The machine-building complex is a combination of certain industries, the products of which are various machines and mechanisms. Moreover, this formation is characterized by very complex relationships.
The machine-building complex, whose structure is extensive, includes directly mechanical engineering, as well as metal processing. The products of the enterprises of this complex play a major role in the implementation of the latest achievements of modern scientific and technological progress. Moreover, this is relevant for all areas of the national economy.
The structure of the field of engineering
This largest integrated industry provides the entire national economy with instruments and equipment. For the population, it produces a variety of commodities. The machine-building complex includes the repair of equipment and machinery, as well as metalworking. Characteristic for him is the deepening of specialization of industries and the constant expansion of the scope of activities.
The machine-building complex includes more than seventy industries. Moreover, all of them are grouped according to the purpose of the products, the similarity of technological processes and the types of raw materials used.
The engineering complex includes:
1. Energy and heavy engineering. This includes production of power, hoisting and transporting and mining, printing and nuclear equipment, car, turbine and diesel locomotive building.
2. Machine tool industry , responsible for the production of various kinds of machine tools.
3. Transport engineering , which includes industries for the production of cars and ships, as well as those related to aviation and the space and rocket industry.
4. Tractor engineering and agricultural engineering .
5 . Instrument making, production of electrical engineering and electronics , considered to be precision engineering.
6. Production of machine tools and equipment for the food and light industry.
In addition to the above units, the machine-building complex includes small metallurgy engaged in the production of rolled products and steel. This process is carried out in foundries. Similar areas are located at engineering or specialized enterprises. It produces stampings, castings, forgings and welded structures.
Heavy engineering
All plants in this industry are characterized by high metal consumption. At the same time, they provide the necessary machines and equipment to enterprises related to the mining and chemical, mining, fuel and energy and metallurgical complex.
The products of heavy engineering plants are units, parts (for example, rolls for metallurgical rolling machines), as well as finished equipment (turbines and steam boilers, excavators, mining equipment). The industry has ten sub-sectors. Among them are hoisting-and-transport, track, nuclear, printing, mining and metallurgical engineering, as well as diesel, car, turbo and boiler building.
The highest cost products in the heavy machinery industry are produced by the production of metallurgical equipment. They are equipped with electric smelters and blast furnaces, as well as sinter plants. High cost differs and equipment for crushing, grinding and rolling production.
The products of mining engineering enterprises are units used for exploration, as well as mining (open and closed), enrichment and crushing of minerals with a solid structure. These include treatment and mining combines, walking and rotary excavators. Such equipment is used at enterprises of non-ferrous and ferrous metallurgy, coal and chemical industries, as well as in the manufacture of building materials.
Of great economic importance for the national economy is the products manufactured by hoisting and transport machinery. Indeed, about five million people work with such equipment in Russia. This sub-sector produces electric and bridge cranes, belt and stationary conveyors, as well as equipment designed for the complex mechanization of storage facilities.
The products of car and diesel locomotive engineering are designed to provide the railway sector with the necessary transport for it. This sub-sector also produces track mechanisms necessary for rail welding, laying, snow removal and other works.
As for turbine construction, its main task is to equip the necessary equipment with the energy sector of the national economy. The plants of this sub-sector produce units for nuclear and hydraulic, gas-turbine and thermal power plants. She is also responsible for equipping the main gas pipelines and supplying injection, compressor and recycling units used in the oil refining and chemical industries, as well as non-ferrous and ferrous metallurgy.
Nuclear engineering plants specialize in the production of various equipment for nuclear power plants. This list also includes tank reactors.
The minimum volume of production differs printing engineering. His enterprises produce conveyors for printing houses, printing presses, etc.
Machine tool industry
This industry of the machine-building complex produces:
- metalworking tools;
- forging equipment;
- metal cutting machines;
- woodworking equipment.
In addition to the production of finished products, this industry is also responsible for the centralized repair of units used for metalworking.
Transport engineering
One of its industries is the aviation industry. For the manufacture of products, materials and various equipment are used, which are produced at enterprises of almost all branches of the engineering complex. The aviation industry plants involve highly qualified engineering and working personnel producing cargo and passenger aircraft. Helicopters of various modifications are also leaving the conveyors of these enterprises.
The products of the rocket and space industry are orbital rockets and ships of the inhabited and cargo type. These vehicles perfectly combine high technology and wide intersectoral complexity of production.
Shipbuilding enterprises use a large amount of metal in the production of their products. But, despite this, their placement is carried out outside regions with large metallurgical bases. This is due to the great difficulties of transporting finished ships. Shipbuilding enterprises have numerous cooperative ties with factories in many sectors of the national economy. This allows the installation of a variety of equipment using watercraft.
The largest industry in the machine-building complex is the automotive industry. Its products are used in all areas of the national economy. Cars are also in demand in retail.
Tractor and agricultural engineering
This industry is distinguished by its detailed specialization. In the process of production of its products, a small number of factories producing units and parts for various stages of the technological process are involved.
Tractor and agricultural engineering produce combines of various types. These include flax and grain, cotton and corn, potato and other machines. Various modifications of wheeled and tracked tractors are also produced at factories in this industry.
Instrument-making and electrical industry
Products manufactured by enterprises in these industries are characterized by low energy and material consumption. However, for its release, the selection of highly qualified workers and research personnel is necessary.
Instrument-making plants are setting up and installing automation equipment. Their tasks include software development, design and production of medical devices, watches, office equipment and measuring equipment. Such products are knowledge-intensive and are used for automatic control of technological processes and information systems.
At Russian factories that are part of the electrical engineering industry, more than one hundred thousand items of various products are currently produced.
These products find their application in almost all areas of the national economy. The volume of products manufactured by the electrical industry exceeds the number of products that are manufactured by all sectors of heavy engineering in the aggregate. The main range of such products is represented by generators for hydraulic, gas and steam turbines, as well as electric motors, electric machines, converters and transformers, electrothermal, electric welding and lighting equipment.
Engineering for the food and light industry
This area of production includes sub-sectors that produce equipment for knitwear and textile, footwear and clothing, fur and leather, food processing of the national economy. The geography of location of such plants depends on proximity to the consumer.
Role in the national economy
The importance of the engineering complex cannot be overestimated. After all, this industry is one of the leading in the heavy industry of the Russian Federation. The enterprises of this sphere create the main and most active mass of fixed assets, which include tools. In addition, the engineering complex has a significant impact on the direction and pace of development of scientific and technological progress, on the magnitude of the growth of labor productivity, as well as on many other indicators affecting the efficiency of production development.
The entire volume of products that the Russian machine-building complex produces makes up more than one third of all marketable products manufactured in the country. At the enterprises of this sector of the national economy, 2/5 of the total number of industrial production workers are employed. Here, almost a quarter of all fixed assets of industrial production nature that are available in the country are installed.
The importance of the engineering complex in the life of large regions of Russia is important. Moreover, the development of all spheres of the national economy depends on the level of development of these enterprises. The role of the engineering complex in ensuring the defense capability of Russia is also great.
Distinctive features affecting the location of enterprises
The machine-building complex of Russia has wide intersectoral relations. But in addition to this, this education has a number of characteristic features. They must be borne in mind when placing various industries in a particular region.
First of all, the branches of the engineering complex have a developed specialization. In other words, their enterprises are focused on the production of one, or, in extreme cases, several types of products. In this case, a high concentration is observed. This is such a factor in mechanical engineering, when several enterprises are simultaneously engaged in the production of finished products. Take, for example, a car factory. Its products are only vehicles.
Such a plant receives the components and parts necessary for the manufacture of automobiles from other enterprises, the number of which can be quite large. This factor has a significant impact on the location of the engineering complex, which needs good transport links. That is why many sectors of this sphere of the national economy are located in the Volga region and Central Russia. Indeed, in these areas there is a well-developed transport network.
The geography of the Russian machine-building complex, which focuses on the production of the most complex and progressive products (electronics and radio engineering), is associated with the knowledge-intensive factor. That is why such industries are located near Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, etc. That is, close to those places where the scientific base is well developed.
The machine-building complex, whose products are associated with the military-strategic factor, is usually located in "closed" cities. These are Snezhinsk, Novouralsk, Sarov, etc. Sometimes such productions are located near military bases.
The factors of the engineering complex affecting its development include the presence of a significant number of qualified personnel. So, machine-tool and instrument-making are considered the most labor-intensive industries. That is why such industries are located in the regions with the highest concentration of the population, that is, in Moscow, Voronezh, Penza, Ryazan, etc.
During the construction of heavy engineering enterprises, their high material consumption is taken into account. To produce products in these industries requires a lot of metal. Only with its availability can the production of metallurgical and power equipment be realized. Similar enterprises are located in the regions of the Urals (Yekaterinburg), Siberia (Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk). This is due to the large metallurgical base available in these regions. Sometimes heavy engineering enterprises are guided by imported raw materials. Those are available in St. Petersburg.
There are such types of machines that only some regions feel the need. This applies, for example, to tractors for the removal of forests and flax harvesters. Such equipment is not easy to transport, which means it is best produced where it is needed.
Experiencing difficulties
The development of the engineering complex since the 90s of the last century has significantly slowed down. Some of these enterprises were simply closed, while others significantly reduced the volume of output. The number of products at the factories producing machine tools, agricultural machinery, and also precision engineering products has especially decreased. What was the main reason for this process? It lay in the low quality of our products, which could not compete with imported products. In addition, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a break in all production ties that previously existed between the republics of the country.
The problems of the engineering complex lie in the large wear of the equipment. According to statistics, it reaches almost 70%. This state of affairs exists in helicopter and shipbuilding, as well as in electronics. The average age of machine tools in machine-building plants is approximately 20 years. This does not allow the use of new technologies in the production of products. Today, many engineering industries require a radical modernization of equipment. Only in this case will their products become competitive in the market.
The aggravation of the situation is facilitated by many foreign companies. Penetrating into our market, such corporations significantly increase the level of competition.
Another acute problem of the engineering industry is the shortage of personnel. The workforce training system that existed in the USSR was simply destroyed. Today, the age of skilled workers is already approaching retirement. Due to the acute shortage of young personnel, the process of modernization of machine-building production is significantly inhibited. But this deplorable situation is improving slightly thanks to investment projects. New factories are being built and already built, old enterprises are being reconstructed, new ones are being established and previously existing production relations are being restored.