In modern society, objects and means of labor are an important component of production. And without it, as you know, it would be impossible to create any products that people use or consume daily.
Concepts and definitions
Means of labor is a thing that exists between a person and a work item, which is necessary for the manufacture of final products and obtaining material benefits. To put it simply, such tools allow you to interact with various objects (raw materials) for their transformation (processing) into a finished product. That is, a means of labor is what a person uses to refer to an object.
In a generalized sense, such tools include any material things (tools, measuring instruments), without which it is impossible to make a finished product (computers, food, houses, etc.).
The subject of labor is what a person's work is aimed at. Subsequently, a similar object is included in the basis of the finished product.
Types of objects of labor
They are usually classified into the followinggroups:
- Materials used in light industry: cotton, silk, wood, linen, rubber, wool, leather, etc.
- Metals that can be non-ferrous and black. The first group includes: copper, aluminum, and alloys like brass or bronze. Ferrous metals are steel (structural, alloyed) and cast iron (gray, white, malleable), which contain more than 2% carbon.
- Petroleum products: diesel fuel, gasoline, technical lubricants. The latter include any liquid, solid or plastic substances that are often used to reduce wear and friction in the nodes of machines and mechanisms.
- Ferrous metallurgy materials: ferroalloys, iron ores, coke.
- Raw materials used in papermaking: waste paper, wood pulp, pulp (sulphate, sulfite and non-wood plant materials).
- Building materials, which, in turn, are divided into natural and artificial. The first group of raw materials includes inorganic (stone, sand) and organic objects of labor (wood, straw, husks, etc.). All that was made from natural materials by mixing is considered artificial. For example, various emulsions and pastes, paints, bricks, cement, etc.
- Forest raw materials: trees and lumber.
- Chemical objects of labor: soda, acetone, powders, acids, various dyes, including food.
- Pipes: steel, cast iron and non-metal (ceramic, glass, reinforced concrete, asbestos-cement).
- Wirematerials (hardware).
Classification of means of labor
Conventionally, they are divided into the following:
- Natural, which are of natural origin and are used by humans for economic purposes. For example, land or rivers.
- Technical means of labor are those things necessary to create the final product that were artificially created by man.
The last item on the list includes:
- Manual.
- Automatic.
- Mechanical tools.
Hand tools
Such means of labor are those things that are used only after the application of human physical strength. These include, for example, carpentry tools necessary for working with wood and similar materials. It can be a workbench, chisel, saw, planer, etc.
Besides this, there are other tools that belong to the manual group. For example, construction tools (trowel, shovel, hammer, screwdriver, spatula, rammer), measuring tools (caliper, feeler gauge, gauge) and devices for transporting goods (trolley, wheelbarrow, bucket).
As a rule, hand tools are used in almost every profession: from a carpenter to a surgeon.
Mechanical tools
This group includes any devices and devices that have drives or engines, which require human physical strength to start. The simplest example of mechanic althe means of labor is transport (cars, electric cars).
And also improved models of hand tools belong to similar tools. For example, a pneumatic construction tool such as a jackhammer, electric jigsaw or drill.
As is the case with manual tools, mechanical tools are used by people of many professions.
Automated guns
The main means of labor of this group include almost any equipment that does not fully or partially require the use of human physical strength. Such installations are usually used in serial or mass production to ensure the continuity of the process. A striking example of such equipment is an automatic line. Depending on the setting, such common mechanisms are capable of producing different products. But most often they are used for packaging goods and processing raw materials.
The advantage of automatic lines is that they do not require many employees to work with them. One or two statements are sufficient.
