Industrial engineering and automation

A major advance in the twentieth century manufacturing was the development of mass production techniques. Mass production refers to manufacturing processes in which an assembly line, usually a conveyer belt, moves the product to stations where each worker performs a limited number of operations until the product is assembled. In the automobile assembly plant such systems have reached a highly-developed form. A complex system of conveyer belts and chain drives moves car parts to workers who perform the thousands of necessary assembling tasks.

Mass production increases efficiency and productivity to a point beyond which the monotony of repeating an operation over and over slows down the workers. Many ways have been tried to increase productivity on assembly lines: some of them are as superficial as piping music into the plant or painting the industrial apparatus in bright colors; others entail giving workers more variety in their tasks and more responsibility for the product.

These human factors are important considerations for industrial engineers who must try to balance an efficient system of manufacturing with the complex needs of workers.

Another factor for the industrial engineer to consider is whether each manufacturing process can be automated in whole or in part. Automation is a word coined in the 1940s to describe processes by which machines do tasks previously performed by people. The word was new but the idea was not. We know of the advance in the development of steam engines that produced automatic valves. Long before that, during the Middle Ages, windmills had been made to turn by taking advantage of changes in the wind by means of devices that worked automatically. Automation was first applied to industry in continuous-process manufacturing such as refining petroleum, making petrochemicals, and refining steel. A later development was computer-controlled automation of assembly line manufacturing, especially those in which quality control was an important factor.

Упражнение 2. Дайте русские эквиваленты следующих словосочетаний:

mass production, conveyer belt, assembly line, industrial engineer, manufacturing process, continuous-process manufacturing, assembly line manufacturing, computer-controlled automation.

Упражнение 3. Прочитайте текст еще раз и найдите в нем словосочетания, равнозначные по значению следующим определениям:

1. ... manufacturing of large quantities of similar products with each worker in the plant performing only a limited number of operations on the product ... 2. ... an arrangement of equipment, machines and workers so that work passes in line until the product is assembled ... 3. ... the process of operating and controlling mechanical devices by automatic means without action by human beings ... .

Упражнение 4. Определите, какие из приводимых парных высказываний соответст-вуют содержанию текста:

a) 1. Mass production referred to manufacturing processes with an assembly line. 2. Mass production refers to manufacturing processes with an assembly line.

б) 1. Automated processes do tasks which have been performed by people. 2. Automated processes do tasks which were performed by people.

в) 1. Automation was first applied to assembly line manufacturing, then to continuous-process manufacturing such as refining steel. 2. Assembly line manufacturing was a later development of industrial automation.

TEXT 3

Упражнение 1. Прочитайте текст и определите, что составляет основные части автоматической системы.

Упражнение 2. Определите, даются ли в тексте функции каждого элемента системы.

Упражнение 3. Озаглавьте текст.

We now use the term automation for specific techniques combined to operate automatically in a complete system. These techniques are possible because of electronic devices, most of which have come into use in the last thirty years. They include program, action, sensing or feedback, decision, and control elements as components of a complete system.

The program elements determine what the system does and the step-by-step manner in which it works to produce the desired result. A program is a step-by-step sequence that breaks a task into its individual parts. Some steps in an industrial automation program direct other parts of the system when and how to carry out their jobs.

The action elements are those which do the actual work. They may carry or convey materials to specific places at specific times or they may perform operations on the materials. The term mechanical handling device is also used for the action elements.

Perhaps the most important part of an automated system is sensing or feedback. Sensing devices automatically check on parts of the manufacturing process such as the thickness of a sheet of steel or paper. This is called feedback because the instruments return or feed back this information to the central system control.

The decision element is used to compare what is going on in the system with what should be going on. It receives information from the sensing devices and makes decisions necessary to maintain the system correctly. If some action is necessary the decision element can give instructions or commands to the system.

The control element consists of devices to carry out the commands of the decision element. There may be many kinds of devices: valves that open or close, switches that control the flow of electricity, or regulators that change the voltage in various machines; they make the necessary corrections or adjustments to keep the system in conformity with its program.

An industrial engineer working with automated systems is a part of a team. Many components of the system, such as computers, are electronic devices. So electronic engineers and technicians are also involved. Many of the industries in which automation has proved particularly suitable − chemicals, papermaking, metals processing − involve chemical processes, so there may be chemical engineers at work too. An industrial engineer with expertise in all these fields may become a system engineer for automation projects thereby coordinating the activities of all the members of the team.

Упражнение 4. Определите, какая из схем, представленных на рисунке 2, точнее отражает основное содержание текста.

1.

2.

Рисунок 2

Упражнение 5. Назовите функции каждого элемента автоматической системы по-русски.

Упражнение 6. Ответьте на следующие вопросы.

1. What are some elements of an automated system? What makes them possible? 2. What is a program? What does it do in an automated system? 3. Name two terms used to describe the elements which do the actual work. What are some jobs these elements may do? 4. What are some of the things sensing devices do? 5. How do sensing devices act on the information they receive? Why is the process sometimes called feedback? 6. What is the function of the decision element? What can it do? 7. What does the control element consist of? What can these devices do? What is their purpose?

TEXT 4

Упражнение 1. Этот текст, как и предыдущий, посвящен автоматизации произ-водства. Вспомните все, что вы знаете об этом.

Упражнение 2. Прочитайте текст и скажите, какую новую информацию вы получили, в каких абзацах она содержится.

Слова к тексту:

to cut	резать
to separate	отделять, разделять
to clamp	закреплять
successive stages	последовательные стадии
routine зд.	режим работы
to detect	обнаруживать
to intervene	вмешиваться
a set of	ряд, комплект
to count	полагать, считать
to turn out	точить, обтачивать
to carry	нести

Automation is the third phase in the development of technology that began with the industrialization of the 18^th century. First came mechanization which created the factory system and separated labour and management in production. Mechanization was a technology based on forms and applications of power. Mass production came next. It was a technology based on the principles of production and organization. Automation is a technology based on communication, computation and control.

The truly automated devices must possess one or more of the following elements: system approach, programmability, feedback.

With a system approach, factories which make things by passing them through successive stages of manufacturing without people intervening to transfer lines, which made their debut in car factories before the Second World War, are considered automated systems. These carry components past lines of machine-tools which each cuts them automatically. People are not required. The machines clamp the parts out of themselves without a workman being present. Thus transfer lines are different from assembly lines where people are very much in evidence. With programmability, a system can do more than one kind of job. An industrial robot is an automated machine. It works automatically and an operator can reprogram the computer that controls it to make the machine do different things.

Finally, feedback makes an automatic device vary its routine according to changes that take place around it. An automatic machine-tool with feedback would have sensors that detect, for example, if the metal it is cutting is wrongly shaped. If it is, the sensors instruct the machine to vary its routine accordingly. Other examples of devices with feedback are robots with "vision" or other sensors that can «see» or «feel» what they are doing.

Most examples of automation in factories today are not «programmable»; neither do they work with feedback. They are simply sets of machine-tools linked together according to «systems» approach. These mechanisms are inflexible. They turn out only one kind of part, which is all very well if the manufacturer wants to make thousands of identical components. But if he wants to change his routine, the machinery is not very useful. This is the case while automation is inflexible, flexible automation is on the way. Here, automated machinery has programmability and feedback and can turn out different kinds of components. The equipment will make a tremendous difference to factory floors throughout the world. Flexible automation adds up to a new industrial era.

Упражнение 3. Озаглавьте текст.

Упражнение 4. Суммируйте информацию текста, закончив следующие предложения.

1. Automation is a third ... 2. It is based on ... 3. The truly automated machines must possess one of the ... 4. Flexible automation is automation where machines possess ... 5. Automation adds up ...

TEXT 5

Упражнение 1. Прочтите и дайте перевод интернациональных слов с учетом указанной части речи:

automatic	[Ǎ:t'mQtIk] adj
category	['kQtIgrI] n
production	[рr'dÃkSn] n
progressive	[pru'gresIv] adj
universal	[Çju:nI'v:sl] adj
zone	[zun] n
machine	[m'Si:n] n
zigzag	['zIzQ] adj
manufacturing	[ÇmQnju'fQktSrIN] adj
process	['pruss] n

Упражнение 2. Прочтите опорные словосочетания и подберите к ним соответствую-щий перевод:

depending on		а) расположение
overhead type	['uvhed]	b) корпусные детали
closed loop type		с) осуществлять механичес- кую обработку или сборку
arrangement	['reIndZmnt]	d) что касается...
to carry out machining or assembling	['semblIN]	е) заготовка
transfer line		f) подвесной
with respect to		g) небольшое количество
workpiece	['w:kpi:s]	h) в зависимости от
housing-type parts		i) замкнутого цикла
a small number		j) передаточный конвейер

Упражнение 3. Прочтите заглавие текста и скажите, о чем, по вашему мнению, будет идти речь в тексте.

Упражнение 4. Прочтите текст за 5 минут, стараясь извлечь как можно больше информации.

Слова к тексту:

transference device ['trQnsfrns dI'vaIs]	транспортировочный механизм
rate of production	производительность
being operated by a central control system	работающий от центральной системы управления
piece-by-piece [pi:s baI pi:s]	поштучно
progressive action	зд. постепенное поступление
pass-through type [Tru:]	пропускной тип (подачи)
side-loading type	боковой погрузчик
feature ['fI:tS]	зд. быть особенностью, характерной чертой чего-либо; определять что-либо
bearing race ['bErIN]	желобок подшипника
indexing ['IndeksIN]	индексирующийся, поворотный
circular ['s:kjul]	круговой, кольцевой