Kirovgrad carbide plant

In 1937, the People's Commissariat of Non-Ferrous Metallurgy decided to create the Ural Combined Carbide Plant in the village of Shurala, Sverdlovsk Region, but its design and construction dragged on. With the outbreak of World War II on July 16, 1941, an order was issued to organize production in adapted premises. In July 1941, the commission of the People's Commissariat for Metals selected for the new plant buildings of a city garage and a bath in the city of Kirovgrad , mechanical workshops in the village of Levikha , where a workshop for the production of tungsten anhydride was created. The Kirovgradmedrud trust and then Giproredmet were engaged in designing (chap. Engineer V.A. Ivensen, B.A. Smorgunov, M.D. Bershitsky). The equipment for the new plant was manufactured at the Nevyansk machine-building plant , in the mechanical workshop of the Kirovgrad smelter and in its own workshops (transformers, gummed equipment, rubber boots). The evacuation of the Moscow plant of hard alloys began . In September 1941, the first train arrived from Moscow, in December 1941, a chemical production was launched and the first products were obtained - tungsten anhydride and tungsten carbide ^[1] .

Plant No. 4

In February 1942, the first hard-alloy products from the charge of the Moscow hard alloys plant were obtained. In May 1942, the first batch of carbide tips for shells and cartridges was shipped. The plant has mastered the production of large cores for anti-tank shells. To provide the plant in 1942, the Ural chrompeak plant launched installations for the production of tungsten anhydride from scheelite concentrates according to the alkaline scheme, and in the city of Berezovsk, a cobalt production unit. Among workers - 70% were women and adolescents ^[1] .

After the war, the plant launched the production of tool alloys, and the tungsten acid rolling site was transferred from the village of Levikhi to the factory. In 1948, a research department was created ^[1] .

Kirovgrad carbide plant

After privatization, on October 4, 1992, the plant was reorganized into KZTS OJSC and currently the plant produces tungsten and tungsten-free hard alloys with increased resistance to abrasive wear and high strength characteristics, which are used in mining and drilling tools in metal processing and produce sintered hard alloys ^[2] . Currently there are six main workshops and more than 20 auxiliary workshops and various services ^[1] .

In 1949, the first press for automatic pressing was launched, and in 1951 half of the products were manufactured using KRP-10 automatic presses, workshops and ventilation in workshops were modernized. In 1966-1969, new workshops were launched, in 1971 - a ceramic-metal alloys workshop, sections of recycled water supply, and a boiler room. In 1984, a new tungsten production workshop was launched, and in 1993 a new hydrometallurgical workshop for the production of tungsten anhydride was launched ^[1] .

Currently, the plant's park has robotic press machines, vacuum compression sintering furnaces, carbide grinding machines, vacuum compression sintering furnaces, and the testing and analytical center is equipped with an electron microscope, X-ray analyzers, a photometric sediment meter, and a mass spectrometer and other equipment. The plant has mastered the drying of mixtures by spraying, purification of cobalt oxide and its reduction from oxalate, mastering the production of new grades of alloys ^[1] .

In different years, the plant was managed ^[1] :

• Egorov Yakov Georgievich (11.1941-07.1942);
• Zinovy ​​Borisovich Drutman (08.1942-1947).

For its achievements, the plant team was awarded ^[1] :

• September 1942 - the rolling Red Banner of the GKO was awarded.

In 1971, the production of consumer goods was mastered, as well as chip-breaking and multifaceted grinding plates, titanium carbide-based alloys, and drill bits. In 1982, the nomenclature of the plant was 17 types of products of the highest quality category. Currently, the plant produces more than six thousand shape sizes of carbide products from various alloy grades, VK-13 alloy has been mastered for reinforcing drilling tools ^[1] .