Industrial engineering and automation

A major advance in 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.

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 colours; others entail giving workers more variety in their tasks and more respon­sibility for the product. These human factors are important considerations for industrial engineers.

Another factor 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.

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.

VI. Translate these sentences into Ukrainian; underline the predicates and define their verb forms:

1. We know of the advance in the development of steam engines that produced automatic valves.

2. A complex system of conveyer belts and chain drives moves car parts to workers who perform the thousands of necessary assembling tasks.

3. Automation describes processes by which machines do tasks previously performed by people.

4. 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.

5. Human factors must try to balance an efficient system of manufacturing with the complex needs of workers.

VII. Find in the text nouns corresponding to the following words; translate them into Ukrainian:

Mass, conveyer, assembly, continuous-process, computer-controlled, steam, production, chain.

VIII. Translate the following words and word combinations into English:

Керування, збільшити продуктивність, стрічковий конвеєр, нафтохімічні продукти, приводний ланцюг, переплавляти сталь, автоматичний клапан, нафта, паровий двигун.

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Контрольна робота № 3

І. Underline the correct verb in the sentences and translate them into Ukrainian:

1. If he wasn’t/weren’t so tired, he would continue the experiment.

2. If the scientist was/were earning more money, he could buy equipment for the laboratory.

3. Polytechnics is/are centres for advanced courses in a wide range of subjects.

4. Each science elaborate/elaborates a specific language to describe objects of its investigation.

5. The engineers haven’t/hasn’t been out the country for several years.

II. Define the type of the conditional sentences and translate them:

1. Had he known it, he would not have gone there.

2. If I had seen him yesterday, I should have asked him about it.

3. If he had not so good at mathematics, he would not have done all the calculations in a so short time.

4. If I had been more careful, I wouldn’t have made such a big mistake.

5. If he knew English well, he would have translated the article without difficulty yesterday.

III. State the meaning of the Modal + Perfect Infinitive constructions in the following sentences and translate them into Ukrainian:

1. Each shift might have followed on where the pre­ceding one stopped.

2. He could not have overlooked such a serious mis­take.

3. You ought to have come to me for help.

4. I ran all the way to work, but I needn’t have hurried because I was the first person to arrive.

5. You should have been more careful.

IV. Complete the sentences with too or enough and translate them:

1. The water isn’t worm … to work with.

2. The river is … polluted for fish to live in.

3. The computer isn’t powerful … to complete this program.

4. Some people are … proud to admit that they don’t know.

5. Jake is … impatient to be a good scientist.

V. Translate the text into Ukrainian: