Our work is devoted to the analysis of the construction market, specifically to the excavators’ companies’ producers, such as Caterpillar, JOB, and Comates. 1 . Introduction to Construction Market 1. 1 . History and Development As everyone knows the construction industry has come into existence since the early days of civilization. The first signs of construction industry were marked when people trade their services for something else with great value which with time turned into receiving money as payment for doing construction works.
The history of construction is a complex subject encompassing the history of building materials, the history of engineering, the history of building techniques, economic and social history of builders and workmen, the history of construction machinery and temporary works, etc. The history and development of construction industry, starting from ancient ages until nowadays can be subdivided into the following historical stages: Neolithic bridges which were probably wooden logs placed across the stream, were made.
There are no traces based on which we can know much about early construction period, the assumptions are based on what we know about the way nomadic hunter- gatherers and herdsmen in remote areas build shelters today. The absence of metal tools placed limitations on the materials that could be worked, but it was still possible to build quite elaborate stone structures with ingenuity using dry-stone- walling techniques. The first mud bricks, formed with the hands rather than wooden moulds, belong to the late Neolithic period.
The most remarkable Neolithic structure in Western Europe is the iconic monument known as Stonehenge. Construction in ancient Mesopotamia which starts with the finding of the earliest large-scale buildings. The chief building material was the mud brick, formed in wooden moulds. Drawings survive on clay tablets from later periods showing that buildings were set out on brick modules. The later Mesopotamia civilizations developed glazed brickwork to a very high degree, decorating the interiors and exteriors of their buildings with glazed brick relief’s.
Construction in ancient Egypt where pharaohs of Egypt built huge structures in stone. The grandest buildings were constructed in stone, often from massive masonry blocks, the example of which are the Pyramids. Construction in ancient Greece shows that the common buildings were made out of du brick. Very prominent buildings were roofed in stone tiles, which mimicked the form of their terracotta counterparts. Building structures used a simple beam and column system without vaults or arches.
The Greeks were the first one to build Gibbs and cranes to lift heavy stonework to the upper parts of buildings. Roman construction period includes the development of hydraulic lime mortar. They used brick or stone to build the outer skins of the wall and then filled the cavity with massive amounts of concrete, effectively using the brickwork as permanent hutting. They not only used it for walls but also to form arches, barrel vaults and domes. The Romans developed systems of hollow pots and sophisticated heating and ventilation systems. They developed sophisticated timber cranes.
Medieval construction includes the time when medieval stone walls were constructed using cut blocks on the outside of the walls and rubble infill, with weak lime mortars. Romanesque buildings of the period 600-1100 AD were entirely roofed in timber or had stone barrel vaults covered by timber roofs. The Gothic style of architecture with TTS vaults, flying buttresses and pointed gothic arches developed in the twelfth century and in the centuries that followed ever more incredible feats of constructional daring were achieved in stone. Construction in the Renaissance.
The major breakthroughs in this period were to do with the technology of conversion. Water mills in most of Western Europe were used to saw timber and convert trees into planks. Bricks were used in ever increasing quantities. An increasing amount of ironwork was used in roof carpentry for straps and tension members. The iron was fixed using forelock bolts. Roofing was typically of terracotta roof tiles. Construction in the seventeenth century gave the birth of modern science which would have profound effects on building construction in the centuries to come.
The major breakthrough was in the manufacture of glass. Iron was increasingly employed in structures. Experiments were made mixing lime with other materials to provide a were being still being employed. Cranes and scaffolding depended on timber. Construction in the eighteenth century comes with the birth of the industrial revolution and increase in the size of cities and in the pace and quantity of instruction. The major breakthroughs in this period were in the use of iron (both cast and wrought) that led to iron engineering.
Large-scale mill construction required fire-proof buildings and cast iron became increasingly used for columns and beams to carry brick vaults for floors. Brick production increased. Construction in the nineteenth century: Industrial Revolution. The industrial revolution was manifested in new kinds of transportation installations, such as railways, canals and macadam roads. New construction devices included steam engines, machine tools, explosives and optical surveying. Construction in the twentieth century.
With the Second Industrial Revolution in the early 20th century, elevators and cranes made high rise buildings and skyscrapers possible, while heavy equipment and power tools decreased the workforce needed. Other new technologies were prefabrication and computer-aided design. For economy of scale, whole suburbs, towns and cities, including infrastructure, are often planned and constructed within the same. In the end of the 20th century, ecology, energy conservation and sustainable development have become more important issues of construction. . 2. Nowadays construction market Nowadays construction is a major industry throughout the world, accounting for a sizeable proportion of most countries’ Gross Domestic Product (GAP). Furthermore, the importance of the construction sector is not only related to its size but also to its role in economic development. It produces the facilities that house a wide variety of human activities, as well as the infrastructure that connects these facilities into an increasingly complex network.
Collaboration and integration in engineering, management and technology is a rather complex and important challenge. It requires planning, financing, selection of appropriate construction materials or technology and management, which have to be all performed with success. Houses, apartments, factories, offices, schools, roads, and bridges are only some of the products of the construction industry. This industry’s activities include work on new structures as well as additions, alterations, and repairs to existing ones. The construction industry is divided into three major segments: 1.
General building contractors which build residential, industrial, commercial, and other buildings. 2. Heavy construction contractors which build sewers, roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, such as carpentry, painting, plumbing, and electrical work. Construction usually is done or coordinated by general contractors, who specialize in one type of construction such as residential or commercial building. They take full responsibility for the complete Job, except for specified portions of the work that may be omitted from the general contract.
Although general contractors may do a portion of the work with their own crews, they often subcontract most of the work to heavy construction r special trade contractors. Special trade contractors usually do the work of only one trade, such as painting, carpentry, or electrical work, or of two or more closely related trades, such as plumbing and heating. Beyond fitting their work to that of the other trades, special trade contractors have no responsibility for the structure as a whole. They obtain orders for their work from general contractors, architects, or property owners.
Repair work is almost always done on direct order from owners, occupants, architects, or rental agents. The growth in the practice of outsourcing labor through abstractors that has occurred throughout much of the world in the past two to three decades has allowed large construction companies (both public and private) to divorce themselves from the physical work of construction and concentrate on management and coordination functions. In many countries they have turned into service companies, finding clients and marketing products that are then produced by subcontractors.
Some have expanded by taking responsibility for other service activities up and down the supply chain, while others have diversified away from their core business into other sectors. The top firms have moved into international markets, through mergers and acquisitions. 1. 2. 1 . Production and products of construction industry Nowadays the market of products for construction industry is developing dramatically, innovative products and solutions for designing, building, protecting and operating facilities enter the market every year.
The feature of the construction is that the construction output – is an immovable object, so that people and machinery are constantly moving from place to place, while in other branches of material production in the movement are the objects of labor, and the people and he means of labor are on certain places. Thus, the system of production in the construction is of a different nature (except for factory-made parts and structures), so the flow-line construction has a different meaning and implementation, rather than assembly-line production and use of high technology lines in the industry.
In addition, the land is often not only a place of spatial location, but Just a part of the construction site roads, drainage systems, etc. The construction is also characterized by long production cycles, high costs per unit of output and the duration of its use (duration of operation of most objects). Another important feature is the presence of extensive construction of external relations with suppliers of material and technical resources and equipment, customer, designer, etc. , as well as within the system of construction industry.
Others of material production, as a economic relations are within the scope of delivery and the implementation of which have over the construction of a limited structure. Construction (repair and construction) products provide a complete construction, reconstruction or repair of buildings and structures of production and non-production, or parts thereof. In most asses, it has a large size, large total mass and the mass of individual components, different variety of production and performance, appearance, calls for the construction, reconstruction and repair of various items of labor, materials and products.
Production work is going on in different climatic, geological and hydrological conditions. These features of construction products necessitate the development and application in each case ordinary forms of organization and technological methods and techniques established by creative engineering work, which, combined with the skill of construction workers are designed to achieve the instruction of high quality products with timely or early completion of the work and the set economic efficiency.
In building before construction works, temporary production, domestic and administrative buildings, performed installation of utilities, roads, power lines, etc. Technology of construction of production requires a strict sequence in the performance of its individual processes: the end of one working process precedes the start of another. None of the construction process can begin without the end of the previous, production of his work in these conditions it is impossible to accumulate in the intermediate storage.
At the same time involves construction of several construction companies (general contractor, subcontractors), creating individual components. Each of them realizes (rents) of the products that are made. There are two objects of construction that can be specified: 1 . Building – the bulk of building systems with aboveground and (or) of the underground, which include facilities, network engineering and technical support and systems engineering support and intended to stay and (or) human activity, the location of production, shelf life, or animal.
Design systems (schemes) of buildings can be described as: – frame carrying skeleton is formed of columns, beams and slabs, as well as the diaphragm, the building envelope are not carriers, light rooms are separated by partitions) – bearing elements (columns) have a linear response; – wall (containing walls and part of the interior walls are load-bearing) – bearing elements (walls) are sectional characteristics; – three-block (building-blocks formed from the cells produced in the factory) – bearing elements (blocks) are the bulk characteristics.
There are also hybrid schemes and receiver circuit (subspecies frame, where the carrier is core aridness) and shell scheme (all walling form one-dimensional shell). The carrier frame buildings constructed on wall and frame system can be prefabricated (assembled from individual components made in the factory) or monolithic (walls, columns and floors are made directly to the building site and form a whole. Installations – volume, plane or line construction systems with terrestrial, aerial and (or) the underground parts, consisting of the carriers, and in some cases, and enclosing structures and designed to perform various types of manufacturing processes, product storage, temporary stay of people moving people and goods : tanks – power lines – lines (including cable line construction) – pipelines – roads – railways – bridges – airfields – tunnels – temporary structures.
Depending on the application being built the following types of construction are specified: – Industrial (factories, plants) – Transport (roads, bridges, tunnels) – Civic (houses, public buildings) – Military (military facilities) – Hydraulic engineering (dams, dikes, canals, shore installations and equipment, reservoirs) – Irrigation and drainage systems (irrigation, drainage) Construction and mounting works – work on the construction of new facilities and he installation of equipment in them.
The most distinguished ones are: – excavation – stone – concrete – reinforced concrete – roofing – painting – plaster – other construction works. Alpha Production of commissioning Initial testing – a set of activities for commissioning of installed equipment. The three most important of them are: – and-commissioning tests – a complex of measures aimed at the withdrawal of the equipment to the design mode, as well as to ensure efficient operation of the equipment. – commissioning works are divided into work on setting up processing equipment and automation equipment. Impassioning and routine-commissioning tests are performed according to the approved program of the client start-up and-and-commissioning tests, which specify the dates of the work, the modes you want to appear on the main process equipment. 1. 2. 2. Services of Construction companies The services that construction companies offer their clients vary dramatically in a lot of aspects, therefore, the services should be subdivided into: Preconditions services that ensure maximum return on investment and include planning and coordination, procurement, estimating, scheduling, value engineering,
