steel harder, molybdenum makes it heat-resistant, and vanadium makes it resistant to shock and vibration.

Of all the metals, the most widely used metal is the working metal - iron, or rather, its alloys with carbon - cast iron and steel. This is due to a number of reasons. First, deposits of iron ores are richer and much more common than ores of other metals (poor iron ores contain at least 20% iron, while copper ores with a copper content of 5% are considered rich). Secondly, cast iron and steel together useful properties and the relative cheapness of their production are significantly superior to other metals. Therefore, ferrous metals account for over 90% of all metals used in the national economy.

What are the features of metallurgical production?

Metallurgy is characterized by a high concentration of production, in other words, most of the metals are smelted at very large enterprises with an annual productivity of hundreds of thousands and millions of tons of metals in ferrous metallurgy and tens and hundreds of thousands of tons in non-ferrous metallurgy.

Just a few factories (5% of all enterprises) produce half of the products of both ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy. On the one hand, such a concentration of production makes it cheaper, on the other hand, it complicates the response to changes in market conditions. In addition, the larger the enterprise, the greater the “pressure” on the environment. Metallurgy is the strongest polluter of nature: about 40% of all industrial emissions come from this industry national economy. Almost a third of Russian cities with the most tense environmental situation are large metallurgical centers.

What factors influence the location of iron and steel enterprises?

The strongest influence on the location of ferrous metallurgy enterprises is exerted by technological features smelting iron and steel. The metal is smelted in three main types of enterprises.

Full-cycle metallurgical plants (combines) - they produce cast iron, steel, and rolled products (they often include the extraction of iron ore). Such enterprises are usually located near deposits of iron ore or coking coal.

Rice. 36. Full cycle metallurgical plant "Severstal" in Cherepovets

How do you get steel? At the first stage, cast iron is produced in blast furnaces, which contains 2-4% carbon, which is why this metal is very fragile and cannot be found wide application. Therefore, approximately 90% of the cast iron is melted again to “burn out” the carbon to 0.2-2%. That's when you get stronger steel. What about pure iron? It can be obtained, but this is an extremely labor-intensive and expensive process, and unnecessary, since iron is a very soft metal, from which you cannot even make a strong ax.

Steel is also obtained from scrap metal - this is pigment metallurgy. Conversion enterprises gravitate towards large machine-building centers - suppliers of scrap metal and at the same time the main consumers of metal.

One ton of steel produced from scrap costs five to seven times less than steel produced from cast iron.

Another type of enterprise in the industry is small metallurgy - the production of steel and rolled products in foundries at machine-building plants.

What are the features of locating non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises?

Due to the low metal content in ore, non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises gravitate towards areas where raw materials are mined. Ore beneficiation is also carried out at mining sites.

Rice. 37. Ferrous metallurgy

Highlight centers with large iron and steel enterprises in the country. How can you explain their placement? Compare Figure 27 with the population density map.

In the aluminum industry process consists of two main stages: the production of alumina - aluminum oxide (from bauxite or nephelines) and the production of aluminum metal. The first stage is quite material-intensive, so alumina refineries are located close to aluminum ore deposits. But all the largest aluminum smelting centers are located near hydroelectric power stations, since this process is very electrically intensive.

Aluminum raw materials (alumina) modern production in Russia it is provided by about a third, as a result of which the main amount of alumina has to be imported from countries near and far abroad.

Eastern Siberia - largest producer aluminum in the country. The giant aluminum smelters of Krasnoyarsk, Bratsk, as well as Sayano-gorsk and Shelekhov operate both locally (Achinsk Alumina Refinery) and imported raw materials and use cheap electricity from powerful Siberian hydroelectric power stations.

The copper industry is the oldest branch of non-ferrous metallurgy in our country. It began to develop in the Urals back in the 18th century. The capacity of copper smelters exceeds the capacity of local deposits, so imported concentrates are used here.

Some copper ores also contain nickel, cobalt and other metals. Nickel has high hardness and is also an important alloy metal. Cobalt is used to produce ultra-strong, heat-resistant magnetic alloys. In the north of Eastern Siberia, in the Norilsk region, a unique center for the integrated use of copper-nickel ores of the Talnakh deposit has emerged. Now it is the largest copper and nickel smelting area in Russia; In addition, cobalt, platinum and rare metals are produced here.

The lead-zinc industry is based on the use of polymetallic ores and generally gravitates towards their deposits.

Concentrates of tin ores produced at mining and processing enterprises Far East and Eastern Siberia, processed at a plant in Novosibirsk.

Conclusions

The metallurgical complex is one of the oldest and most developed complexes national economy of our country. Russian metallurgy not only satisfies domestic needs for various metals, but also supplies a significant part of the metals to the foreign market. Metallurgy is characterized by a high concentration of production, close technological ties with other industries, the use of huge volumes of raw materials, fuel, electricity, and therefore - the attraction of enterprises to raw material areas and energy sources.

Questions and tasks

1. Give examples of the influence of factors such as energy availability, proximity to raw materials, fuel, and consumers on the location of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises.
2. Study the Kondratiev cycles (Fig. 3) in which historical period metallurgy became the core of the technological cycle. How did this affect the development of other sectors of the economy?
3. Why did the need for non-ferrous metals increase sharply in the era of the scientific and technological revolution?
4. The concentration of production in the ferrous metallurgy has its pros and cons. Think about the positive and negative features of a small plant. So which is better and why - giant factories or dwarf factories?

During my school years, my class and I visited the Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgical Plant. Our guide and at the same time the director of the plant museum spoke quite fascinatingly about the production of metal and its importance for the whole country as a whole. We were even allowed to look at the smelting shop from afar: it was wildly hot, metal was pouring everywhere, and incredibly large containers of ore were flying over the heads of the workers.

Metallurgy as the basis of the modern world

We come across metal products every minute in our daily activities, and the entry of metal into human life in general gave a huge leap in its development (“Iron Age”). The main consumers of the industry are:

• A man in his everyday life- from a car to a spoon, there is metal everywhere.
• Branch of science - the development of new alloys makes many materials lighter and stronger.
• Military industry - improving the armor resistance of equipment.

But, before obtaining a metal product, it is necessary to collect and process iron ore. Processing is carried out by huge metallurgical complexes, which mainly produce blanks and parts of future structures. For example, starting in 2011, with the revival of Russia’s construction of the South and North Stream gas pipelines, the pipe rolling branch of industrial metallurgy has leapt ahead.

Metallurgical bases in Russia

Historically, since the times of Peter the Great, it has developed that in the Russian Federation such bases are located in places where iron ore is mined. This arrangement is economically justified: transportation costs are reduced. But the industry cannot exist without adequate energy supply. Therefore in modern times when creating bases, they began to take into account the proximity of power plants to the construction site. A feature of the metallurgical industry in Russia is its concentration and monopolization.

Only a few particularly large enterprises (Mechel OJSC, Viz-Stal LLC, UMMC holding, Severstal OJSC) meet the demand for metal not only in their own state, but also in foreign countries.

Since ancient times, metal has become an indispensable element in human everyday life. Thanks to it, we have the opportunity to use electricity, transport, gadgets and other benefits of civilization. That is why metallurgy can be considered a key industry in every state. Metallurgy is a branch of heavy industry that involves a lot of financial, material, energy and human resources.

Modern metallurgy has achieved significant development. Thanks to the achievements of science, we have the opportunity to use not only metals given to us by nature, but also innovative composite materials and alloys. They have improved properties and characteristics.

Classification of types of metallurgy

Smelting metals requires a colossal amount of energy and resources, so most mining enterprises work specifically to meet the needs of metallurgy.

To further study the characteristics of this industry, its main types should be highlighted. Today there are two main industries: ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy.

Chernaya is responsible for the production of iron-based alloys. At the same time, it includes other elements such as chromium and manganese. All other production of products from other metals is called non-ferrous.

The production technology has a similar cycle, regardless of the type of raw material, and consists of several stages listed below:

1. Extraction of raw materials and their processing. Most metals are not found naturally in pure form, and is part of various ores, the processing of which is called enrichment. During the beneficiation process, ore is crushed into small components, from which metal elements and waste rock are separated during the separation process. Alloys are produced from isolated elements.
2. Redistribution The metallurgical limit is the process of producing semi-finished products, which in turn are used to produce finished products. During the redistribution process, the composition, structure and properties of the alloys change, as well as physical state. Processing processes include rolling and crimping, pipe production, melting and casting.
3. Waste recycling. Most waste from metallurgical production is either disposed of or processed to produce other healthy products. Some waste rock and slag are dumped on site large storage facilities under open air. But today, manufacturers are trying to process by-products as efficiently as possible. Some slags are reprocessed to produce additional products, some are used to produce agricultural fertilizers, but most are used to make building materials that are widely used in everyday life.

Most of the metal produced goes through the rolling stage, that is, the production of semi-finished products for the production of finished products. A similar operation is performed on a special device, which is a system of rotating rollers. Metal is passed between them, which is under high pressure changes thickness, width and length.

There are cold and hot rolled products, the differences of which lie in the different temperatures of the processed raw materials. Cold rolling is used for raw materials that have high level plasticity, which allows you to maintain the structure of the metal and not change its physical properties.

The rolling process is not always the final stage in the production of semi-finished products. For example, for iron and steel products, processing methods such as coating protective layer or hardening. This improves corrosion resistance, increases strength and reduces wear.

It should be noted that most of the products produced by the metallurgical industry are steel pipes. In second place is sheet and section metal used in mechanical engineering.

Among the main consumers of products in this area it is worth highlighting construction industry, mechanical engineering and metalworking.

At the same time, almost every sphere of the national economy cannot do without the use of metallurgical products, as well as blanks and semi-finished products from them.

Ferrous metallurgy is based on the processing of iron, namely the ores in which it is contained. Most iron ores are natural oxides. That is why the first stage of production is the separation of iron from the oxide. Large blast furnaces are used for this. This method Cast iron production is carried out at temperatures above 1000 degrees.

Moreover, the properties of the resulting raw materials directly depend on temperature blast furnace and melting time. With further processing of cast iron, steel or foundry cast iron is obtained, with the help of which blanks and products are cast.

To produce steel, iron and carbon are used, the addition of which gives the resulting alloy the desired properties. Various alloying components can also be used to achieve certain characteristics of the steel.

There are several methods for producing steel, which are based on smelting the metal in liquid state. The following should be highlighted: open hearth, oxygen-converter and electric melting.

Each type of steel is called a grade, which indicates its composition and properties. To change the properties of steel, an alloying method is used, that is, adding additional components to the alloy. The elements most often used for such purposes are chromium, manganese, boron, nickel, tungsten, titanium cobalt, copper and aluminum. Typically, such components are added to molten steel.

But there is another method, which consists in pressing fine-grained powder of the components and then baking at high temperatures.

The production of such products is not much different from ferrous metallurgy technologies. The non-ferrous metallurgy cycle also consists of ore beneficiation, metal smelting, conversion and rolling. But in some cases, refining of metals can also be used, that is, purification of the primary product from impurities.

Purification of non-ferrous metal ore is a more difficult task, since it contains much more foreign impurities, including other useful components. As in ferrous metallurgy, non-ferrous by-products are widely used in the processing industry, especially in chemical production.

Two sub-sectors should be distinguished: metallurgy of heavy and light metals. The principle of this division is based on the different properties of the non-ferrous metals being processed. The production of heavy metals requires significantly less energy.

Sometimes a third group, the so-called rare earth metals, is isolated. This name is due to the fact that previously such elements were poorly studied and were rarely found in natural conditions. Although in fact their quantity is not inferior to many heavy or light non-ferrous metals. They are usually used in the production of high-tech devices.

Products from this industry are widely used in mechanical engineering, aerospace, chemical industry and instrument making.

Mining metallurgy

This is an area of ​​industry responsible for extracting valuable metals from ores, smelting the resulting raw materials and obtaining the finished product. The separation of metal from waste rock and other slags can be carried out by chemical, electrolytic or physical action.

The main task of this branch of metallurgy is to optimize the process of isolating pure metal, high-quality separation of useful components from waste rock and minimizing losses.

Metals are used in for various purposes, both for the manufacture of various jewelry and costume jewelry, and in high-tech areas. For example, in the construction of high-precision instruments, modern gadgets, computers and other electrical appliances. And also in the space sector, aircraft manufacturing, and other areas where special properties are required that only valuable metals have.

It should be noted that previously metallurgy focused strictly on the processing of mined raw materials. But recently, due to the fact that metals are not a renewable resource, the problem of processing secondary raw materials has become acute.

Non-ferrous and ferrous metals are subject to recycling. Therefore, manufacturers try to collect and process as efficiently and fully as possible. hardware, out of service. The scrap metal market is constantly growing, and therefore the number of large and small recycling enterprises is growing. Their task is to clean metals from accompanying materials and then remelt them. To preserve the high-quality structure and properties, recyclable materials are melted together with freshly mined raw materials.

Further development is impossible only with the use of natural resources, the quantity of which is constantly decreasing. Therefore, the main task today can be considered the processing of recyclable materials and the search for analogues that can fully replace metals.

The development of metallurgy is directly related to intellectual development humanity and its needs. Since new technologies require improved properties and characteristics from existing metals, as well as the creation of innovative alloys that have no analogues before.