ON THE WAY T O C O M P L E T I O N OF THE SEVEN - Y E A R PLAN (UDC 669.1: 338.93) S. V. M a k a e v Nizhne-Tagil Metallurgical Combine Translated from Metallurg, No. 7, pp. 4-5, July, 1965

The collective of the Nizhne-Tagil Combine, one of the largest metallurgical enterprises of the Central Urals, which is 25 years old this month, was faced with great tasks in this current Seven-Year Plan. The production of pig iron during this period was to be increased by 50.5%, steel by 22%, roiled product by 22.5% The metallurgists of the Nizhne-Tagil Combine have done a great job toward overfulfitling the planned quotas during the six years of the Seven-Year Plan. The work has mainly proceeded along the line of perfecting technology, improving quality, increasing the output on existing equipment, reconstruction and modernization of units, and the early start-up of various objects, The struggle of the collective for metal in excess of the plan was crowned with success. The level for the last year of the Seven-Year Plan was achieved in 1961 for steel, in 1963 for rolled product, and in 1964 for pig iron. During the six years of the Seven-Year Plan the annual increment of production was 3-4% In 1965, judging by the results of the first quarter, the rate of increment has increased. Now the periods of completing the SevenYear Plan with respect to total production are clearly evident. The Seven-Year Plan for steel has already been fulfilled on March 10,1965 and we propose to fulfill the plan for pig iron at the beginning of December and for roiled products in August. During the past years an increment of production those already operating, by exhaust fans by wider ones,

of the Seven-Year Plan the production of sinter at our Combine increased 66.2% Such was achieved by introducing two new sinter belts and by increasing the sintering area of replacing the sinter exhaust fans by more productive ones and the rotors on the old and also by improving the technology of sintering.

To increase the number of charges and to increase the quality of sinter, more productive ball mills, twot spiral classifiers, and drum separators of the type 167-SE with permanent magnets were installed at the wet magnetic concentrating plants. This made it possible to increase the content of iron in the sinter from 51.1% at a basicity of 1.01 in 1958 to 52.8% with a basicity of 1.18 in 1964 (together with the open-hearth sinter). The blast-furnace shop of the combine produced,along with conversion pig iron, pig irons requiring considerable labor (foundry cast iron, vanadium cast iron, etc.). Therefore the volume efficiency of the blast furnaces, which was 0.688 in 1964, was systematically improved, but nevertheless it lagged behind that achieved by the leading plants of the country. The consumption of coke (without natural gas and fuel oil) for the production of conversion pig iron in 1964 was 613 k g / t and the production of pig iron per worker in the shop was almost 7000 tons. The start-up of a powerful blast furnace with a volume of 1,719 m 3, the reconstruction of existing furnaces and hot-blast stoves, the introduction of new techniques and an improvement in the technology of biast-furnace operation during the six years of the Seven-Year Plan provided an increase in the production of pig iron by a factor of 1.5. Data are given below concerning the changes in the main technical and economic indexes of blast-furnace production during the years of the Seven-Year Plan: Year ............... Volume

efficiency

......

Hot-blast temperature, ~ Coke

consumption,

kg/t

1958

1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

0.752

0.751

0.718

0,715

0.694

0.691

0.688

1965 (Ist qtr.) 0,665

.

837

826

855

890

910

904

945

977

..

673

658

646

634

612

608

613

588

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In the six years of the Seven-Year Plan the production of steel at the Combine has increased 48%. Based on hourly productivity and annual production of m e t a l per unit our 400-t furnaces have the best indexes in the Soviet Union. The production of steel per 1 square meter of hearth area in 1964 for these furnaces was 11.7 t and on the s m a l l furnaces 9.06 t, the production per worker was respectively 2,429 and 1,558 t, the consumption of m e t a l scrap was 1,09'7 k g / t . Control of the heating schedules was automated on the furnaces, oxygen has been used since 1956 as an intensifier, and since the beginning of this year natural gas from the Gazlinskii deposit has been the m a i n type of fuel. An increase in the weight of the m e l t with a simultaneous decrease of its duration has h a d a great effect on increasing the productivity of the furnaces. The weight of the m e l t increased from 403 t in 1963 to 419 t in the first quarter of 1965. Steel production has also increased as a result of starting three new open-hearth furnaces. There was an increase in the productivity of the roiling mills, which in 1964 in relation to 1963 was: for the blooming m i l l 106.3% for the r a i l - a n d - s t r u c t u r a l m i l l 105.7~ for the 6 8 0 - m i l l 103.3% and for the plate m i l l 101.3%. In these six years the production of rolled product at the Combine has increased 40% The productivity of the blooming m i l l with respect to charging increased 59%. A decisive role in improving the work of the section mills was played by the reconstruction of the blooming m i l l which was carried out in 1963, as a result of which its productivity rose 25%. The output of c o m m e r c i a l rolled product increased exclusively by improving the work of the existing mills. The productivity of the sheet m i l l increased 17.19, the w h e e l - r o l l i n g m i l l by 23.3%, and the r a i l and-structural m i l l by 2.3%. The consumption of m e t a l per ton of yield drops from year to year. Thus, the consumption of m e t a l per 1 t of roiled product was approximately 7500 t less in 1964 than in 1968 for all rolling shops. It is also necessary to point out that the increase of production was helped by introducing the progressive experience of leading enterprises of the country. The plan for new techniques at the combine was fulfilled, as a result of which 3,116,000 rubles were saved. Among the most important measures with respect to new techniques were the following: modernization of two sintering beIts with an increase of the sintering area; the production of formaHte resins, light and heavy pyridine bases; the mastering of the technology of producing new refractory articles; the mastering of the technology of producing vanadium cast iron from Kachkanar ores and its conversion in the converter shop with the production of vanadium slag and i n t e r m e d i a t e products; the production of open-hearth steel from the i n t e r m e d i a t e products; the roiling of No. 60 beams and the shoe band for the DT-250 tractor; the c o m p l e tion of the construction of the m e c h a n i z e d department for dressing tube products, etc. As a result of improving the t e c h n i c a l and e c o n o m i c indexes and the introduction of new techniques and organizational and t e c h n i c a l measures, the ptan for production costs was overfulfilled. There was a savings of 1,716,000 rubles froth the excess reduction of production costs in 1964. Also overfulfilled was the plan for a c c u mulations, the profit in excess of the plan from the r e a l i z a t i o n of production was 1,306,000 rubles and the profitableness during 1964 was 13.43%. Intraplant cost accounting prompted to a considerable extent the decrease in production costs in excess of the plan. The interrelationships between shops at our plant are regulated m a i n l y by a plan which defines the quantity and quality of product shipped to another department and which establishes the delivery periods, which are refined by operative schedules, and the costs of goods and services. In the case of any deviations from the normal working conditions and quality of goods, the intershop relations are regulated by the principles of cost accounting. In conformity with the principles of cost-accounting interrelationships in effect at the combine, deductions from the cost price of inferior goods and sums of other claims are excluded from the economy of the shop. Additional payments for high quality and other claims are reckoned in the e c o n o m y of the shop. The principal regulating c o s t - a c c o u n t i n g interrelationships are established between the blast-furnace and open-hearth shops, between the open-hearth and rolling shops, etc. Deductions and additional payments are taken into account outside of the system and are entered as an additional corrective when determining the c o s t - a c c o u n t ing cost price for awarding bonuses to the engineers and technicians. This is a great motivation for improving the quality of raw m a t e r i a l s and goods, their prompt delivery to the consumer shops and, u l t i m a t e l y , for reducing costs. Furthermore, 188 sections at the combine are on an intrashop cost accounting system and 491 e c o n o m i c

358

accounts have been opened. The engineers and technicians of the main sections of the principal shops receive a bonus based on the cost-accounting results of the section regardless of the results of the cost price of the shop, The fulfillment of the Seven-Year Plan is a prerequisite for the further, even greater, increase of capacities with respect to all types of production, Here great qualitative changes will occur in the development of production at the combine in the near future. The design capacity of the first sintering belt of the Kachkanar Mining and Concentration Combine, which supplies one blast furnace, is successfully being mastered and by the end of the third quarter of this year the second belt will be started up. Vanadium cast iron will be produced on two blast furnaces. Oxygen converters will receive a full charge and the quantity of vanadium slag sent to the Chusovskii Plant will be doubled. The development of the ore base, in particular of the Kachkanar Mining and Concentration Combine, will make it possible, together with a further improvement of the technology of blast-furnace melting, to begin very soon the construction of a new powerful blast furnace. An appreciable increase in the production of pig iron will permit us to finish the construction of the oxygen converter shop. With the construction of the third converter and the complex of auxiliary structures (composition preparation department, stripper department, second mixer, and certain others) for the processing of vanadium cast irons, steel will be produced by the duplex process "converter-converter" to provide metal for the planned powerful wide-flange beam rolling mill. In one of the open-hearth shops a continuous casting unit will be constructed in 1966 to supply slabs to the plate rail1, which will soon undergo reconstruction and m o d e r n i z a t i o n - a four-high reversing rolling mill witl be installed, the steam machine will be replaced by an electric motor, modern heating furnaces will be built in place of the old. A department for the heat treatment of sheet metal is planned. The construction of the heat-treatment department for oil quenching of rails, whose wear-resistance will increase by a factor of 2-2.5, is being completed. Extensive investigations which were carried out together with institutes showed that with the use of oxygen and natural gas in the open-hearth furnaces we can appreciably increase the production of steel. But the realization of these possibilities is limited by the load capacity of the auxiliary sections. Drop press-shears and a new powerful baling press wiI1 be installed in the near future at the Nizhne-Tagii Metallurgical Combine and other measures wiil be carried out to increase the weight of the metal scrap in the charging buggy. It is proposed to remove the preparation of the pouring ladies beyond the limits of the pouring bay, to install bracket cranes at each furnace, to widely introduce pouring through large-diameter nozzles (70 m m and higher) in order to maximally release the ladle cranes and thus markedly increase the throughput of the span. The collective of the combine persistently works for an improvement in the quality of production, and we will do everything so that the goods of our enterprise meet the level of the best world standards. The selfless labor of the Tagil metallurgists during the years of the Seven-Year Plan is a direct guarantee of this.

359