AUTOMATION AND LABOUR

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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Emphasis should be made that automation is not a mere extention 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. Here retained the functions of control, regulation, maintaining machines and direct intervention in production process. With the advent of automation these function 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.

5. 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. During every five-year plan thousand of automated control systems go into operation at industrial, agricultural, communication, trade and transport enterprises and organizations.

6. Modern means of automation make it possible to link up in a single complex the whole technological chain: 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.

7. Needless to say, 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.

8. 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.

9. Complex automation makes an important impact on social, economic and political areas.

Notes:

automatic control — автоматизоване управління

accomplishment — виконання

integrated mechanism — інтегрований механізм

assistance — допомога

to link — зв’язувати

a single process — єдиний процес

transfer — передача

assembly — зборка, монтаж

extension — поширення, подовження

qualitative — якісний

principle — головний

maintenance — експлуатація, обслуговування

intervention — втручання

trend — напрямок

<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
Exercise 3. Find in the text English equivalents to the following words and word combinations.	\|	Exercise 8. Find in the text English equivalents to the following words and word-combinations.

Не знайшли потрібну інформацію? Скористайтесь пошуком google:

Генерація сторінки за: 0.004 сек.