Detailed information on this issue was provided by Maxim Sergeevich KRASILNIKOV, a foreman employed in the hot work area of the rolling mill:

- During the overhaul, the following works were performed on the mechanical part of the equipment: revision and fastening of the gear cage, revision of the oil station equipment with oil and pump replacement, repair of the group roller from the heating furnace No. 3 with replacement of worn parts with new ones - the transmission shaft and bearing housings.The lifting and swinging table No. 1 was repaired for the electrical part with the replacement of the base of the electric motor attachment of the table lifting mechanism. An audit of the start-up and control equipment of the roller shutters and lifting and swinging tables, replacement of the electric motor of the pusher of the heating furnace No. 3 was carried out. These works were carried out by a team of locksmiths under the guidance of A.V. Panfilov, a master of repair of rolling equipment.

In parallel with the listed repair work, under the supervision of the head of the electrotechnical laboratory of the power plant D.A. Ukhanov, an audit of the main engine of the mill "500" was carried out, including purging, cleaning, checking the insulation resistance of the main engine and other related high-voltage equipment.

I would like to note the well-coordinated work of the staff of the MSU of Start Plant LLC under the guidance of master V.V. Vedyashov, who replaced a section of the cooling pipeline of the mill, repaired several sections of the tile flooring on which the equipment and the rolling field of the front side of the mill are installed. I also want to note the work of the workshop staff, who assisted the repair services in carrying out repairs and further tidying up the equipment by cleaning and painting it. The repair was carried out qualitatively, on previously designated dates. Currently, the "500" long-range rolling mill is operating normally.

Russia needs to achieve technological sovereignty in those areas that ensure the sustainability of the economy, the head of state said during the announcement of the Address to the Federal Assembly. Today, the country is already making confident steps towards independence. In fact, the course of industrial development has been changed. At the same time, the work is being carried out under unprecedented sanctions pressure, the purpose of which is to restrict access to the technology market.

The launch of a unique gas plant in Ufa is a common project of Nizhny Novgorod Ruspolimet, Bashkir DC-UMPO, Rostec and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the country. / the press service of PJSC UEC-UMPO

A striking example of solving a strategic task is the project of Rostec and the Ufa Engine-Building Production Association (UEC-UMPO), where on July 20, 2024, a new production site with the largest domestic hot isostatic press in the country was opened. The launch of the unique equipment will allow to increase production and accelerate the manufacturing process of parts of PD-8 and PD-14 serial engines and promising power plants for the Russian aircraft industry.

Hot isostatic pressing, or GYPSUM, is a technology for simultaneous processing of metal by temperature and pressure. It allows you to achieve uniform compaction of the material, which affects the strength and wear resistance of the parts. The hot isostatic pressing site at UMPO began to be designed in 2022, and built in 2023. The press, its software, and auxiliary equipment were created by the Russian company Drobmash (part of the Ruspolimet group of companies) in the city of Vyksa, Nizhny Novgorod region. The installation was delivered to Ufa by river. The gas station has no analogues in the Russian Federation: its weight is 600 tons, the maximum operating pressure is 1600 atmospheres, more than at the bottom of the deepest place on Earth - the Mariana Trench, and the temperature, like at the core of the planet, is almost 1350 C. The giant also has the appropriate name - HYP2200. This is the first gas station of this standard size in our country and the third worldwide. The total investment amounted to 3 billion rubles. 

The production time, the coefficient of material consumption, and labor intensity have been significantly reduced compared to traditional methods of manufacturing metal products.

According to Anton Alikhanov, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, the launch of the installation will accelerate the implementation of the Comprehensive Civil Aviation Development Program (CPA), which requires the construction of more than a thousand aircraft engines.

"In principle, there were no such gas stations in the country. Now we are becoming completely import-independent in this part of the technological process. It is very pleasant that our colleagues from the Nizhny Novgorod region have mastered the production of such products and now we have our own gas stations of this standard size. For UEC enterprises, this, of course, reduces costs - there is no need to spend money on constant transportation of parts for processing, even to friendly countries, but still far away - now the whole process is localized here. UEC is tasked with manufacturing more than 1,500 engines, and the parts that will be processed in the gas station are very actively used in them, so this is an indispensable help in organizing the technological process for all enterprises of the corporation," Anton Alikhanov noted.



The hot isostatic pressing site is a high-tech site. It is difficult to imagine that a pressure of 1,600 atmospheres is created here, and the temperature is like in the Sun. Photo: press service of PJSC "DK-UMPO"

The new facilities cover an area of two thousand square meters. Thanks to the equipment of the site with modern high-tech equipment, round-the-clock work on gas-stabilization of titanium and aluminum castings of body parts of aircraft engines intended, among other things, for domestic passenger aircraft will be provided here. The parts will have to work in the sky under heavy loads, so their reliability is confirmed by strict quality control.

Vadim Badekha, General Director of United Engine Corporation JSC, member of the bureau of the central council of Soyuzmash of Russia LLC, noting the importance of the project, said that import substitution of hot isostatic pressing will allow the production of fifth and sixth generation aircraft engines in Russia regardless of foreign suppliers.

"Modern engine building cannot be created without the use of large-sized parts of thin-walled titanium and aluminum casting. Today, thanks to the commissioning of this section, we will be able to significantly increase the output of engines that go to civil aircraft (PD-14, PD-8, PD-35 engines), including ensuring the unconditional release of engines for the state defense order. The use of these technologies allows us to reduce weight and significantly increase the life of our engines. The launch of the hot isostatic pressing site is of great importance for expanding the production and technological base not only of the Ufa ODK-UMPO enterprise, but also of the ODK as a whole. The commissioning of high-tech equipment will improve the quality of titanium and aluminum castings and accelerate the production time of aircraft engines. We are actively increasing our production capacity to meet the needs of domestic civil aviation. Only within the framework of the comprehensive program for the development of the aviation industry until 2030, we need to produce more than 3.5 thousand engines for airplanes and helicopters," Vadim Badekha explained.

Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Bashkortostan Andrey Nazarov is convinced that the current opening is important for Russia's defense capability.

"This will allow us to significantly simplify and improve the creation of what is necessary for our aviation. Of the enterprises working for the country's defense complex, a significant part are Rostec enterprises. And these are the enterprises that apply many innovations at home, develop and implement. In general, they are advanced for the entire industry," Nazarov said.

Experts explain: the use of a hot isostatic press in the production of parts for the aviation industry makes it possible to eliminate the porosity of casting from titanium and aluminum alloys, improve the uniformity of the material and strengthen it due to high temperature and argon pressure. In fact, it turned out to be an ideal production, when with less expenditure of everything (time, people, material, energy) you get a high-class result - a product with special physical properties, which, in turn, should raise domestic passenger aviation to the long-awaited height.

Viktor Vladimirovich Klochai, Vice-President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs - Chairman of the Coordinating Council of the RSPP branches in the Volga Federal District, Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC Ruspolimet, Honored Metallurgist of the Russian Federation, Candidate of Technical Sciences, tells our correspondent about the effectiveness of the introduced domestic technologies and equipment.

Viktor Vladimirovich, gas stabilization technologies have been successfully used all over the world for a long time. Today they are also used in Russia. The lack of equipment almost became a deterrent, but this problem has now been solved. What contributed to Ruspolimet Group of Companies taking on such projects together with its subsidiaries?

Viktor Klochai: It should be noted that we did a lot of things first and for the first time. One of the key investment projects was Russia's first industrial production of metal powders and granules for the manufacture of products by hot isostatic pressing (GYPSUM) and additive (3D) technologies, as well as the design and manufacture of equipment for isostatic pressing (gasostats), powder products with uniquely high physical properties. As a result, the coefficient of material consumption, production time, and labor intensity are significantly reduced compared to traditional methods of manufacturing metal products. The implementation of this project made it possible to replace the import of tool powder blanks, as well as powder for 3D technologies in domestic mechanical engineering. The production in Russia of a wide range of gas aggregates and metal powders and granules with a capacity of more than 3,000 tons per year creates conditions for the formation of a new technological structure in responsible mechanical engineering.

Moving towards the development of this technology, we certainly understood that such an area would require the introduction of new powder processing units. Then we had one imported gas station that had been working with us since the 80s of the last century, and we expected to buy a couple more from the Swedes or Belgians. But after 2019, it became clear that there would be problems with this. The Swedes not only did not sell the equipment, but also stopped supplying repair kits for the gas station operating at Ruspolimet, which was nearing the end of the service life of the thermal circuit protecting the container from overheating.

It became obvious that we are left without means of production, which means that we must design and manufacture gas stations ourselves. The Drobmash plant became the site. It was necessary to completely rebuild the enterprise's work system: every detail must be made according to the special requirements of a unique technology, it must have the "surname, first name, patronymic" of its manufacturer, must be numbered, entered in the register: who sharpened, carried out heat treatment, acceptance, at which stand the product was tested. In the end, painstaking structured work led to the result that everyone was waiting for - the creation and commissioning of the country's largest gas plant at the UEC site in Ufa for the production of aircraft engine parts.

Alla Logacheva, Head of the Department of Metal Materials and Metallurgical Technologies of JSC "Composite", Doctor of Technical Sciences:

- Today, hot isostatic pressing is an integral technological operation in the production of critical structural elements of propulsion systems (gas turbine engines), which has proven itself positively in various industries. Hot isostatic pressing is used to eliminate defects (pores, shells, cracks) and "refine" the structure in various parts from a wide range of alloys obtained by traditional metallurgical methods, which, in turn, leads to a significant increase in reliability and service life of the entire product. Until today, there was no equipment in the domestic industry that allowed for gas-static processing of large-sized parts, which imposed a number of production restrictions and increased the production time of the product. The use of a gas station with the appropriate dimensions of the working chamber will expand the range of workpieces to be processed and improve their quality, increase production capacity and remove restrictions on the processing of large-sized structural elements at the ODK-UMPO enterprise.

How did it happen that UEC-UMPO decided to sign a contract for the development, manufacture and installation of a gas station with enterprises of Ruspolimet Group of Companies that did not have such experience? And what kind of support was provided by the state?

Viktor Klochai: UEC enterprises have been using the gas-stabilization process for a long time to eliminate defects in casting and are well familiar with this technology. There was a time when Ruspolimet (then Kulebak Metallurgical Plant) was still in the Soviet Union. - Ed. note) gas-stabilized capsules with powder for disks for aircraft engines. However, at that time some of the materials and equipment were imported. Now we produce both metal powders and gas chambers ourselves.

Speaking about the gas station installed in Ufa, it should be noted that we started working on its manufacture first for ourselves, planning to increase the production capacity of metal powder products. But in 2021, after the UEC announced to the Ministry of Industry the problem of hardening engine parts, the question arose about the need to build a gas station at the enterprise in Ufa. The project was then personally supervised by the Minister of Industry of Russia. And since no one did this in our country, then, naturally, everyone turned first to the West, then to the East, and even an almost ratified contract with a Chinese company appeared. At that time, we had already started going to the authorities with R&D topics of gas stabilization, attracted specialists from the closed VNIIMetmash and independently overhauled the first small gas station at the UMPO site, or rather, reassembled it. At a meeting in the Ministry of Industry, they talked about this experience and intentions to manufacture gas stations. Then it was decided to entrust the new project to Ruspolimet. It was a challenge for us. The main measure of support turned out to be trust, which resulted in a serious order from a serious company. The risks, of course, were enormous, but we coped.

Following a visit to Ruspolimet back in March 2021, Denis Manturov, then Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, highlighted Ruspolimet's achievements in the group's flagship area: "The Nizhny Novgorod region has huge potential for the development of traditional and new industries, in particular powder metallurgy. I believe that this is the future. The Nizhny Novgorod region is a driver in this direction both in terms of powders themselves and in terms of gas stations."

What is the gas station operating in Ufa capable of today? What are his main advantages, what can he do?

Viktor Klochai: The applicability of the gasostat is extremely wide - it can do everything that is necessary for shipbuilding, nuclear engineering, medicine - all areas where parts with special properties are required. New parts can be pressed from metal powders, ready-made parts can be strengthened, and bimetallic products can be manufactured. The technology allows you to get rid of defects in metals, which is extremely important, for example, in the manufacture of rotating engine elements.

Isostatic pressing, and in this case hot isostatic pressing, is a dual-use technology. Americans today use this method to make blanks for small arms, artillery barrels, and nuclear reactors. Today, I repeat as a mantra that the technology of hot isostatic pressing is good, progressive, that it should be widely used, forming a new technological structure in mechanical engineering with advantages in quality, timing, cost, labor, and material consumption. Think about it for a minute - when a kilogram of a product made of metal powders is gas-stabilized, it takes three to seven times less material than when manufactured using traditional methods.

How can you be technologically independent if you do not create, build and organize the production of a new high-tech product and do not replicate effective technologies! If there is an opportunity to do something faster, better, cheaper, better, then you need to do it, and not be tormented by doubts. We need to move forward - to draw up industrial development programs, continue testing finished products, certify technology, and scale it. The degree of localization is the highest at the gas stabilization site in Ufa. I estimate it at 85 percent, maybe even higher. This is not just import substitution, not just some small piece of technological independence - this is an example, an element of that long-awaited technical sovereignty.

Drobmash is currently manufacturing several more gas stations - for whom are they intended?

Viktor Klochai: Six gas stations are currently in production at the site of our subsidiary. We have to produce four by the end of the year. One of the customers is a division of Rosatom. A small educational and laboratory gas station for MISIS is currently in operation. This is a research, important and correct story, because if the industry is going to accelerate, then specialists are needed. A very serious customer in the person of VIAM is the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Aviation Materials, which traditionally deals with powder topics. They have chosen a format that allows them to partially self-finance, conducting research together with enterprises and providing the solutions they need. And finally, we are making a new gas station for ourselves. After we implemented the project in UMPO and saw the HYP2200 in the case, we decided that Ruspolimet should have a similar unit, and now everything is in our hands.

Gleb Turichin, Rector of St. Petersburg State Maritime Technical University, Doctor of Technical Sciences:

- Ruspolimet, having gathered all the necessary competencies in the country, made a unique gasostat GIP 2200 - this is literally a breakthrough in the creation of domestic equipment for isostatic pressing, used both in the technology of granular metallurgy and for hardening finished products, especially large-sized ones used in shipbuilding. We see the future in the development and production of equipment for isostatic pressing.

Obviously, a new project for you and for the country - the whole process of designing, manufacturing, delivering, and assembling the country's largest gas station - required the same great efforts from your team. Who would you mark?

Viktor Klochai: In order not to offend anyone, we need to list them all alphabetically. But the first on this list, of course, is the chief designer, ideologist of the project Sergey Nikolaevich Shushurin, a native of VNIIMetmash, the main metallurgical institute of the country, followed by a very good specialist in automation control systems Sergey Anokhin, a representative of the Special Metallurgical Engineering company, part of the Ruspolimet group, and, of course, Denis Shishov, Director of Special projects at Drobmash, and Alexey Kutepov, chief engineer of the department responsible for installation. By the way, Kutepov is already in the Saratov region, starting to assemble the next gas station. A lot of talented guys showed up. The head of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Gleb Sergeevich Nikitin, supported the proposal to award them for the implementation of a strategically significant project.

The amount of work has been done is incredible - first we had to design and build a building on our site, then winding stands, manufacture infrastructure equipment, conduct tests and then come to Ufa in May 2023. Of course, there were difficulties, because everything was done for the first time. Plus, the equipment is very capricious, especially in terms of gas systems. We didn't have a break for the holidays, only at Easter and Christmas we didn't work. During this time, I probably spent about a dozen days off, Saturdays, Sundays there with the guys - I needed to understand, realize, and delve into the details myself, but mostly I needed purely moral and psychological support.

More than once, difficult moments arose during the installation of a large unit, a whole complex of related equipment, and people always showed up. Firstly, our people who worked at the Ufa site, and secondly, those who were in touch remotely, but were involved in the process, as they say, on the fly. If necessary, they came promptly to help solve the tasks. I believe that such a mutual understanding of the importance and significance of the project, effective "collaboration", made it possible to create and put into commercial operation the largest isostatic pressing site in Russia. A historic event, I think.

Moreover, when I say "we", I mean not only our team of designers, technologists, mechanics, engineers, craftsmen, workers. We are all the people who supported us both in the Ministry and in the UEC. The UMPO shift team - the head of the workshop, the head of the site - were all in the process. They saw how our people worked and integrated into the system. At Ruspolimet, as part of the modernization, we launched many different units, so I understand that a lot depends on the customer's position. He must take part in the process together with those who carry out installation, commissioning and so on. Then you will understand how each part of the gas-conditioning complex is arranged, how it works, how this equipment is repaired, and then you can count on its proper operation. Today, even with the automation of equipment, the importance of the human factor is a priority. If the autopilot is disabled, the pilot himself must be able to land the plane. And in the case of gas stations, where the pressure is 1600 atmospheres and the temperature is 1350 degrees, the responsibility is not lower.

What do you think is slowing down the scaling of gas stabilization technology and what needs to be done to change the situation?

Victor Klochai: In fact, the process of scaling technology is inevitable - it's a matter of time. Now there is a stage of maturation, awareness and entry into the topic. The gas-conditioning site that appeared in Ufa created a precedent when the advantages became obvious - it is not necessary to carry products to China for processing, you can do everything at your home factory. This is a convincing practical argument that did not exist before. Now it is there, and we are taking the next steps.

For example, for the nuclear industry, we have already implemented a fairly large-scale project to obtain high-quality products of real applicability. We are talking about 20 products made of metal powders by the gas-stabilization method. There are positive results that are not disputed. Work is currently underway to homologate this approach. I have no doubt that the parts obtained meet all the required specifications. But the catch is that there are no approved, accepted and ratified standards for the use of gas-conditioning technology yet. It takes time. The entry threshold for any technology is not easy, but it cannot be delayed too long. Convincing of the expediency of development is a thankless, but very necessary task!

Gas-static pressing is an effective assistant for modern metallurgy and mechanical engineering, but not the only one. How do GYPSUM technology and 3D metallurgy interact today? Are they rivals or partners?

Victor Klochai: Today, 3D cannot yet be a mass method of obtaining parts, although if one day at least one printer is installed in every enterprise, we will come to this. In addition, there are nuances in the application of the technology - the 3D part corresponds to the specified parameters, but its surfaces also need machining. If this is not a direct cultivation of SLN, then, as a rule, an additional process of gas-stabilization of the resulting part is required after, in order to strengthen the metal, remove the formed cavities that weaken the structure. Laser and electron beam printers are already appearing, this is a slightly different story. There, incredible surfacing speeds and technologies are moving towards printing from wire, not powder. But to get high-quality wire, you need powder.

Viktor Orlov, General Director of NPO TSNIITMASH (Engineering Division of Rosatom), Doctor of Technical Sciences:

- The technology of hot isostatic pressing is one of the key technological processes, after which products made by additive methods can be used in critical components of products and structures. The thing is that after selective laser sintering of powder compositions, the parts have porosity to one degree or another and can only be used in unloaded structural elements. Thanks to the technology of hot isostatic pressing, the density of products increases, which makes it possible to increase their strength characteristics and ensure their use under the influence of tensile, cyclic or other loads.

In what direction, do you think, should gas-stabilization technology develop, which is in demand, but expensive and resource-intensive? What needs to be done to make it available to as many businesses as possible?

Viktor Klochai: I see the solution to the problem in the creation of a collective gas stabilization center. We propose to make it at the Nizhny Novgorod site of the Kulibin Technopark. Several gas stations of different sizes can be installed there and enterprises can use them. With the advent of the HYP2200 in UMPO, we receive orders from other corporations, such as USC and Rosatom, to create a megagasostat for the production of even larger parts. Already today, the issue of the GIP2600 and even GIP3200 complexes is being debated, which will open up new opportunities for the development of shipbuilding and nuclear engineering. But from an economic point of view, Ruspolimet alone cannot pull such a gas station, and there is no point in creating it only for oneself. In addition, the GIP2600 complex, having been built, cannot be moved to the customer's area, it can only be manufactured and mounted at the place where it will work. Therefore, the Federal Center for Collective Use would solve this problem. By the way, the idea to create a HYP3200 was expressed by the Deputy Minister of Industry of Russia at the launch of the gas-conditioning site in Ufa.

It is good that the government understands the importance of the new way of life in mechanical engineering. We are waiting for a meeting at the site of the Ministry of Industry with nuclear engineers, shipbuilders, aviators to understand what the loading of the new complex may be, where to install it. And we already have a vision, solutions, and we are ready for a new project. But this is the case when real state support is needed, including from the point of view of loading at the first stage, will, understanding of the task and risk sharing are needed. Here it is - scaling a new technological structure in responsible engineering. We are simply changing one technology for another, better, more profitable, more responsible, more modern, more efficient. And the experience with the HYP2200 confirms this. Today, we can say with confidence that, together with other enterprises, the Ruspolimet group of companies is ready to meet the basic needs of high-tech engineering in Russia.

Источник: «Редакция «Российской газеты» 

Three employees of Ruspolimet were awarded the title of "Honored Metallurgist of the Russian Federation" by Vladimir Putin's decree.
The honorary title was awarded to Pavel Igoshin, director of production of the enterprise, Gennady Savelov, master of the workshop of special electrometallurgy, and Vladimir Sysuev, machinist on hammers, presses and manipulators of the ring rolling workshop. On August 2, Deputy Governor of the region Andrey Gneushev presented state awards to metallurgists at a ceremony at the Rukavishnikov Museum-estate in Nizhny Novgorod.

Gennady Savelov is a hereditary metallurgist in the third generation, has been at the enterprise for more than 40 years: "He came to the plant right after school, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, who also worked at the enterprise. I am very glad to work at Ruspolimet - we have a very good team: we are building furnaces now, we do not have time, as they say, to put them into operation. Metallurgist is a fiery profession of brave, assertive and responsible people."



Vladimir Sysuev is also a hereditary metallurgist. At the plant since '95, since 2001 - on the hot site in the forging and rolling shop. "My father worked in the same workshop as a hammer machinist, was awarded the title of "Honorary Metallurgist". Children want to enroll in metallurgical specialties, and also follow in their footsteps. The main thing is to love your job, and everything will work out," the factory worker shared.