STEEL ROLLING PLANTS AT THE Z A K A V K A Z M E T A L L U R G I C A L WORKS

Since the first postwar Soviet 1000 mm blooming mill was put into operation at the Zakavkaz Metallur- gical Works, work on its mechanization and automation has been in progress.

The transfer of ingots from the soaking pits to the mill is fully automated. The ingot buggy is automat- ically stopped at the appropriate pits and then the crane drags the ingot out of the chamber and places it on the cage of the ingot buggy. The operator of the crane gives the signal for the movement of the ingot buggy towards the receiving roller tables. Before the roller tables the buggy is decelerated and stopped, and the signal for lowering the cage is given. The ingot is removed from the buggy by the receiving roller tables. After the ingot is removed, the cage is raised and the ingot buggy goes back to a given group of soaking pits.

Brush-contact data transmitters, developed in the automation laboratory at our works, are employed for fixing the position of the ingot buggy. The transmitters ensure a reliable operation of the whole system.

The stamping of the hot material on the line was, until recently, the most arduous operation, requiring the expenditure of much manual labor. Now a stamping machine designed by TsNIITMASH* has been installed behind the hot-cutting shears, for stamping blooms and slabs on the 1000 mill. As a result of the introduction of this machine two markers have been made free for other duties.

A stamping machine, designed by an inventor at our works, V. O. Attarian, has been installed in the line of the tube-round mill. It stamps the tube rounds automatically. Owing to the adoption of this machine, the heavy labor of markers has been completely eliminated.

Machine for external and internal painting of tubes.

Stamping machine designed by V. G. Attarian for stamping tube rounds.

In the return line of the same mill a new stamping machine designed by V. G. Attarian, which stamps two square billets simukaneously even if their ends are not in alignment, has been installed.

On the largest,(400) tube mill in Europe for the production of large-diameter seamless tubes, a centering apparatus for tube rounds, on the model of the pneumatic gun of Andreev's design, has been set up above the roller tables behind the ring furnaces. This arrangement has made it possible to eliminate manual centering of tube rounds with a gas burner and to ensure a high efficiency and quality of the centering operation.

* Central Scientific Research Institute of Technology and Machinery.

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Machine designed by V. G. Attarian for stamping square bil lets in the return line,

Centering the tube rounds on the production line before the piercing stands of the 400 mil l .

The first piercing stand of the 400 mi l l has been converted for operation with mandrels which are in ternal ly cooled and need not be changed, and in this way the heavy manual labor of operators on mandrel changes can be e l imina t ed , the consumption of costly meta l for the manufacture of pipe equipment can be reduced,and the qua l i ty of tubes improved.

A 112 m long section of the production l ine has been converted to automat ic control. Al l the operations

in the section of the roughing and the shaping mil ls and in the section from the shaping mi l l s to the sizing machines have been automated.

A machine for the internal and external paint ing of the tubes has been designed at our Works and put into

operat ion; the labor-consuming operation was e l imina ted and the qual i ty of paint ing was improved.

THE KRIVOROZHSTAL W O R K S

V. V. K u z ' m e n k o

Deputy Head of section mi l l plant

M. A. S u k o n n i k

Head of the Techn ica l Department

The main production plants of the Krivorozhstal Works were reconstructed or erected in the postwar period. T h e Works has the most modern technologica l equipment and the automation and mechanizat ion of t echnologica l processes and labor-consuming operations is very extensively applied.

In recent years, hundreds of t echn ica l improvements , fac i l i ta t ing the work of operators and making a number of workers free for other duties in new plants, have been introduced.

At the sinter plant, the movement of se l f -unloading cars on the charge bunkers was automated by means of end throw-off; an automation scheme for the switch of the p la te feeders of the iron ore receiv ing bunkers was introduced and thus a better blending of ore mixture was made possible; au tomat ic control of proportioning tables of the bunkers in the charge section was introduced. Owing to the pneumat ic removal of dust from the mult icyclones, arranged at one of the sinter machines, much less labor is expended on the operation of the two- valve openings and belt conveyers, and working conditions are improved.

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