II. Vocabulary.

Ex.1. Make up the collocations

1. automatic	1. lines
2. flexible	2. equipment
3. assembly	3. environment
4. manufacturing	4. routing
5. material handling	5. facility

Ex.2. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate word-combination from ex.1.

1. … is the installation transferring of material and loading and unloading of machines.

2. Potentially use of this type of equipment can significantly reduce the number of shop-floor operations: from …, estimating tool and gage design, plant lay-out, process planning to establishing manpower standards.

3. The numerous technical challenges involved in automatically doing the job of an operator will dictate the scope and penetration of… into industry.

4. Examples of fixed automation are … found in the automobile industry and certain chemical process.

5. The modeler can be an engineering group or a data processing group that is closely tied to the....

III. Grammar.

Ex.1. Translate the following sentences paying your attention to the underlined words.

1. One or more types of flexibility can be needed: flexibility in the quantity of parts processed, in the range of styles and colors produced, in working with similar but not identical products, in the sequencing of processing steps, or in the process employed.

2. Excellence in manual assembly emphasized better communications like audio-visual assembly guides.

3. Not only if reporting simplified, but the resulting cell becomes a manageable stepping-stone to future use of higher-order computer control.

4. But the fact is that fast-paced changes in technologies offer an unprecedented number of ways to improve all manufacturing activities.

5. Expectations that a flexible facility can be constructed are fueled by advances in controls and computer systems superimposed upon a well-developed, broad base of individual automatic processing and handling equipment.

6. In like fashion, performance testing equipment can be integrated with assembly.

7. Flow improvement is also sought by locating fabrication equipment along assembly lines at the point components are needed;

The technique often allows slower, less expensive equipment to be used in meeting assembly demands.

IV. Comprehension.

Ex.1. Define the number of the passage from the text containing information about:

1. Flexibility types.

2. The key elements of engineering analysis.

3. The ways to improve all manufacturing activities.

4. The practical problems manufacturers face.

5. Excellence in performance of machines and in manual assembly.

Ex.2. Agree or disagree with the following statements.

1. Flexibility is not a necessary production characteristic.

2. Obviously, some types of flexibility are easier to obtain than others.

3. A key effect of combining processes into a single system is that one operator can attend to more activities.

4. Some observers emphasize the difference between the terms « computer integrated manufacturing», «flexible manufacturing system», «factory of the future».

5. Conventional automatic assembly equipment hasn’t had any potential for flexibility.

Ex.3. Answer the questions.

1. Why are some types of flexibility easier to obtain than other ones?

2. What does automatic flexible routing of work benefit from?

3. What is the key effect of combining processes into a single system?

4. What have studies of setup practices shown?

5. What should be used to improve the flow in assembly?

Ex.4. Choose from the episodes 1-5 the one which fits each gap A-E in the text.

1. It appears that in the foreseeable future flexible general-purpose assembly systems will be built around a mix of manual and automatic techniques. For high efficiency in such systems, operators must be provided with effective tools and guidance. The use of robots in assembly is expected to increase because of the high cost of manual labour. Today only a small fraction of industrial robots are capable of assembling products. They can work with different products simultaneously. With vision or bar code robot can distinguish between several different products over the same production line. Assembly is by far the fastest growing application of robots. The effectiveness of robotics depends on the early design stages both of product and process. Experience teaches that efficient automatic assembly is associated with relatively large production volumes, simple design and consistently high-quality products.

2. The fixturing parts going into FMS must be simple, fast accurate. In most cases, this leads to designing an FMS that works on parts which are qualified on separate machines before entering the high investment FMS. Our overall assessment indicates that traditional fixturing used on manual machines or free-standing machines usually is not compatible with the capabilities of an FMS. The best use of am FMS is to completely machine the part in one step, and in order to machine the part on five sides, while holding on one side, the fixturing cannot surround the part.

3. In modeling a flexible manufacturing system we mind two subsystems.

The physical subsystem transports, stores, processes parts. It consists of programmable machines, flexible equipment, and in- process storage facilities.

The control subsystem selects, sets priorities, routes parts, control traffic flow.

It consists of situation- independent logic to coordinate part interchange in the physical subsystem.

4. It has always been considered the basic building block of FMS and has all the elements of a full FMS. Typically, it includes many manufacturing components such as two or three machine tools, material handling system, pallet changers, and management information system. Generally speaking, cell functions include the supervision and coordination of these components and devices. It is important to note that one of its benefits is its flexibility. Such manufacturing cells have in recent times experienced rapid growth in both the numbers of supplies and users.

5. This method is the most popular one of providing the control system with this information, so that is may track the progress of the component through the system. The movement of the pallets can be achieved by a conveyor or by vehicles which run

either on rails or as automated guided vehicles using wire- guided induction. The last mentioned technique is currently favoured in modern systems due to the flexibility it offers in operation.