Trends in the modern machine-building industry

A major advance in twentieth century manufacturing was the development of mass production techniques. Mass production refers to manufacturing process es 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. In the automobile assembly plant, such systems have reached a highly-developed form. A complex system of conveyer belts and chain drive s moves car parts to workers who perform the thousands of necessary assembling tasks.

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 colors; others entail giving workers more variety in their tasks and more responsibility for the product.

Another factor for the industrial engineer to consider is whether each manufacturing process can be automated in whole or in part. Automation is a word coin ed in the 1940s to describe processes by which machines do tasks previously performed by people. The word was new but the idea was not. We know of the advance in the development of steam engines that produced automatic valve s. 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.

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.

The scientific and technological progress will continue in engineering along two main headlines. Firstly, it is automation, including the creation of "unmanned" industries. Secondly, raising the reliability and extending the service life of machines.

Intense work is being carried out on new robots. What we need is not merely manipulators which can take up a workpiece and pass it on, but robots which can identify objects, their position in space, etc.

We also need machines that would trace the entire process of machining. Some have been designed and are manufactured. Modern engineering thinking has created new automated coal-digging complex es and machine systems, installation s for the continuous casting of steel, machine-tools for electrophysical and electrochemical treatment of metals, unique welding equipment, automatic rotor transfer line s and machine-tool modules for flexible industries.

New technologies and equipment have been designed for most branches of engineering.

In the shortest time possible, the engineers are to start producing new generations of machines and equipment which would allow manu­facturers to increase productivity several times and to find a way for the application of advanced technologies.

Large reserves in extending service life for machines can be found in the process of designing. At present, advanced methods have been evolved for designing machines proceeding from a number of criteria. Automatic design systems allow for an optimizing of the solutions in design and technology when new machines are still in the blueprint stage.

Words and phrases to learn by heart from Russian into English:

1. manuf a cturing – производство

manufacturing pr o cess – процесс производства

2. mass production techn i ques – технологии массового производства

3. a ssembly line – конвейер; конвейерная линия сборки

4. conv ey er belt – конвейерная лента

5. highly-dev e loped form – продвинутая / высокоразвитая форма

6. chain drive – цепная передача; цепной привод

7. to incr ea se prod u ctivity – повысить / увеличить производительность

8. responsib i lity for – ответственность за что-либо

9. to coin a word – создать слово

10. autom a tic valve – автоматический клапан

11. to take adv a ntage of smth. – воспользоваться преимуществом чего-либо

12. to refine petr o leum, steel – очищать / перерабатывать нефть, сталь

13. petroch e micals – нефтепродукты; нефтехимические вещества

14. reliab i lity – прочность, надёжность

15. to ext e nd the service life of mach i nes – продлить срок службы механизмов

16. to carry out work – выполнять работу

17. to take up a workpiece – поднимать деталь / изделие

18. to id e ntify o bjects – определять объекты / предметы

19. position in space – положение в пространстве

20. to trace the pr o cess of mach i ning – проследить процесс механической обработки

21. coal-digging complex – установка для добычи угля

22. installation – установка / комплекс / оборудование / станок

23. casting of steel – литьё стали

24. mach i ne-tool – механический станок; обрабатывающий инструмент

25. treatment of m e tals – обработка металлов

26. welding equipment – сварочное оборудование

27. automatic rotor transfer line – автоматическая станочная линия

28. fl e xible i ndustry – отрасль промышленности, поддающаяся

преобразованиям / изменениям

29. to prod u ce – производить

to incr ea se product i vity – повысить / увеличить производительность

30. des i gning – проектировка; разработка; конструкторская работа

31. to proc ee d from smth. – происходить из чего-либо

32. to be in the blueprint stage – находиться на стадии проектирования / на стадии

разработки чертежей

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