Industrial Processes, Materials, Energy, and Electronics
Item 1. Industrial Processes and Sustainable Development
Industrial Extraction
Provides primary materials.
Industrial Transformation
Makes industrial materials.
Industrial Elaboration
Products are manufactured for later use.
Transformation Industries
- Steel and Metallurgical: Different metals are obtained from minerals.
- Petrochemical: Separate and deal with oil compounds through artificial distillation.
- Timber: Using trunks and branches of trees, which are processed by grinding, cooking, and mixing.
- Textile and Leather: Develop fabrics by spinning and weaving from natural and artificial fibers.
- Ceramics: Transform some non-metallic rocks and minerals into ceramic, glass, cement, or plaster.
Sustainable Development
Implementation of new forms of scientific, technological, and social development that aim to prevent the Earth from deteriorating. To achieve this, we need to avoid:
- Resource Depletion: Major losses are occurring in forests, and some animal species are becoming extinct.
- Environmental Pollution: Water and soil are contaminated by urban, agricultural, and industrial discharges.
- Inequality in Sharing: Most industrialized countries consume most resources, while the rest have difficulties surviving.
- Generation of Waste: Excessive consumption not only depletes resources but also produces large quantities of waste and garbage.
Rule of 3 “R”s
- Reduce: Do not consume unnecessary products.
- Reuse: Offer new possibilities for using a product.
- Recycle: When you can no longer continue using a product, materials or parts of it can be used to manufacture new ones.
Item 2. Polymerization and Plastic Properties
Polymerization
A chemical reaction, under conditions of high pressure and temperature, where large chains of monomers (basic molecules) are formed, called polymers, to form macromolecules.
Plastic Properties
- Light Weight: Due to the low density of plastics.
- Insulation Capacity: Thermal and electrical.
- Chemical Resistance: Allows them to resist atmospheric agents and aggressive chemical substances without alteration.
- Mechanical Resistance: Acceptable, but does not reach that of metallic materials.
- Versatility: Possibility to modify some of the properties of a type of plastic by adding additive substances.
- Manufacturing Facility: Due to its ease of modeling and adopting all kinds of shapes using moderate temperatures.
Types of Plastic
- Thermoplastics: Soften with heat and take forms that are preserved by cooling; they can be melted and cast several times.
- Thermosets: Only deformed by heat and pressure once, acquiring an internal consistency that keeps them from deforming again.
- Elastomers: High elasticity; they become deformed up to several times their original size and recover their original dimensions when the force stops the deformation.
Item 3. Natural Stone, Glass, Concrete, and Metals
Natural Stone Materials
- Igneous Rocks: Formed by solidifying molten material from inside the Earth.
- Sedimentary Rocks: Originate in several ways:
- Accumulation of fragments of other rocks.
- Crystallization or accumulation of mineralized organic remains.
- Metamorphic Rocks: Formed at the expense of igneous and sedimentary rocks, subject to natural transformations due to high pressures.
Process of Obtaining Glass
Fusing is done by crushing raw materials in furnaces that reach temperatures of 1300º+. When melted, it is given the corresponding form of sheets or hollow shapes by blowing and then allowed to cool.
Concrete and Reinforced Concrete
- Concrete: A mixture of a binder with sand, gravel, and water. It must be amassed in a concrete mixer. Once kneaded, it is poured into a mold and then compacted through shredding with a bar, tamping, or vibrating.
- Reinforced Concrete: Concrete is placed with steel bars (called armor) with a rough surface in areas where there are such efforts.
Metal Materials
- Stainless Steel: Great resistance and easily recyclable, keeping its properties intact.
- Copper: Great malleability and ductility, which allows the manufacture of a wide variety of diverse products. Very durable and resistant to corrosion in any atmosphere. Easily recyclable, keeping its properties intact.
- Aluminum: Light weight for its mechanical resistance and easy mechanization. High resistance to flame and atmospheric corrosion agents. Great length of time with little maintenance. It is recyclable as many times as desired without losing any of its properties.
Item 4. Energy Systems and Distribution
Energy Systems
- Conventional (Non-Renewable): Fossil fuels, nuclear fission.
- Renewable: Hydroelectric power.
- Alternates: Wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and wave energy.
Fossil Fuels
- Coal: Most abundant fossil fuel in the form of minerals, used in power stations and the steel industry.
- Petroleum: A mixture of solid, liquid, and gaseous hydrocarbons. Their separation is by fractional distillation in refineries.
- Natural Gas: Consisting of very light hydrocarbons and a gas.
Distribution of Electrical Energy
Transported by high-tension lead wires. The high tension decreases as the electricity approaches industrial estates or villages, reaching low levels of tension. The operations of lowering and raising tension are carried out in transformer stations.
Nuclear Thermal Power
A thermal power in which the energy necessary for water vapor at high temperature is achieved by the fission or rupture of radioactive atomic nuclei.
Obtaining Wind Energy
Wind turbines are located in places where the wind speed is high. These facilities have control centers that regulate the activity and orientation of wind turbines as a function of the data collected by the vanes and anemometers.
Item 5. Magnetism and Applications
Magnets
- Natural: Some iron minerals found in nature have magnetic properties.
- Artificial: Acquire magnetic properties by different procedures.
Applications
- In appliances and electrical devices such as speakers, etc.
- In electronic devices such as relays, controlling the flow of electrical current.
- In many industrial processes, moving parts or separating iron and other steel materials.
Ohm’s Law Formula
- I = V / R
- Electric Energy: E = V * I * T
- Electrical Power: P = E / T = V * I = R * I²
Item 6. Electronic Components
Components
- Discrete: Individual components are the simplest units that can be used.
- Types:
- Passive: Those who do not change the amplitude of the signals they receive.
- Active: Amplify signals; they are made with semiconductor materials.
Integrated Circuit
Consists of active and passive components interconnected on a single block, thus creating microchips.
Types of Resistors
- Fixed Resistors: Constant resistance value of different sizes as a function of the power they must withstand.
- Variable Resistors: Change resistance when some physical parameter varies.
- Groups:
- Potentiometers: Vary their resistance manually between 0 and a maximum value indicated in the encapsulation.
- Dependent Resistors: The resistance depends on environmental physical conditions.
Applications of Resistors
- Fixed Resistors: Act as current limiters, so they are used to protect other components that cannot withstand a current that is too high.
- Potentiometers: Allow us to vary their resistance at will, making them useful as regulators of current and voltage.
- Dependent Resistors: The variation of resistance with different physical quantities allows them to be used as sensors in automatic systems.
Capacitors
Passive components designed to store an electrical charge. Constituted by two conductive plates separated by a layer of dielectric material. Q = C * V.
Operation
When connected to a battery, the plate connected to the higher potential gives electrons to the other plate attached to a lower potential. The plate that gives electrons through a circuit is loaded with a charge +q, and the recipient reaches the charge -q. When the battery is disconnected, a charged capacitor moves electrons, returning the charge to their original position.
Capacitor Types
- Fixed Capacitors: Fixed capacity that is recorded in the package.
- Classes:
- Electrolytes: Have a polarity that must be respected.
- Non-Polarized: Its ceramic dielectric, which can be plastic or paper, shows no polarity.
- Mica Capacitors: Formed by shifting plates, moving by turning a varied course to the facing surface of the plates, and the capacitor changes.
Item 7. Waves
Characteristics
- Time of a vibration = Period (T).
- Number of vibrations per second = Frequency (f) and equals the inverse of T (f = 1/T).
- The distance between two crests is the wavelength.
- The amplitude is the maximum distance that separates a particle hit by the wave from its equilibrium position.
Types of Waves
- Mechanical Waves: Those that require a material medium to propagate.
- Electromagnetic Waves: May be spread by a vacuum and also by certain materials.
Electromagnetic Spectrum
- On one end are the most dangerous radiation, with smaller wavelengths and higher frequencies.
- In the intermediate zone are radiation associated with light, from ultraviolet to infrared, through the visible spectrum.
- At the other end are radio waves with large wavelengths and lower frequencies, used by different wireless communication systems.
Item 8. Machinery and Equipment
Operation
- Operate with Input Power: All machines and devices require power supplies to function.
- Energy: The mechanisms and circuits inside the devices involved in machinery transmit and transform the energy they receive to achieve the desired operation.
- Produce Effects: Machinery and equipment are recognized by their operation. Many machines produce several effects simultaneously.
Power of the Machines
- Electrical: Obtained through the mains, batteries, or photovoltaic cells.
- Thermo-chemical: Due to its chemical nature, burning fuel releases thermal energy that is used in pressurized fluids.
- Compressed Air or Pressurized Fluid: Supplied by compressors or pumps, used to boost working machines, drills, etc.
- Mechanical: The forces carried by the muscles are useful for powering tools, etc.
Types of Engines
- Electric: Get energy from a DC current, fed by batteries, or AC, plugged into the electrical network.
- Combustion: Take advantage of the energy of fuels. In external combustion, combustion occurs outside the machine to heat a fluid. Internal combustion uses fossil fuels like oil.
The Four-Stroke Engine
Internal combustion is the most used four-stroke engine.
- Intake: When the piston inside the cylinder lowers, it takes in air and gasoline.
- Compression: Closing the valves, the piston rises, and the mixture is compressed.
- Explosion: The spark of the spark plug ignites the mixture, which releases the piston downward.
- Escape: Rising again, the piston pushes the gas to the outside.
Mechanical Drive Systems
- Transmit power from the motor to different parts of the machines with the help of shafts, belts, chains, levers, etc., transforming the force or speed provided by the motor.
- Modify the linear displacement motion for circular motion.
- Control and regulate the movement of the motors to avoid sudden changes in speed, slow down, or prevent movement in a certain direction.