The high quality of Zaporizhstal JSC rolled products, supplied to the foreign and domestic markets, is the basic factor of its competitiveness. Today, under the conditions of the world economic tendencies, requirements regarding improvement of the quality of the products on all processing stages are especially sharp. The main specialist for rolling production of Zaporizhstal JSC O. V. Simenenko tells how these problems are being solved at the Works.
– Oleg Vladimirovich, what has been done in the recent years to improve the quality of the rolled products?
– Recently an in-depth analysis of the fulfillment of measures on modernization and reconstruction of the rolling production has been carried out. It testifies the major efforts on implementation of the technical policy of Zaporizhstal JSC, determined by the initiative of the Chairman of the Board V. A. Satskiy. One of the large-scale projects was commissioning of the intermediate coiling device “Coil-box”. This made it possible to considerably improve the parameters of hot-rolled steel, to maintain more precise control of the surface, its thickness, flatness, etc. Among others were commissioning of the coil hoist device for lifting coils of weight up to 16 tons and a device for setting the protruding turns of hot-rolled coils on the conveyer of hot strip mill 1680, reconstruction of the drives of the finishing group in the hot strip mill shop. A lot has been done to improve the cooling system of the rolls. In the cold rolling mills shop No.1 furnaces for annealing metal in hydrogen atmosphere with a protective atmosphere station, as well as shearing aggregate No.5, were introduced. And these are only some of the technical re-equipment measures.
– How efficient is the introduction of the new equipment?
– Any modernization requires a lot of expenditures and efficient organization of the programme fulfillment. For example, expenditures only on the fulfillment of the measures, noted in order No. 381 dated 10.10.2001 which are directed towards the reduction of the production of rolled products with inferior quality, improvement of the quality and competitiveness of the Works’ products on the domestic and world markets, have totaled to 32 mln 346 thousand UAH. At the same time the total efficiency in 5 years has amounted to 75 mln 952 thousand 960 UAH. Rejection of hot-rolled products with inferior quality has reduced from 5.97% to 3.09%, cold-rolled — from 3.4% to 1.5%. The main thing is that the quality of the products, the productivity and working conditions of the rollers have considerably improved.
– What are the rollers dealing with at present?
– All the Works’ services are involved in the improvement of rolling production and that is why not only the workers of the rolling shops participate in this job. Measures regarding further technical re-equipment are carried out in complex. All the departments are taking part in their realization: design, chief mechanic, automation, etc. Concrete tasks are being set before each service and subdivision and they are targeted for further prospects. Their fulfillment is accurately coordinated and controlled. In particular, in the rolling shops the work is organized in such a way to fully process and restore all the waste which occurs during the technical process, into useful items. Special divisions have been organized for this purpose. At present shearings, nonstandard pieces and all the rejections are not delivered to the scrap preparation shop. They are processed for further realization. The demand of small-size rolled products, corrugated flooring, standard sized sheets and many others is quite high on the domestic market.
– What future prospects are foreseen for Zaporizhstal rolling production?
– Vitaliy Antonovich Satskiy’s aim and the dream of all Zaporizhstal workers is the construction of the converter shop and transfer to cast sections which will considerably change the functions and the tasks of rolling production. The products’ quality in the whole technological line will improve. In the near future measures regarding improvement of the products’ quality will cover all of the shops. For the realization of many of them provision of finance is needed. In many cases, due to the situation in the world, we cannot accomplish many projects. A good example is the delay in the accomplishment of the construction of the hydro-chloric acid pickling unit, irrespective of the fact that the whole design estimate documentation is available and the modern equipment has been purchased and is kept in the store house of the Works. I am convinced that soon we will be able to realize this project and many others. This will give a new impulse to improve the image of the Works and the quality of its goods.