The most accurate machine in the world. The world's largest lathe. Miracle China

KOLOMENSKY UNIQUE

Machine KU299(universal carousel) processes large-sized heavy parts weighing up to 560 tons and a diameter of up to 20 meters. The machine was manufactured by the Kolomna Heavy Machine Tool Building Plant (now the brand of the STAN Group, CJSC Stankotech). In 1970 delivered to Japan for Hitachi (Osaka). This is the most complex large machine supplied abroad in the entire history of the Soviet foreign trade... Another Kolomna machine with Japanese registration - KU153F1.

KU 299

Double Column Vertical Lathe KU299 has an unusual portal layout. A massive cross member carrying calipers is installed on special pedestals that can move in a horizontal plane. The height of the installed product can be increased due to the spacers between the pedestals and the cross member. But the largest machine in the world is the single-column KU466, created in cooperation with Sсhiess. Part height can be up to 5 meters. KU466 was delivered to Volgodonsk (Atommash), then transported to China. Diameter of the workpiece to be processed up to 22 meters with a smaller outer diameter of the faceplate is achieved thanks to the support cross. The support crosspiece can consist of four, six or eight support beams ("skis"). The beams are fixed in the grooves of the faceplate. On the upper surface of each support beam, by analogy with the faceplate, T-shaped slots are provided for moving the fastening of the bodies of the parts clamping cams.

KU 466

To process the 6-meter mirror BTA (Big Azimuthal Telescope) of the Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO RAS, Nizhny Arkhyz, Karachay-Cherkessia), the Kolomna Heavy Machine Tool Plant created a special KU168 carousel machine for grinding and polishing the world's largest mirror at that time. In October 1966 it was commissioned at the Lytkarinsky Optical Glass Plant (now part of the Shvabe holding, Russian Technologies).

A device for increasing the support surface of the faceplate - support cross
with a workpiece diameter of up to 22 meters

KU 168

From 1969 to 1974, mirror No. 1 was processed. After the completion of processing and delivery of the mirror to the observatory, until 1976, the processing of mirror No. 2 was carried out. In 2008, mirror No. 1 was delivered to OJSC “LZOS” for reconstruction. The surface layer 8 mm thick was removed on the KU158 machine and the mirror was transported and installed on the KU168 machine. Machine KU168 modernized by the forces of the Kolomna plant, instead of the second retouching head, a new polishing station with program control was installed, the electro-automatic system was replaced, and repair and maintenance work was carried out.

In December 2011, the grinding of mirror No. 1 began. Then the sphere was polished, aspherized, and at present, the final polishing of the mirror No. 1 is being carried out.

KOLOMENSKY MACHINING CENTERS STANKOTECH, STAN GROUP

Production center "Stankotech" (a company of the STAN Group), together with FSUE NPO "Tekhnomash", manufactured and carried out in Kolomna the acceptance tests of a five-axis machining center of the model OCP-3000 for the Roscosmos enterprise.

OCP-3000

OCP-3000 designed for processing large-sized parts (plates, frames, cases, etc.) made of light metal alloys and composite materials. The machine can process parts of any geometric shape from five sides without reinstallation.

The OCP series concept provides wide versatility. The project of the machine is easily scalable for any dimensions of the customer's products. It is possible to use machines with gantry (bridge) kinematics. The design of the machine can be both with a two-dimensional head (five-axis version) and with angular heads (for five-sided machining of parts). An original system of automatic tool change has been developed for a two-coordinate swivel milling head.

URS-3200

Continuing the tradition of KZTS, Stankotech CJSC creates machines that amaze with the scale and originality of engineering. For example, a universal rolling mill URS-3200 designed for the manufacture of particularly accurate axisymmetric parts (cones, cylinders, shells of double curvature) by the method of combined external and internal rolling. The technology of internal and external rolling is used to produce pipes and casings for special purposes. The main advantage of this technology is the high accuracy of the geometrical dimensions of the resulting products and the strengthening of the material during the rolling process. The layout of the mill is vertical with a three-roller stand and an axially fixed mandrel for external rolling and a three-roller stand and a stationary matrix for internal rolling.

The mill can be used for both external and internal rolling. The transition from one process to another is achieved by reconfiguring the mill and installing the appropriate tool.

dimensions URS-3200 are (length x width x height): 19 340 x 17 700 x 16 185. Machine weight 700,000 kg (excluding stand-alone equipment).

KRASNODAR MACRO AND MULTI CENTERS

"Krasnodar Machine-Tool Plant Sedin" together with MSTU "Stankin" and "VNIIinstrument" in 2013 implemented a project for R&D "Creation of a precision machining center of modular design for processing very large parts with errors less than ± 4 microns" - the project "Macrocenter" or the Machining Center VMG50 / 90 "Vertimaster".

VMG50 / 90

The cost of the project is 230 million rubles, including federal budget 115 million rubles This large-sized technological complex weighing more than 150 tons has intelligent characteristics for processing aircraft and shipbuilding facilities.

Machining center VMG50 / 90 is an element of a new technological order. It implements complex technologies for machining large-sized items of complex shape and with a high class of accuracy from various structural and composite materials with dimensions of the processing space up to 4.5 x 9 x 3 meters, processing diameter of parts up to 5 meters and weighing up to 120 tons.

Multi-center

Further development of the project is proposed in the concept "Multi-center".

VORONEZH SUPER HEAVY

Unique heavyweight abs K8052 with an effort of 16,500 ton-forces manufactured in 2013 by workers of JSC "Tyazhmekhpress" for hot stamping of forgings of crankshafts and front axle beams weighing up to 240 kg of heavy vehicles.

K8052

The press belongs to the third generation of manufactured crank hot stamping presses (KGSHP) and is a unique representative of forging and stamping equipment not only in terms of nominal force and main technical specifications, but also in terms of overall dimensions: height above floor level is almost 13 meters, weight - 2,100 tons. Delivered for the Chinese car industry to a plant in Shanxi province - Shanxi Forging Plant.

In world technical practice, only two comparable KGSPs with a nominal power of 16,000 tf (made in Japan and Germany) have been created.

The press is designed as the main technological unit of an automatic line consisting of five different machines equipped with robots.

The composition of such a line includes heating furnaces (usually induction), hydraulic presses for cutting billets from heated rods, forging rollers that ensure the redistribution of metal along the sections of the billet, a crank hot stamping press KGShP (in this case 16,500 tf), an edging press, a twisting press, calibration press.

To transport the press, the customer required 28 units of a train and 4 heavy-duty auto trailers.

Demand for crankshafts and other large parts for large trucks continues to grow.

RITM magazine will continue a series of publications about unique mechanisms.

Nikolay Litvinov, Ph.D.

The world's largest lathe. Miracle China | The world "s largest lathe. Miracle China Turning lathe - a machine for cutting (turning) workpieces made of metals, wood and other materials in the form of bodies of revolution. trimming and machining of ends, drilling, countersinking and reaming of holes, etc. The workpiece receives rotation from the spindle, the cutter - the cutting tool - moves together with the slide slide from the travel shaft or the lead screw, receiving rotation from the feed mechanism. lathe group.It includes, according to the classification of the Experimental Research Institute of metal-cutting machines, nine types of machine tools that differ in purpose, design, degree of automation and other features. ) significantly expands the technological capabilities of the equipment. Lathes, semi-automatic machines and automatic machines, depending on the location of the spindle carrying the device for installing the workpiece of the workpiece, are divided into horizontal and vertical. Vertical ones are mainly intended for processing parts of significant mass, large diameter and relatively short length. The most common lathes in Soviet times were 1K62 and 16K20. The screw-cutting lathe is designed to perform a variety of turning works on ferrous and non-ferrous metals, including turning cones, cutting metric, modular, inch and pitch threads. Screw-cutting lathes are the most versatile machines of the turning group and are used mainly in single and small-batch production. The constructive layout of the machines is practically the same type. The main units of the 16K20 machine tool adopted as an example are: the bed on which all the machine mechanisms are mounted; headstock (spindle), which houses the gearbox, spindle and other elements; a feed box that transfers the movement from the spindle to the support with the required ratio (using a lead screw when cutting threads or a lead roller when processing other surfaces); an apron, in which the rotation of the screw or roller is converted into the translational movement of the caliper with the tool; a tailstock, which is designed to support the second end of the product and give it a certain position when machining in centers. Also, the tailstock is used to install various cutting tools (drills, countersinks, reamers) in it, through which the product is processed accordingly; the support serves to secure the cutting tool and communicate feed movements to it. The support consists of a lower slide (carriage) moving along the bed guides. Along the guides of the lower slide, the transverse slide, on which the incisor carriage with tool holders is located, move in a direction perpendicular to the center line. The tool carriage is mounted on a swivel part that can be installed at an angle to the center line of the machine. The main parameters of the machines are the largest diameter of the workpiece above the bed and the greatest distance between the centers. An important dimension of the machine is also the largest diameter of the workpiece to be machined above the cross slide of the support. The machines are designed for turning parts of large dimensions. On these machines, you can perform turning and boring of cylindrical and tapered surfaces, trimming ends, and cutting grooves. When equipping the machine with additional devices, it is possible to sharpen shaped surfaces using a copier. Milling, grinding, and tapping can be done. The main unit is the table. There is a faceplate on which the workpiece is attached. Two racks. The racks are connected by a portal. The traverse moves along two posts. There are two calipers on the traverse. The right caliper is a revolving caliper. It consists of a longitudinal carriage and a slider (moving vertically). A turret is located on the slider. Tool holders are installed in the holes of the turret. The revolving support is used when trimming the ends when drilling holes, sometimes for processing external surfaces. The second slide is called the boring slide. It consists of a longitudinal carriage, on which the rotary part is mounted, on which there is a slide on which the tool holder is installed. The boring carriage is used for bore boring, internal grooving and tapered surface machining. The side support is located on the right pillar. It consists of a longitudinal carriage, a slider and a tool holder and is designed for processing external surfaces. The characteristic size of boring lathes is the faceplate diameter. In hovered

The oldest mechanism still in use is dalu, a water-lifting device, known back in the days of the Sumerian civilization, which originated around 3500 BC. in the south of modern Iraq. It is older than saki, a similar structure on the Nile.

Blast furnace

The largest blast furnace has an internal volume of 5245 m 3 and a hearth diameter of 14.9 m. It is installed at the Oita plant in Kyushu, Japan. The construction was completed in October 1976. The annual productivity is 4,314,300 tons.

Catalytic cracking

The world's largest catalytic cracking unit is the Exxon refinery in Linden, New Jersey, USA. It processes 19,077,000 liters of crude oil per day.

Band conveyer

The longest single span belt conveyor is located in Western Australia and is 29 km long. Built by the English company "Cable Belt Limited".

The longest multi-span belt conveyor is 100 km long. Located between a phosphate mine near Bou Kraa and the port of El Aaiun in Morocco. Built in 1972 by the West German company Krupp. Consists of 11 spans from 9 to 11 km each. Speed \u200b\u200b- 4.5 m / s. Currently closed.

The most powerful crane

The most powerful in the world are 2 cranes installed on a semi-submerged ship Mikoperi-7000 (190 m long, 89 m wide). The cranes belong to the Officine Meccanice Reggane company, Italy, designed by the American company Hearst & Derrick, built by the Italian company Monfalcone and commissioned on December 15, 1986. Each has a lifting capacity of 6,895 tons. Together they can lift 14 thousand tons. cargo. In the first 6 months of operation, one of them lifted a record load of 5700 tons.

Gantry crane

In 1975, R. A. Hanson Discovery Limited tested a 28.14 m wide Rahko gantry crane at a hydroelectric power station in Grand Coulee with a load of 2268 tons. The generator rotor weighing 1762 tons was installed by this crane in place with an accuracy of 0.8 mm.

Highest mobile crane

The world's tallest mobile crane "Rosenkrantz K-10001" weighs 810 tons, its lifting capacity is 1000 tons, the total height (including the boom with an outreach) is 202 m. It is transported on 10 trailers of 23.06 m each, with an axle load 118 t. The crane is capable of lifting 30 t to a height of 160 m.

"Taklift-4", a crane ship of the marine company "Smith International", Rotterdam, the Netherlands, equipped with a boom height of 95 m.

Most powerful diesel engines

5 diesel engines type 12RTA84 were built by Sulzer Brothers of Winterthur, Switzerland, for sea container ships of the American company President Lines. Each 12-cylinder engine produces 41,920 kW at 95 rpm. The first of the container ships - "President Truman" - entered service in April 1988. The last of the vessels of this series was commissioned in September of the same year.

Most powerful jet engine

In 1980, at the Scientific and Production Association of Power Engineering, Moscow, USSR, the world's most powerful jet engine RD-170 was built, capable of developing a thrust of 806 thousand kg in outer space and 740 thousand kg on Earth. The engine runs on liquid oxygen and kerosene, which are injected into the combustion chamber by a 190 MW turbo pump.

Dragline

Ural Heavy Machine Building Plant named after S. Ordzhonikidze (UZTM) in Sverdlovsk, USSR, built in 1928 ... 1933, in 1958 for the first time in the world produced dragline EC-25 (100), equipped with the longest boom (100 m) and a bucket with a capacity of 25 m 3. In 1975, UZTM manufactured a walking dragline with a 100 m boom and a 100 m 3 bucket.

The largest Beat Masks walking dragline manufactured by Byusyrus Erie (Model 4250 W), with a total weight of 11,820 tonnes, with a bucket capacity of 168 m 3 and a boom length of 94.4 m. This is the largest self-propelled ground vehicle in operation today. time at the Muskingham coal mine, Central Ohio Cole, Ohio, United States.

Bulldozer

The largest bulldozer in the world is the T-800, first produced in 1984 by the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant named after IN AND. Lenin, commissioned in 1933.By the beginning of 1990, 9 of these 100-ton machines with a capacity of 820 hp were manufactured.

Earth loader

The giant wheel loader, designed by the SMEC consortium of 11 plants in Tokyo, Japan, for open pit coal mining in Australia, weighs 180 tons.Its length is 16.8 m, rubber tire diameter is 3.5 m, bucket volume is 19 m ...

Excavators

The world's largest 13,000-ton bucket wheel excavator is being installed at a brown coal open pit in Gambach, West Germany. Its capacity is 200 thousand m 3 of coal in a 20-hour working day, length - 210 m, height - 82 m, wheel circumference - 67.88 m, bucket capacity - 5 m 3.

The front of the Marion-6360 excavator is 72.16 m horizontally and 46.63 m vertically, its bucket capacity is 46 m 3, and its weight is 11 thousand tons. It was produced in 1964 by Marion Power Shovel, state Ohio, USA. 20 electric motors with a total capacity of 45 thousand hp drive a 67.2 m boom. The unit is operated by Archmineral Corporation in an open pit mine near Percy, Illinois, USA.

Escalator

This term was registered in the United States on May 28, 1900, but even earlier, in 1896, Jesse Reno installed an "inclined escalator" on a pier in Coney Island, New York, USA.

The longest horizontal “moving walk”, 225 m long, was commissioned in 1970 at the New Trade Center, Düsseldorf, West Germany.

The world's longest vertical 4-section escalator is installed in Ocean Park, Hong Kong. Its total length is 227 m, the vertical rise is 115 m.

The longest escalator (729 steps) in the USSR is located at the Lenin Square station in the Leningrad metro. Its vertical rise is 59.68 m.

Forging

The record for forging is a 16.76-meter generator shaft weighing 204.4 tons. Made for Japan in October 1973 by the American company Bethlehem Steel, Pennsylvania.

Forklift truck

Counterbalanced forklift trucks of the Swedish company Kalmar LMV are capable of lifting a load of 80 tons with an offset of 2300 mm. They were built to lay large-diameter pipes for the construction of the Libyan Great Man-Made River Pipeline.

Lathe

The largest lathe (length - 38.4 m, weight - 416.2 t) was built by the West German company Waldrich Siegen in 1973 by order of the Electricity Commission from Rocherville, South Africa. It is capable of handling parts weighing 300 tons. The diameter of its swivel base is 5 m.

Largest lifting operation

In the history of engineering, the largest lifting operation was the lifting of the all-prefabricated offshore drilling complex "Ekofisk" with a total length of 1.6 km. The need for the rise was caused by the sinking of the bottom of the North Sea. The complex consists of 8 platforms with a total weight of about 40 thousand tons. During August 17 and 18, 1987, the complex was raised 6.5 m using 122 hydraulic jacks combined into a computer-controlled hydraulic system. The system was designed and built by the Dutch company "Hydrodin Systems and Engineering" of the concern "Mannesmann-Texroth".

Slowest mechanism

The Nuclear Resonance Corrosion Stress Control Device was developed by Nene Instruments of Wellingborough, UK. It can be controlled at a rate of one trillionth of a millimeter per minute, or 1 meter in 2000 million years.

Nuts

The largest nuts weigh 4.74 tonnes each, have an outer diameter of 132 cm and have a 63.5 cm thread. Known as “Pilgrim Nuts”, these are manufactured by Pilgrim Moorside Limited of Oldham, UK, for use on the columns of a large forging press.

Oil tanker

In March 1980 in Juaima, Saudi Arabia, the construction of 5 of the world's largest oil tankers belonging to the Aramco company has been completed. Their height is 21.94 m, diameter - 117.6 m, capacity - 1.5 million barrels.

Passenger elevator

On April 5, 1978, in the Ikebukuro area, Tokyo, Japan, the construction of the 240-meter Sunshine 60 skyscraper was completed with the fastest passenger elevators that take passengers to the 60th floor. The elevators were built by Mitsubishi and operate at a speed of 609.6 m / min, or 36.56 km / h.

Higher speeds are developed by the lifting stands in the shafts. In South Africa, the cage (Western Deep Levels Limited) is lowered to a depth of 2,072 m at a speed of 65.2 km / h, or 1,095 m / min. Ears begin to lay already at a speed of 16 km / h.

Presses

2 American closed die forging presses are the most powerful industrial machines in the world. The Luvy forging press, leased from the US Air Force by Wyman-Gordon and installed at the North Grafton, Massachusetts, USA plant, weighs 9326 tons with a total height of 34.79 m, of which 20.1 m is sunk below the working level. Its nominal capacity is 43,931 tons. It began operation in October 1955. A similar press was installed at the plant of the Aluminum Company of America in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

The unbalanced forging hammer of the firm "Besche and Gros" (Germany) develops an effort of 60 thousand tons.

It is reported that at the Novokramatorsk Machine-Building Plant named after IN AND. Lenin, Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, a forging press with a capacity of 75 thousand tons is in operation.

In January 1986, the Kintus company installed the world's most powerful hydraulic stamping press with a capacity of 106 thousand tons at the factories of the BMW automobile manufacturer in Munich, Germany.

Typewriter

Electrosensitive system of the company "Radiation Incorporated" located in the laboratory. Lawrence, Livermore, California, USA, can print 30 thousand lines per minute, each of which contains 120 printable characters. This speed is achieved by passing electronic pulses through chemically impregnated paper moving at high speed under closely spaced writing pins. Thus, this machine can print the entire text of the Bible (773,692 words) in 65 seconds, which is 3306 times faster than the most skilled typist in the world.

Radar installations

The largest of the three US ballistic missile early warning radar installations is located near the village of Thule, Calatdlit-Nunat, Greenland, 1498 km from the North Pole. It was built in 1960 at a cost of $ 500 million. Associated stations were built in 1961 at Cape Clear, Alaska, USA, and in June 1963 at Filingdales Moor, UK.

The world's largest scientific radar facility in Jicamarca, Peru, covers an area of \u200b\u200b84,000 m 2.

Cable cars

The longest cable car (76 km), built in 1959 ... 1962, belongs to the Komilog company. It was built for a manganese mine in Moanda, Gabon and has 858 derricks and 2,800 ladles. The 155-kilometer wire rope passes through 6,000 deflection rollers.

The highest and longest passenger cable car in the world Teleferico Merida in Venezuela stretches from the city of Merila (1639.5 m above sea level) to the summit of Pico Espejo (4763.7 m). The cable car consists of 4 spans, including 3 transfer sites along a 12.8 km ascent in 1 hour. The 4th span has a length of 3069 m. 2 cabins, operating on a pendulum system, move along a load-bearing cable under the thrust of 3 cables, driven by a 230 hp motor. The maximum cabin capacity is 45 passengers, the speed is 9.7 m / s (35.08 km / h). Passengers experience a height difference of 3124 m.

The longest single-span aerial tramway entered service in California, USA on September 12, 1963. It takes passengers from the Coachella Valley to Mount San Jacinto (3298 m). The length of its span is 4114 m.

Snow plow

The 9.83 m long blade plow was designed and built by Thomas Sedgwick Construction of Syracuse, NY, USA for Hancock International Airport. With a snow cover thickness of 15.24 cm in 1 hour, it can remove 6499 m 3 of snow.

Transformers

The 8 largest single-phase transformers in the world have a capacity of 1.5 million kVA. The transformers are owned by the American company Electric Power Service. 5 of them reduce the voltage from 765 to 345 kV.

Power lines

The longest span between the transmission towers crosses the Sognefjord in Norway between Rabnaberg and Fatlaberg. Supplied in 1955 by Whitecross, Warrington, UK, designed and built by A. S. Betonmast "from Oslo from the Refsdal power plant in Vike, this section of the high-voltage power cable has a length of 4888 m and a weight of 12 tons. In 1967, two more high-strength lines (steel - aluminum) with a length of 4878 m and a weight of 33.5 tons were erected here. manufactured by Whitecross and BIKK.

The world's highest lines cross the Strait of Messina, Italy. On the Sicilian side, the height of the support is 205 m, on the Calabrian side - 224 m.The distance between the supports is 3627 m.

Highest voltage. Currently, the highest voltage (1330 thousand volts) has a 1970-kilometer high-voltage DC line "Pacific Interty" in the United States.

High-voltage direct current lines from EGRES-1, Ekibastuz, Kazakhstan, will have a voltage of 1500 thousand V with a length of 2400 km.

Damper

The world's largest butterfly valve, 9.75 meters in diameter and 170 tonnes in weight, was designed by Boving & Company Limited in London for the US Air Force for a test site in Tennessee.

Steel ropes

The longest in the world are 4 ropes manufactured by the British company "British Ropes Limited". The length of each is 24 km. The cross-section of each cable is 35 mm, weight - 108.5 tons. They were made by order of the Central Electricity Council of Great Britain for laying an energy cable across the English Channel. The power of the cable is 2000 MW.

The thickest steel cables are spliced \u200b\u200bcrane slings, woven from wire cables 28.2 cm thick, each of which is in turn made of 2,392 individual wires. These ropes were manufactured in March 1979 by British Ropes Limited and are intended for lifting loads weighing up to 3000 tons.

The 4 heaviest ropes weighed 130 tonnes each and were manufactured by Huggy Rand Limited in Johannesburg for a double shaft mine in Western Deep Levels gold mines, South Africa.

The diameter of the suspension cables of the Big Bridge in Seto, Japan, opened in 1988, is 104 cm.

Aerodynamic tube

The world's largest wind tunnel entered service on December 11, 1987 at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, USA. Its dimensions are 12x24 m, it has 6 motors with a capacity of 22,500 hp. each creating an air flow of 555 km / h.

Guinness Book of Records, 1998

Tales are no longer told about the current machine tool industry. It is believed that it does not exist. According to the common stereotype, the Russian economy is purely raw materials, our entire industry is a "screwdriver assembly", and of course, industrial equipment is exclusively imported.

Well, as they say, there is some truth in every joke, and stereotypes rarely arise from scratch. It is all the more joyful sometimes to learn that reality is more complicated than jokes and stereotypes. And much more optimistic. Our bus rolls slowly along an asphalt path, the edges of which are crumbling like a sand cake. Puddles of dull beige color are crumbling right into unkempt lawns. The surrounding view is not pleasing to the eye: in Soviet factories, they did not really dabble in landscape design, and here there are traces of twenty years of decline in everything. The picture is very characteristic and seen more than once.

Hard to come up with the best way to show the cyclopean scale of the mills that were produced by the Kolomna Heavy Machine Tool Plant. Dozens of people on the faceplate!

From "software" to "hard"

We are on the territory of the Kolomna Heavy Machine Tool Building Plant, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year. IN Russian Empire here they started with horse-drawn carriages, then, in Soviet times, they made cannons, and finally moved on to machine tools. ZTS was a real giant of the Soviet industry and occupied a huge territory, which is now divided among several legal entities... In general, something happened that usually happened with this kind of enterprises in the years when the country was carried away by trade and finance: the plant went bankrupt. It turned out that Russian machines were not needed not only by the Japanese. And yet the centenary of the famous plant did not become a mourning date. Slowly, step by step, here in Kolomna, and also in Sterlitamak, Ivanovo and other cities, the Russian machine tool industry is being reborn.

And here's what's interesting. The people who stood at the origins of the new life of the famous Kolomna plant are by no means from the heavy industry. They came from the very "knowledge economy". Back in 1995, a group of students, graduate students and graduates of the Moscow "Stankin" united into a production team and began to fulfill orders from Western machine-tool companies for the development of software for automated systems management. There was no question of any "heavy metal" - that was the era when programmers and "computer scientists" in general were the heroes of the day. Gradually, the sphere of activity and the circle of partners of the team - now it became known as CJSC Stankotech - expanded. There was an interest not only in the creation of software for machine tools, but also in their modernization, re-equipment based on modern CNC tools. Finally, in 2011, Stankotech CJSC came to Kolomna. The company took over the bankrupt enterprise SKB-ZTS LLC, created on the basis of the precision machine tools workshop of the former Kolomna Heavy Machine Building Plant. In these areas with a glorious history, the "machine-tool workers" began to create a new enterprise, which now not only modernizes old machines, but also produces new ones. In 2013, CJSC Stankotech, which manages the production in Kolomna, merged with the machine-tool plant in Sterlitamak (NPO Machine-Tool Building) to form the STAN group. In October of this year, it was announced that two more machine-tool factories in Ryazan and Ivanovo were joining the group.

In the photo, the pipe bender is doing its slow but very delicate job. Under the control of a computer, it creates complex three-dimensional configurations from pipes - such parts are used, in particular, in rocket fuel systems. Another novelty of JSC "Stankotech", which is located in the factory shop, is a machining center model OTsP 300, which is designed for processing large-sized parts (plates, frames, cases) made of light metal alloys and composite materials. The machine can machine parts of any geometric shape from five sides without reinstallation.

The machines that are being built and will be built today in Kolomna are not at all ordinary equipment. A unique pipe bender has been manufactured and is operating in the workshop, a universal rolling mill URS-3200 is gradually being implemented in metal, a machine for cutting out wafer backgrounds is being designed. No, confectionery it has nothing to do with it, and just listing the names of these machines is enough for a knowledgeable person to understand which industry needed the latest Russian machine tools. But first of all, about the Japanese.

Carousels are not for fun

The choice that Stankotech CJSC made at the Kolomenskoye ZTS (more precisely, for the time being on its part) was not at all accidental. The plant, despite its complex and typical for modern times fate, possessed, as they say now, the competence high level (and partially preserved it) in the field of creating unique superheavy industrial equipment. In 1970, ZTS specialists built a universal carousel machine KU299. Its gigantic faceplate could accommodate parts with a diameter of up to 20 m and a weight of up to 560 tons. The machine was exported, becoming the most complex large machine the Soviet Union ever sold abroad. The buyer was ... the Japanese company Hitachi - experts from the Land of the Rising Sun did not find anything better in the world for processing extra-large parts (mainly for energy needs). Another Kolomna carousel machine - KU153F1 - went to Japan. An even larger machine - according to some data the largest in the world - was manufactured by the Koloment workers for the Volgodonsk Atommash. The part processed on the KU466 machine can have a height of up to 5 m, the diameter of the workpiece - up to 22 m! This machine is now working in China. The KU168 carousel machine was manufactured in 1966 to solve a unique problem: the six-meter mirror of the Large Azimuth Telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the USSR Academy of Sciences, located in the North Caucasus, was polished on it.

Roll and cut

It is not easy for the new owners of Kolomna production - they inherited not only glorious traditions, but also the consequences of decline. Work is in full swing in the shops, machines are being built and modernized, while numerous economic and organizational problems remain on the agenda. In some rooms, the roof had to be repaired. The issue of autonomous heating and water supply for each workshop is being resolved. Negotiations are underway to return to the production of those factory premises that are currently occupied by other firms. In one of these "alien" workshops there is a furnace for annealing huge parts (in the furnace, the metal surface is "artificially aged" for subsequent machining). The length of the furnace is 30 m, the width and height are 5 m each. Someday, hands will reach the arrangement of the territory, but the main thing is that the production has started.

When the machine is working, it is always noticeable. The shafts are spinning, the cutters are buzzing, the calipers are moving. But the pipe bender is an exception. Its work is slow and imperceptible, like the movement of an hour hand. You can only see how at the point of entry of the pipe into the machine it is red-hot. It would seem, what is the technical difficulty here? It's simple if you need to make a primitive "knee" out of a pipe. But if this pipe is, say, part fuel system rocket, then it will have to be bent into a very complex configuration so that it fits exactly into the dimensions of the unit. In order to get a pipe that forms a given three-dimensional shape, you need a CNC machine. Only a computer is capable of controlling this slow process with precise precision.

The URS-3200 mill is designed for the manufacture of highly accurate axisymmetric parts (cones, cylinders, shells of double curvature) by the method of combined external and internal rolling. The technology of internal and external rolling is used to produce pipes and casings for special purposes. Its main advantage is the high accuracy of the geometric dimensions of the products obtained and the strengthening of the material during the rolling process. The layout of the mill is vertical with a three-roller stand and an axially fixed mandrel for external rolling, with a three-roller stand and a stationary die for internal rolling. The mill can be used for both external and internal rolling. The transition from one process to another is achieved by reconfiguring the mill and installing the appropriate tool.

Another brainchild of ZAO Stankotech is the URS-3200 universal rolling mill, which is designed for the production of particularly precise axial parts - cones, cylinders, double-curved shells - by the method of combined external and internal rolling. 3200 is the maximum diameter in millimeters of the same cylindrical or tapered part that can be created on the machine, and this is a very impressive figure. At the same time, the height of the part can reach 1 m. The mill has not yet been built, but its large-sized parts are already stored in the shop. JSC "Stankotech" makes special bets on this machine, because its parameters have no analogues in the world. The machine works with precision precision and will create parts that have no seams. Rolling (as opposed to welding from a sheet) allows, due to the compaction of the metal, to make the walls of products 20% thinner than with traditional technologies, and at the same time they can withstand much higher loads. Such equipment will find its application primarily in aerospace, for example, in the construction of rocket engines and command, that is, the most critical from the point of view of design, parts of missiles. Previously, the domestic industry produced similar machines, but only external rolling was used there, besides, the maximum diameter of the part reached only 2.5 m. In other words, the new equipment will raise the domestic rocketry to a higher technological level.

And finally, about the waffle background, which, as already mentioned, has nothing to do with the confectionery industry. Kolomenskoye ZTS had experience in building machines for creating waffle backgrounds, and today new machines with this function are already being designed at the Stankotech Design Bureau. The waffle background is created on parts with a curved surface to lighten the product while maintaining its strength. With the help of a milling head, the machine selects a part of the metal, leaving square indentations (cells) on the surface, separated by walls. Here high accuracy is required, since the depth of the cells and the thickness of the walls must have strictly specified dimensions. In addition, the product should not undergo deformation during processing. To solve the last problem in the new design, processing will be carried out by milling heads from both sides at once, that is, the force of one head will be compensated by the force of the other. Simultaneous machining of the part will be carried out in 32 axes. The customer of the machine is Roscosmos.

Of course, we have listed only a few flagship projects of the renewed Kolomna production, but it is already clear from them that one of the engines of the revival of the domestic machine tool industry was the emergence of serious customers, in particular in the rocket and space industry. The unification of scattered fragments of the former Soviet industry into vertically integrated corporations (despite all the controversy of certain aspects of this process) has caused an ever-growing demand for re-equipping enterprises with new industrial equipment. Next to the newly built machines there will be modernized machines. A heavy machine is like a ship, its main parts can remain operational for decades, and individual mechanisms and, of course, the control system can be replaced with more modern ones.