English Reader for Technical Students. Учебное пособие

with the idea of increasing the ease of getting this technology out to industry," Branagan said.

Over the next year, Branagan will work with a range of industrial partners to conduct proof-of-concept tests, putting his coating through extensive erosion, corrosion, and fatigue testing. More than 15 companies are reviewing Super Hard Steel for licensing or testing, in such applications as varied as self-sharpening knives and mining rock crushers. Additionally, the technology will soon be applied to key military devices for extensive testing in tough applications with challenging environments.

Super Hard Steel represents one of the first fruits from of the emerging field of nanoscale science. "What really spawned the development of this technology was the development of a new material in combination with sustained advances in the science of thermal spray," Branagan said. "It's interesting to see how development in one area of research spawns advancements in another."

The research team includes INEEL materials scientists Daniel Branagan, Elizabeth Taylor and Joseph Burch, and thermal spray researchers James Fincke, David Swank and DeLon C. Haggard. Also included is former INEEL laboratory director Bart Krawetz, now retired from Lockheed Martin Missile and Space Systems.

R&D Magazine has sponsored the international R&D 100 Awards program since 1963. This is the 27 th such award for the INEEL and the second for Branagan and Fincke, who won awards in 1999 and 1997 respectively. The research team from the Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory will receive its award at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago in October 2001.

Exercise 1. Find the English equivalents for the following words and word-combinations given below:

износоустойчивость, завершение, действительно, разнообразные крепежные материалы, экстремальные условия, плотность дефектов, подтверждение потрескивания и истирания, характеристики, некри- сталлическое металлическое стекло, отдел национального энергети- ческого проектирования, самозатачивающиеся ножи, нитрид крем- ния, горнорудная промышленная дробилка, высокоинтенсивный дробный поток воздуха (тяга), небольшие трещины и дыры, вольф- рамовый карбид.

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Exercise 2. Match the English words and word-combinations given below with their following Russian equivalents:

Exercise 3. Agree or disagree with the statements given below:

1.Super Hard Steel forms a tough, low cost, wear and corrosion resistant coating the outperforms traditional low-performance coatings.

2.For specific applications researchers can heat the coating to create a stable structure made up of crystal grains from 80 to 140 nanometers in size, only slightly larger than a single atom.

3.More than 15 companies are reviewing Super Hard Steel for licensing or testing, in such applications as varied as self-sharpening knives and mining rock crushers.

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4.One of the hardest metallic materials known, Super Hard Steel has been recognized as one of the 100 most significant technological achievements for the year 2001 by R&D magazine.

5.Super Hard Steel responds differently to external stresses such as physical loads than metal with a high density of defects.

Exercise 4. Answer the following questions:

1.What kind of tests on super-hard steel were done?

2.What is the substance used to develop wear scars on hard coating?

3.Where will the research team from the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory receive its award in October 2001?

4.Who was the former of INEEL laboratory?

5.What was Branagan’s goal?

Exercise 5. Make a summary of the text.

1.4. Why steel isn’t so stainless

Stainless steel isn't always quite as rust-free as it could be – and now a team of British scientists have worked out why.

Dr Mary Ryan of the Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine and colleagues report in this week's Nature that they have established the cause of "pitting", where tiny pockets of rust burrow into stainless steel making it weak.

The researchers have found how an unavoidable contaminant in the steel-making process, sulphides, can lead to corrosion in stainless steel.

"Its very nice work," commented Dr Graham Sussex, Technical Officer for the Australian Stainless Steel Development Association. "It is something that has been postulated on a lot."

Stainless steel is an alloy with at least 12 per cent chromium, which creates a very thin layer of inert chromium oxide on the surface.

"It is this inert layer on the surface that stops stainless steel from corroding," explained Dr Sussex.

Nevertheless, stainless steel does corrode in wet, salty environments like those near the sea.

Previously it was thought that the sulphide impurities dissolved in the wet chloride ions to form corrosive hydrogen sulphide, writes Roger Newman of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in an News and Views article accompanying the article by Ryan et al.

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However the new research has found that the sulphur, which has a lower melting temperature than steel, stays molten for a short time after the steel has solidified.

It is during this time the impurity particles "suck" chromium out of the surrounding steel, creating an area of weakness in the steel which is called a "pit initiation point".

"Once you get a pit going it's a stable environment that is much more aggressive on a micro scale so you wind up with a little hole in the stainless steel which will just keep growing," said Dr Sussex. "That's why stainless steel fails."

Pitting can penetrate several millimetres of steel in a few weeks or months and can lead to catastrophic failures.

Dr Ryan and team used secondary ion mass spectrometry, a technique usually used in microelectronics, to observe the behaviour of sulphur in steel.

The steel they used had a chromium level of 17 – 18 per cent, but in the areas around the sulphur impurities this was down to 12 – 14 per cent, leaving those areas vulnerable to corrosion.

Sulphur impurities in stainless steel have their uses. While they are unwelcome in marine steel, they are necessary when steel is used to make objects as they help "weaken" the steel enough to enable it to be cut.

In fact some steel has sulphur deliberately added to it so it is very easy to machine, explained Dr Sussex. It was this type of steel that was used in the new research because it made it easier to find examples of pitting.

"If they had taken a piece of sheet steel they would have been hunting forever," he said.

Source of the given news and the copyrights belong to a ABC Online News

Publishing date: February 27, 2002

Exercise 1. Find the English equivalents for the following words and word-combinations given below:

нержавеющая сталь, свободна от ржавчины, точечная коррозия, ста- лелитейный процесс, проникать, серные примеси, сульфиды, низкая температура плавления, уязвимый, точка инициирования ямки, очень тонкий слой инертной хромированной окиси на поверхности.

Exercise 2. Match the English words and word-combinations given below with their Russian equivalents:

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Exercise 3. Аgree or disagree with the statements given below:

1.Pitting can’t penetrate several millimetres of steel in a few weeks or months and can lead to catastrophic failures.

2.Stainless steel is an alloy with at least 15 per cent chromium, which creates a very thin layer of inert chromium oxide on the surface.

3.Nevertheless, stainless steel does corrode in wet, salty environments like those near the sea.

4.However the new research has found that the sulphur, which has a lower melting temperature than steel, stays molten for a short time after the steel has solidified.

5.Sulphur impurities in stainless steel have their uses. While they are unwelcome in marine steel, they are necessary when steel is used to make objects as they help "strengthen" the steel enough to enable it to be cut.

Exercise 4. Answer the following questions:

1.Who has found the cause of “pitting”?

2.What can lead to corrosion in stainless steel?

3.How many per cent of chromium does the steel contain?

4.What is the “pit initiation point”?

5.Why does stainless steel fail?

6.Why can pitting lead to catastrophic failures?

7.What is a secondary ion mass spectrometry?

Exercise 5. Make a summary of the text.

1.5. Blast furnace

The blast furnace process is unique metallurgical processes, both because of its early origin and because its principles have undergone no change for several centuries. The blast furnace derived its name from the fact that the air to support combustion must be forces into it under pressure, because of the resistance offered by the column of material within the shaft to the passage of the combustion gases.

The modern blast furnace plant constitutes the largest and the most complicated type of metallurgical apparatus in the world. Such a plant is capable of producing more than one thousand tons of pig iron every twenty four hours and, in doing so consumes enormous quantities of raw materials. The vast industry, therefore, occupies a position of great importance in economy.

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The blast furnace is a circular shaft of varying diameter, from 90 – 100 feet in total height, built of firebrick and reinforced with a steel shell. The furnace has a cylindrical crucible at its base, for the purpose of collecting the molten products of the smelting operation.

From the top of the furnace, the shaft constantly increases in diameter until the zone of fusion is reached. From this point the walls converge until the crucible is reached, at which they assume a position perpendicular to the base.

Means are provided at the bottom for the admission of the blast and removal of iron and slag; at the top, apparatus is provided for the charging of the ore, coke and flux and for the removal of the gas generated in the process. The blast air is compressed by turbo blowers and driven to the stoves wherein it is heated regeneratively before its entry into the furnace. The molten iron is carried away from the furnace in iron ladles which deliver it to the steelmaking or foundry departments for the use in the molten condition, or to the pig machine where it is cast blocks for use in the solid condition. The slag is either disposed of molten in cinder ladles or granulated by a high-pressure water spray, in which condition it is used in the manufacture of cement.

Essentially, the blast furnace consists of the charging iron ore, coke and flux (limestone, dolomite) into the top of the furnace and blowing heated air (blast) in the bottom through tuyeres.

The chemical action within the furnace is a reducing action. Carbon in the coke is burned to carbon monoxide in front of the tuyeres. It is burned by oxygen in the air blast in accordance with the following reaction: 2C + O2 → 2CO.

Hot carbon monoxide, formed by chemical reactions reduces the iron oxide of the ore to metallic iron.

Limestone converts the majority of impurities in the ore and fuel to a fusible slag, which is drawn off at a point below the tuyeres. due to the differences in their specific gravities, the metal is separated from the slag and descends to the hearth, where it is drawn off as molten iron.

Present day furnaces usually produce 500-2,000 tons of iron a day (24 hours), and due to the nature of the process they must be kept in continuous operation.

Exercise 1. Find the English equivalents for the following words and word-combinations given below:

железный ковш, поток воздуха в кузне (тяга), одноокись, плавкий шлак, стальная обшивка, дуговая шахта печи, плавка, колошник, зона плавления, ковш для шлака, реакция восстановления, металлическое железо, удельный вес.

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Exercise 2. Match the English words and word-combinations given below with their following Russian equivalents:

Exercise 3. Аgree or disagree with the statements given below:

1.The modern blast furnace plant is capable of producing more than three thousand tons of pig iron every twenty four hours and consumes not enough quantities of raw materials.

2.The blast furnace is a circular shaft of varying diameter, from 100-200 feet in total height, built of concrete and reinforced with a steel shell.

3.The furnace has a cylindrical crucible at its base, for the purpose of collecting the molten products of smelting operation.

4.The slag is neither disposed of molten in cinder ladles nor granulated by a high-pressure water spray, in which condition it is used in the manufacture of cement.

Exercise 4. Answer the following questions:

1.What is the diameter of the blast-furnace?

2.Which is the largest and the most complicated type of metallurgical apparatus in the world?

3.What chemical action takes place within the furnace?

4.How much iron a day does a modern furnace produce?

5.From what did the blast furnace drive it’s name?

6.Where is the blast air blown?

Exercise 5. Make a summary of the text.

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CHAPTER 2. NON-FERROUS AND PRECIOUS METALS

2.1. Better metals are vital to technological progress

Since the earliest days the preparation of metals for mechanical use was vital to the advance of civilization.

Gold, silver and copper were the first to be used by primitive man, as they were found free in nature. Today we know more than sixty-five metals available in large enough quantities to be used in industry.

Metals are mostly solids at ordinary temperatures and possess comparatively high melting points with the exception of mercury. They are for the most part good conductor of heat and electricity and silver is the best in this respect. They can be drawn into fine wires and hammered into thin sheets.

As to their chemical properties the first point to be mentioned is that they vary widely in degree of chemical activity: some are enormously active and others are inert. The Earth contains a large number of metals useful to man. Of all metals to be used in industry iron remains by far the most important. Modern industry needs considerable quantities of this metal either in the form of iron or steel.

To get the desirable characteristics in metals or to improve them the process of mixing metals and other substances began to develop. The first alloys that were formed in this way were sometimes stronger, tougher, harder and more elastic than the metals of which they were obtained. To estimate nowadays how many alloys there exist in the Modern world is difficult because their numbers increase daily.

To serve special uses Modern metals and alloys must be lighter yet stronger, more corrosion resistant, more suitable for automated fabrication yet less expensive than those available before.

Scientists are developing new processes and improving old ones in order to produce metals and alloys that will meet the present-day requirements. One of the most interesting purposes is, for instance, to make metals stronger by reinforcing them with fibers.

Today transportation, communication, farming, construction and manufacturing all depend on the availability of suitable metals and alloys.

Exercise 1.

a. Look through two columns of the words. Find the synonyms and

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b. Find the antonyms and translate them:

increase, thin, metals, strong, light, less, liquid, active, important, nonmetals, more, decrease, inert, thick, weak, heavy, solid, unimportant.

Exercise 2. Find English equivalents to the following Russian words

Exercise 3. Fill in the blanks with prepositions (since, of, for, in, to):

1. ... the earliest days the preparation ... metals ... mechanical use was vital to the advance ... civilization.

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2.To get the desirable characteristics ... metals or to improve them the process ... mixing metals and other substances began to develop.

3.The importance ... these alloys is due primarily ... their hardness and strength.

Exercise 4. Group the following words into sentences and translate them:

1.contains; metals; the; to; a; man; earth; large; of; useful; number.

2.greatly; density; vary; in; metals.

3.usually; state; mixed; metals; in; are; liquid; their.

4.copper; Ib; Table; gold; comprise; group; silver; of; Periodic; the; and.

Exercise 5. Translate into Russian the following word combinations paying attention to the underlined words:

1.to resist very high temperature, to possess resistance to corrosion, to be resistant to deformation.

2.a strong man; a strong metal; the strength of knowledge; the strength of materials; to strengthen the resistance; to strengthen a structure.

3.to conduct electricity; to conduct a research; a conductor of electricity; a conductor of a tram; the conductor of an orchestra; the conductivity of heat.

Do you know that:

The three metals copper, silver and gold comprise group Ib of the Periodic Table. These metals all form compounds representing oxidation state +1, as do the alkali metals but in addition to this they show very little similarity in properties to the alkali metals.

The alkali metals are very soft and light, and very reactive chemically whereas the metals of the copper group are much harder and heavier and are rather inert, sufficiently so to occur in the free state in nature, and to be easily obtainable by reducing their compounds, sometimes by heating.

Group IIb of the Periodic Table includes two very important elements, zinc and mercury, and one element, cadmium, which has found more limited use. The chemistry of these metals is simple. Zinc forms only oneseries of compounds. The compounds of cadmium are closely similar to those of zinc. Mercury forms two series of compounds. The elements of group IIIb, gallium, indium, and thallium are important.

The elements of group IYb are germanium, tin and lead. Germanium is intermediate in its properties between silicon and tin. It has recently become important as an essential constituent of the transistor. Tin and lead are very important metals. They are easily extracted from their ores, and have been known since ancient times. The metals themselves and their alloys have many uses.

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