Task 1. What do you know about automation in our country?

Task 2. Look at the following words and try to guess their meaning: automatic control, automation, automated production lines

Task 3. You are going to read about automation and labour. Choose the most suitable heading from the list (A-G) for each part 1-6. There is one extra heading which you do not need to use:

A Advantages of automation

B Ukraine is highly automated country

C The principal direction of automation

D Influence of automation on social life

E Main components of automation

F Expansion of automation into all branches of production

G Role of man in the process of automated production

1. __________

It is a matter of common knowledge nowadays that the principal direction of the present-day scientific and technological progress consists in the revolution of mechanized forms of work through the automation of production. Quite recently, only some decades ago, even the words "automation", "automatic control" seldom appeared on the pages of the press or scientific publications. In the early forties the position radically changed. Soon automatic control was recognized throughout the world to be a new, progressive, independent branch of science and engineering. Today one cannot imagine technical progress without automation.

2. __________

Automation may be defined as "the accomplishment of a job by an integrated mechanism with a minimum assistance of any kind". In fact, automation is the integration of four independent compounds which have been linked together into a single process. These integral parts of automation are: transfer machining, automatic assembly, communication engineering and control engineering.

3. __________

Emphasis should be made that automation is not a mere extension of mechanization, but a qualitatively new step in technological development. It brought about radical changes in the technological nature of the relationship between man and machine. In mechanization the function of the direct effect on the object of labour was transferred to the working mechanism. Here, man remained the principal agent of the technological process. He retained the functions of control, regulation, maintaining machines and direct intervention in production process. With the advent of automation these functions were transferred to the mechanical device. The automation of production enables man to operate machines with the help of other machines. Now machines discharge not only production but also intellectual, and in some cases even physiological functions.

4. ___________

Our country has many thousands of comprehensively mechanized and automated enterprises and workshops. The mechanized and automated production lines replace or lighten the work of a tremendous number of workers. All the hydropower plants in the country have been completely automated. Every year thousands of automated control systems go into operation at agricultural, communication, trade, transport enterprises and organizations.

5. ___________

Modern means of automation make it possible to link up in a single complex the whole technological chain: machine designing, equipment and rigging, control of a technological process, control of the whole enterprise. This has been made possible due to the extensive development and mass production of new types of computer technology, from large computers to microprocessors.

Comprehensive automation calls for material inputs and time. But the economic effect from the release of "living labour", the intensification of production, the higher quality of output and more flexible technology make up for the inputs, while, on the social plane, it gives opportunities for creative work by both the makers of this technology and its users.

Thus, now the main trend in automation is developing not merely automatic machines, but entire technological processes and systems whose functioning excludes the direct involvement of men.

6. ___________

Complex automation makes an important impact on social, economic and political areas. Automation contributes to a steady rise in the material and cultural well-being of the people, to a substantial increase in the living standards of the people. The automation helps to obliterate the frontiers separating brain work from physical labour. It creates a basis for raising the intellectual level, for the all-round and harmonious development of the individual and his unprecedented cultural flowering.

Task 4. Find in the text equivalents to the following words and expressions:

науковий та технологічний прогрес, автоматизація виробництва, автоматичне управління, незалежна галузь науки та машинобудування, виконання роботи, автоматична збірка, організація технічного контролю, основний елемент, механічний прилад, автоматизовані підприємства, гідроелектростанція, гідроелектростанція, техніка зв’язку, управління технологічним процесом.

Task 5. Translate into Ukrainian the following words and word combinations:

principal direction, automatic control, independent branch of science and engineering, the accomplishment of a job, minimum assistance, transfer machining, automatic assembly, control engineering, principal agent, direct intervention in production process, mechanical device, mechanized and automated enterprises and workshops, the mechanized and automated production lines, agricultural, communication, trade, transport enterprises, machine designing, equipment and rigging, control of the whole enterprise, cultural well-being of the people.

Task 6. Make up word combinations from the following words:

1. harmonious	a) agent
2. brain	b) technology
3. working	c) chain
4. principal	d) control
5. computer	e) mechanism
6. technological	f) function
7. automatic	g) development
8. physiological	h) work

Task 7. Translate the following sentences into English:

1. Науково-технологічний прогрес зробив можливим перехід від механічного до автоматичного виробництва.

2. Техніка зв’язку є невід’ємною частиною автоматизації.

3. Автоматизація замінила людське втручання на програмовані машини.

4. Зараз машини виконують всю людську роботу, від розробки до кінцевого виробництва.

5. Всі гідроелектростанції управляються автоматично, без людського втручання.

6. Автоматизація виробництва дала людині можливість працювати в більш креативному русі.

Task 8. Fill in the blanks with the, a, an:

1. _____ air is essential for life.

2. Most of _____ great inventors live and work in _____ Ukraine.

3. He gives lectures twice _____ week.

4. He traveled by _____ train.

5. _____ Black Sea belongs to _____ Kyiv.

6. Fleming discovered penicillin in _____ evening.

Task 9. Memorize the following words and word combinations:

1.	accomplishment	виконання
2.	to appear	з’являтися, виникати
3.	assistance	підтримка, допомога
4.	automatic control	автоматичне управління
5.	assembly	монтаж, зборка, вузол, агрегат
6.	to call for	визнавати, бути призначеним для
7.	communication engineering	техніка зв’язку
8.	comprehensive automation	комплексна автоматизація
9.	control engineering	техніка автоматичного управління
10.	to define	визначати, давати визначення
11.	direct effect	безпосередній вплив
12.	to enable	робити можливим
13.	frontier	межа
14.	to change	змінювати
15.	hydropower plant	гідроелектростанція
16.	to imagine	уявляти, припускати
17.	impact	вплив
18.	intervention	втручання
19.	involvement	участь
20.	to lighten	полегшувати, спрощувати
21.	to link up	з’єднувати
22.	principal	головний, основний
23.	relationship	відносини
24.	technological chain	технологічний ланцюг
25.	tremendous number of	велика кількість

 

UNIT 8

AUTOMATIC CONTROL IN INDUSTRY

Task 1. What kinds of control do you know?

Task 2. Imagine that you are the chief of a big industrial plan? How does it work? How many people are there? Present you information to your partner.