Alexander Nikolaevich - Production Director of PZPS LLC, a true old-timer of the Leningrad metallurgical industry. He has been serving at the St. Petersburg Precision Alloy Plant for 40 years and remembers how the Steel Rolling Plant, which fell into disrepair in the 1990s, got a new life and became a modern successful enterprise:
“Due to a sharp drop in production in the 90s and 2000s, the former Steel Rolling Plant had large production facilities that were no longer used at that time or were used inefficiently. To reduce the cost of servicing large rooms, it was decided to combine all existing plants by placing equipment on the premises that the plant currently occupies. Thanks to this, electricity and heating costs were significantly reduced, and these funds could be used to develop production and pay workers' wages.”
Alexander Nikolaevich notes that the company did not have to start a new life from scratch. In Soviet times, the Steel Rolling Plant also played a leading role in the production of precision alloys and had an extensive research center. Using his technologies, various types of materials were created and improved; the plant traditionally had strong specialists.
During the modernization period, the plant mainly used existing equipment and, moreover, did not slow down production rates:
“We did not stop our activities; the entire optimization process went without reducing production volumes. The equipment was dismantled in parts; the plant continued to work on some other equipment so as not to disrupt the technological cycle. Overall, the optimization process took about 3 years.”
There was also the purchase of new equipment, which mainly contributed to the automation of production and made it possible to reduce the cost of maintaining a large staff of duty personnel, freeing up employees to perform other tasks.
The plant had to remaster the technologies for manufacturing some alloys. Alexander Nikolaevich explains this by the fact that in Soviet times, industrial enterprises produced many types of products through cooperation: one plant produces one part of the materials, and the other part is produced by the next enterprise. In recent times, these technological chains have been disrupted:
“While in Soviet times many enterprises were associates, in modern times they have become competitors. Then we had to rely only on our own strength. Our plant developed some of the alloys from scratch, already under existing production conditions. For example, there have been works related to the development of an almost complete production cycle of resistance group alloys, such as X15Yu5. The full technological cycle of producing 40KHNM from the group of elastic alloys has been mastered, and they are also fully produced at our plant.”
The uniqueness of PZPS LLC is not only in the brands of materials manufactured: “There is also a size group for the production of alloys,” explains Alexander Nikolaevich, “and the uniqueness of our company lies in the fact that there are practically no manufacturers in our size group. Today we produce products of all types - both alloys and structural materials - with a thickness of 7 microns to 3 millimeters, and a belt width of 4 to 300 millimeters. Few people work in this niche.”
According to Alexander Nikolaevich, the big giants of the metallurgical industry produce millions of tons of products, producing them in large sheets. The St. Petersburg Precision Alloy Plant is also capable of fulfilling orders ranging from several tons and kilograms to several grams:
“We are the last in the technological production chain in metallurgy, followed by machine builders, instrument makers, and electronics. So, in fact, we are already creating a kind of semi-finished product for other industries. While the big metallurgy industry produces products for enterprises in the next metallurgical cycle, then we are all behind us, but there is no metallurgy - we are already followed by technologies and high technologies. Our products are used in instruments and in various mechanisms.”
In addition to geometry and dimensions, the plant's products are divided into several types by alloy groups. Each material must contain certain physical, chemical or, for example, magnetic properties that it must have.
“We have a technical department that directly develops documentation, flow charts, diagrams, monitors technological parameters for each unit, and helps make calculations. The required content of each element in the alloy is determined by the X-ray laboratory. The physical laboratory determines and examines the physical properties of the material that are obtained at the end of the finished product. The mechanical laboratory determines how the metal is ductile, bends and torques. In the linear-angle measurement laboratory, we measure geometry and surface roughness so that the tape is flat, not wavy, or curved. According to the protocols and conclusions of testing laboratories, we certify products; without this, we cannot sell a single kilogram.”
Precision alloys are mainly used in industrial devices. However, we often encounter them in everyday life.
“If you fly by plane,” Alexander Nikolaevich cites an example, “these aircraft have a lot of elements produced at our plant. Many materials are used in the automotive industry. Spiral-shaped heating elements (made of resistance alloys) are found in old household furnaces. An elementary clothes button or paper clip is also made of metal and, possibly, of our material. Clothespins - there is a band spring inside - are also our production.”
I would like to hear something about “classified materials”, but, according to Alexander Nikolaevich, almost all alloys are known today. Of course, developments are underway because life requires new types of materials, but so far there has been no clear breakthrough in this area. Metallurgy technologies are conservative, and the main technological methods were known centuries ago. With the advent of electricity, productivity has only increased. Automation equipment is another matter:
“Computer technologies are coming to life and replacing people,” says the production director. “Entire processors perform control functions; they do this more accurately and faster than humans. So our plant also uses automatic control systems with might and main. We constantly train our staff, both on our own and by hiring outside specialists. We maintain contacts and exchange experience with leading research institutes in the field of metallurgy, including identifying areas for further work to develop new types of products.”
Alexander Nikolaevich assures that the expansion of production is inevitable; in modern conditions, new requirements are emerging related to import substitution of products, and the St. Petersburg Precision Alloy Plant is already involved in these processes. In particular, in the near future, the company plans to produce thin tapes with a thickness of 3-5 microns.
For the Production Director of the St. Petersburg Precision Alloy Plant, metal is a separate piece of music:
“I know the properties of materials, and, of course, I evaluate metal objects not only by their physical parameters, but also by their internal state, and I can imagine the components of the material and what is inside. Therefore, I can imagine how much work, money, creativity and energy has been invested in this or that product. I can see how it carries the energy of all the people who have had a hand in it.”
