I. Reading skills

1. Pre-reading tasks

a) You will read a text about metals and you will find out about iron and steel as the most applicable in engineering.

• How many elements of the periodic table are of wide industrial importance?

b) Read and remember the following words and word-combinations in their specialized meanings.

cast iron [ʹaiən] n відливка з чавуну

casting [ʹka:stiŋ] n відливка (сталі); лиття; литво

charcoal [ʹt∫a:kəul] n деревне вугілля

crude [kru:d] v необроблений

ductile [ʹdʌktail] adj еластичний

forge [fƆ:dʒ] v кувати

formable big “form” n форма для литва

furnace [ʹfə:nis] n піч; вагранка

hardness [ʹha:dnis] n твердість

impact [ʹimpækt] n поштовх; імпульс

impurity [imʹpjuəriti] n бруд

malleable [ʹmæliəbl] adj ковкий; тягучий

molten [ʹməult(ə)n] adj литий

obtain [əbʹtein] v одержувати, здобувати

ore [Ɔ:] iron n залізна руда

pasty [ʹpæsti] mass n в’язка маса

prior [ʹpraiə] adj важливіший, вагоміший

retrieve [riʹtri:v] v відновлювати

rudimentary [͵rudiʹment(ə)ri]  adj елементарний

slag [slæg] n шлак

standpoint [ʹstændpƆint] n точка зору

tensile [ʹtensail] n деформація

usher [ʹʌ∫ə] v оголошувати, сповіщати

wrought [rƆ:t] iron n м’яка (ковка) сталь

2. Read the text and translate it into Ukrainian. Metals. Iron and Steel

There are 80 or so metals in the periodic table of elements. And only about 10 are of wide industrial importance: copper, chromium, gold, iron, silver, tin, zinc, nickel, cardmiun, and platinum.

The most applicable in engineering is Iron. Traditionally, cast iron has always been the lowest-cost metal.

Iron as a usable metal dates back at least 4.000 years. The earliest iron tools were made by chipping pieces of iron from meteorites containing metallic iron. An the fourteenth century, man developed the technology to melt and cast iron into a useful shape. Prior to this, iron could only be retrieved from its ore by heating it in the presence of charcoal. In this form, it was very high in impurities, and objects were forged from the pasty mass obtained from the rudimentary furnaces. This was known as wrought iron; its mechanical properties because of the slag and nonmetallic inclusions left something to be desired. Iron in its cast form was used in ever-increasing qualities for several centuries, but it was high in carbon content and not at all malleable and formable as are steels. In the middle of the eighteenth century a method for reducing the impurity level in iron was developed. It involved blowing air through the impure molten iron. This development ushered in the steel era. The removal of the impurities from the crude iron made iron malleable at room temperature.

Forgings could be made. Sheets could be rolled. Steel as we know it was finally here. This process, known as the Bessemer process, is no longer with us, but it was the start of the family of steel production techniques that we use today.

Steel by definition is an alloy of iron and carbon, but this statement must be qualified by placing limits on carbon content. When iron-carbon alloys have less than 0.005% carbon present at room temperature, they are considered to be pure iron. Pure iron is soft, ductile, and relatively weak. It is not normally used as an engineering material because of its low strength, but it is used for special applications, such as magnetic devices. From the commercial standpoint, steels have a low carbon limit of approximately 0.08% carbon. On the other end of the carbon-content scale, iron-carbon alloys with more than approximately 2% by weight of carbon are considered to be cast irons. Above this carbon level, casting is about the only way that a useful shape can be made from the alloy, since the high carbon makes the iron alloy too brittle for rolling, forming, shearing, or other fabrication techniques. Thus steels are alloys of iron and carbon with carbon limits between approximately 0.08 and 2%.