PRIMARY MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

I. Introduction
A. The actual changing of the form of material is referred to as material
processing.
B. Changing the form of materials takes three major steps:
1. obtaining natural resources
2. producing industrial materials, and
3. making finished products
C. These steps can be divided into two areas:
1. primary manufacturing processes
a. obtaining raw materials
b. producing useable industrial materials
2. secondary manufacturing processes
a. casting and molding
b. forming
c. separating
d. conditioning
e. assembling
f. finishing
D. Our investigation in this unit will concentrate on the primary manufacturing
processes.
II. Obtaining Raw Materials
A. Raw materials are natural resources found in or on the earth.
B. These materials can be divided into two major groups:
1. renewable: those materials that, with proper management, can
be reproduced.
a. trees
b. cotton
c. wool
d. animal hides
2. exhaustible: those materials that once depleted are gone and
cannot be reproduced.
a. metal ores
b. fossil fuels (petroleum, natural gas, & coal)
c. clays

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C. Obtaining raw materials for manufacturing is a three-step process:

1. locating resources
a. aerial mapping
b. geological searches
c. farming
2. gathering resources
a. mining
*open-pit
*underground
-shaft
-drift
-slope
b. drilling
*vertical
*directional
c. harvesting
*selective cutting
*clear or block cutting
*seed tree cutting
3. transporting resources
a. land
*pipelines
*conveyors
*trucks
*rails
b. water
*pipelines
*ships
*barges
III. Producing Useable Industrial Materials
A. Once raw materials are obtained, they are transported to a mill.
B. At the mill, resources are converted into useable materials.
1. refining the raw materials
2. converting the refined materials into industrial materials

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C. The refining of raw materials and converting them into industrial
materials can be accomplished by:
1. thermal processes: using heat to change the properties of the
material
a. ore extraction
*iron
b. smelting
*copper
*zinc
*lead
2. mechanical processes: using mechanical means to change
the resource
a. crushing
*gravel
*stone
*ore
b. cutting
*lumber
*wool
c. pressing
*particleboard
*plywood
*laminates
3. chemical processes: using chemical reactions to change the
materials
a. refining
*aluminum
*gold
*silver
b. reactions
*polymer formation
*steel
IV. Conclusion
A. Raw materials are the foundation for all manufactured products.
B. These materials must be obtained and converted into useable
industrial materials.
1. This is accomplished by the primary processing of raw materials.
C. Useable industrial materials are then converted into products using
secondary processes.