Выскажите свое мнение о реальности создания подобных пищевых предприятий.

Notes

1. utilities – коммунальные услуги (службы)

2. timing – нормирование времени; хронометрирование

3. inventory – запас, резерв

 

What will the food plant of the future look like? What will it feature? How will it differ from present day plants?

First of all, food plants will become more regionally oriented, that is they will serve a regional not national market. Secondly, a food plant will produce only a limited number of products. Such plant should be located as near as possible to the source of raw materials. It will be situated outside a municipality on a site served by a road network for truck transportation.

Its services and utilities¹ will be dealt with in a more sophisticated fashion. Water, after use, will be purified and reused. Power will come from either a hydrogen fuel cell or small atomic – powered unit, refueled every eight years. The waste and the heat generated by waste treatment will be re-cycled for energy and to produce animal feeds.

The future food plant should not be very big. Its site will be smaller for two reasons. One, the labour force will be far smaller than today. And second, there will be no provisions made for expansion. Food plants will be dedicated to a region, and will not be enlarged to add more distribution or production capacity.

The labour force of the future will have four components. These are microprocessors, minicomputers, robots, and lasers. On the plant floor, microprocessors will actuate (приводить в действие) almost all the individual processing operations: measuring, timing², raising and lowering pressure, and so on. As to minicomputers, they will control a number of microprocessors. They also will store information on raw and finished product inventory³, packaging materials, fuel and other forms of energy, product cost, and labour expenses.

By the way, labour expenses will be quite small because robots will perform a number of operations which now require human labour. These machines can be programmed to carry out almost any function that human do now.

An integral part of the future food plant will be lasers. They will do the chopping, cutting, pealing, and slicing.

One more thing of interest is the product flow. Product will take a straight-through flow path, which will reduce bottlenecks (узкие места) and speed up product movement. As packaging materials, containers and pallets (поддоны) are needed for the final stages of processing, they will be moved from storage areas directly to their respective points of use. Very little material will be held in inventory³.

Another technological feature to be mentioned is that atomic energy and hydrogen fuel cells will find the way into a food plant being an ideal replacement for today’s energy sources.

On the basis of all the opportunities mentioned above it should be noted that the future food plant will be able to operate 20 hours a day, making eight-hour shifts (рабочие смены) a thing of the past.

 

Text C₁ “ AUTOMATIC BATCHING SYSTEM ”

 

Переведите текст на русский язык в письменной форме.

 

Notes

batch – партия, порция; дозированная партия

batch controller – автоматический дозатор

batching system – дозирующая система

batch formula – формула дозированной порции

holding tank – сборник; резервуар

scale operator – весовщик

weigh hopper – весовой бункер

With new production equipment Acme Breadmaking Plant, Philadelphia (USA) produces twice as much bread and dough. Bread production rose from 80 loaves per minute to 150. And dough output increased from 15000 pounds per hour to 30000. The output has been doubled by replacing the worn-out equipment and automating several outdated operations. Today, Acme’s modern batching system is 10 times more accurate, faster, and eliminates the need for scale operators.

The new system automatically controls the batching of five ingredients.

The ingredients are stored in holding tanks and are pumped sequently into one of five 2000 pound weigh hoppers according to the batch formula.

To program a batch controller an operator simply keys in (коммутирует) the desired amount for each ingredient and the parameters of the operation, such as the minimum and maximum weights. Once the operation begins, a light signal on the control panel indicates when each batch is completed, and the operator then presses a button to empty the weigh hopper into the mixer.

The batch controller automatically repeats the cycle for up to 99 batches. Each batch takes ten minutes to complete.

 

 

UNIT 2. PROCESS CONTROL