What Does Heavy Industry Produce?
5. Definition and History
Heavy industries are those types of industries which deal in large products and high levels of capital investment, and often involve complex manufacturing processes. They use the products which are particularly used in heavy industries like oil, coal, ships, and iron. It usually involves large and heavy products and equipment or facilities, which are used with the help of varied processes, heavy tools and machinery, and they also utilize huge buildings. The heavy industry is also more cyclical in investment and employment too. Looking forward to the history of heavy industry, it can be seen that in the middle of the 19th Century through the early days of the 20th Century, it witnessed the artillery production, erection of locomotive, steel making, aircraft industry, and the chemical industry. After the World War II, the building of dams, ships, rockets, and skyscrapers also each increasingly took place.
4. Heavy Industrial Products
The heavy industrial products mainly include the product from varied disciplines such as the energy which includes thermal power, nuclear and natural energy. It also includes heavy electrical, machine tool and engineering industry, which helps in more capital influxes too. Even the aircraft production, as well as building of aero engines, is included under the modern heavy industry. The production of many industrial products also grew in the recent times like tractors, electric generators, printing machinery, and passenger cars.
3. Processes and Technologies Employed
In the heavy industry set up, there are many industrial processes involved:-
- General Processes, which involves freezing, scrubbing, and supercritical drying.
- Chemical Processes, which includes the Smelting, Disinfection, and the Haber Process.
- Heat Processes, which includes Flash Smelting.
- Physical Processes, which involves the techniques like Forging, Stamping, Work Hardening, Die Cutting, Tumble Polishing and many other techniques.
The modern technologies involved in heavy industries include the electrochemical machining which is actually an electro-polishing technique that is mainly employed in the automobile, aerospace and other heavy-metal industries for carrying out many operations. The other modern technologies involved are the micro-fabrication and micro machining techniques which are nowadays put to work in the heavy-metal industry too.
2. Leading Countries
The numbers of countries which are readily involved in the production of heavy material and constitute a strong part of heavy industries include Japan and South Korea, as both of these countries have the leading firms across the globe. They contribute towards defense and aerospace products and other heavy automobile industries too. The other leading countries are the U.S.A., China, Russia, India, and several European Union member countries.
1. Economic Significance and Future Trends
The economic significance and the future endeavors of heavy industry include its globalization as it will help the countries to prosper and help in building capital market too. The powerful economic zones include the developed countries, and U.S.A. is rated as the strongest sector. The usage of heavy industrial machinery is on the rise and, as various sectors of heavy industry are growing, so too are the resulting revenues also receiving a boost. The introduction of digital technologies and making them customer-oriented has also helped these industries continue to develop and evolve.
