T Transcripts
098
Unit 8, Finding fault Things fall apart Exercise B
Listen and complete the research notes about the Titanic.
The Titanic was a passenger liner. In 1912, it was on its first voyage. It was travelling across the North Atlantic, on its way from Liverpool, in the UK, to New York. The ship struck an iceberg and sank. One thousand, five hundred people died in the disaster. Why did the disaster happen? There were two main reasons. Firstly, bad construction. The manufacturers used poor quality rivets to connect the steel plates together. Secondly, bad design. There were bulkheads, or steel walls, in the bottom of the ship. The bulkheads stopped water from spreading inside the ship. But the designers lowered the bulkheads to give first-class passengers more room. After the accident, water came into the ship and flowed over the bulkheads. The ship sank very quickly.
099 Unit 8, Safe for life Exercise C
Listen to the introduction (Part 1). What order does the lecturer give? Lecturer:
Is everyone here? OK. Good morning, everyone. Today, we’re going to look at safety in mechanical devices. The products of mechanical engineering are very safe nowadays, but things go wrong sometimes. A mechanical device is safe because everything about the device is safe. Let’s look at some of the elements – I mean, the things which make a device safe. What’s the first element? It comes at the very start, before the device even exists. Yes, Sabine?
S1: Design? Lecturer: Yes, exactly. The design must be safe. But, of course, sometimes there are hidden problems with a design. So what must engineers do after designing a device? Build it and test it.
S2:
Lecturer: Maybe, but nowadays we have computer simulation so …
S3: We can test it before we build it. Lecturer: That’s right. Then we build it, or construct it. Mechanical devices are constructed in most cases, not built. So we have design, testing and construction. After construction, we have three more important elements. They all happen during the operation of the device. Firstly, we must look at the device regularly. That’s called … Looking?
S1: 216
Lecturer: Yes, but there’s a special word. S2:
Inspect?
Lecturer: Yes, we must inspect it. Inspection is the next element. We must check for damage to the components. OK. Secondly, we must look after the device. What is the special word for looking after?
S3: Is it … mainta … mainten …
S1: Maintenance. Lecturer: Exactly. And finally, we have monitoring – I mean, checking the operation of the device. Is it working correctly? Is the temperature or the pressure too high … or too low.
100 Unit 8, Safe for life Exercise D
Listen to the seminar. The lecturer asks several questions. Choose a good answer for each one.
Lecturer: OK. Let’s go back and look at each of those elements in detail. Why do things go wrong? What’s the first stage again?
S1: Design. Lecturer: Right. Now, how can an engineer ensure safety at the design stage?
S2: S3:
It must be a good design. The design must follow the laws of physics.
Lecturer: Yes, that’s right. And engineers must do good calculations with those laws. Then they need to test the design. How can you test the design of a plane wing, for example?
S3: With a computer simulation. S4:
In a wind tunnel.
Lecturer: Yes. You can use a computer simulation or a wind tunnel. A wind tunnel is very expensive, but it’s probably more accurate. OK. So that’s design and testing. Now the construction stage. Even with a good design, there can be problems at the construction stage. Why? How can construction affect the safety? They use the wrong materials.
S1:
Lecturer: Yes, absolutely. A good design needs good materials. Bad steel will fail, for example, even in a good device. But there’s a stronger reason.
S2:
They don’t build … um … construct it correctly. I mean, according to the design.
Lecturer: Yes, construction companies sometimes don’t follow the design properly. They have a problem of some sort so they change the design in some way, and it makes a safe device unsafe. OK. So that’s design, testing and construction. What’s next? What must we do when the device is in operation?
S2: We must maintain it.
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