Quality is under control

Technical Control Department (TCD) celebrated its birthday at the beginning of the year. Specialists of the department know more than anyone else that quality of the products is a face of the plant!

Work of TCD is intimately connected with the main production divisions. Department is responsible for control and testing of the products before its shipment to the customer. In addition, employees of the department are involved in the control of raw materials and returnable package.

TCD is a tightly-welded team of employees and professional working personnel. Department consist of three divisions: Technical Control Bureau (TCB) of uranium and tantalum products and TCD of the beryllium production division. At the present moment there are fifty-six (56) quality inspectors, eight (8) inspector foremen, including senior foreman and two (2) chiefs of TCB.

Technical control areas, which allow to perform a work quickly and efficiently are arranged in each workshop at the main production divisions.

Production control of fuel pellets is an important trend for TCB of uranium products. Employees of the division took part in the certification of fuel pellets of French design. It was necessary quickly study and utilize the new type of fuel pellets, new technology, new control methods, new equipment and measuring devices.

Employment and training of the qualified personnel was another important object. Due to this inspector foremen Julia Shestakova, Tatyana Verbitskaya and Natalya Kasymova faced with heavy workload.

The whole manufacturing process is carried out with the participation of Chinese Party representatives during fuel pellets production under the contract with Chinese company. Partners from the Celestial Empire controls process operations and quality of the finished products, and specifically they monitor operational and acceptance control of TCD. It requires high qualification and responsibility of TCB inspectors of the fuel pellets production department.

Olga Kondratenko, Chief of TCB of the uranium products made an invaluable contribution to the work of division. She personally participated in the acceptance control of fuel pellets in CNNC Jianzhong Nuclear Fuel Co., Ltd. and eleven (11) times visited China on the delegation of UMP JSC. Such work is impossible without in-depth knowledge and business skills.

Work of the employees who control the products of Workshop No. 3A shall be specially noted in TCD of the Beryllium Division. New products made of sintered beryllium and copper-beryllium alloys, including products of intricate shapes are submitted here for inspection every year. These are blocks, plugs, shanks manufactured for the Nuclear Research Center (Poland), inserts for the Scientific Research Institute of Atomic Reactors (Russian Federation), blocks for the Nuclear Research Center (Kurchatov), metal windows for X-ray equipment (Ukraine) and other products of different configurations. Inspection requires special skills of inspectors in the field of metrology. Among them are ability to read drawings, work with complex high-precision measuring equipment, apply standard and non-standard measuring methods, use skills on surface inspection, especially defects of the products appearance.

In 2019 TCD inspectors were trained to determine microstructural purity rating of copper-beryllium master alloys and alloys using metallographic microscope. Much attention is also paid to the younger generation of specialists. To ensure their timely employment and training is one of the primary tasks of Kulyash Toygambayeva, Senior Foreman of TCD, Beryllium Division.

New-generation instrument is used for acceptance control in TCB of tantalum products. These are precision multifunctional instruments with electronic display of measurement results: digital calipers, thickness gauges, height gauge, depth gauge and laser micrometers. Inspectors are happy with the instruments: it reduces probability of errors during taking of readings, decreases eye strain and easy-to-use.

Changes in production technology, increased expectations of the consumers using Tantalum Division»s products, product-line expansion as well as new requirements to the raw material quality do not allow TCB employees to be at a stop. Permanent work on improvement of process and regulatory documents, search for the latest measuring instruments and methods, arrangement of the strip and foil acceptance control by appearance, learning of the new-generation instruments is carried out. Elena Budrina, Chief of TCB of the tantalum products makes a great contribution to this work.

Veterans having work experience in TCD for 35-40 years help to the young generation gain experience and learn measuring instruments. These veterans are: Lyubov Vasilenko, Marina Bezrukova, Irina Mordovina, Oksana Zhitina, Anna Isakova.

TCD always was famous with its people and deeds! This tradition also continues nowadays because of conscientious work, responsible attitude to the work of each employee!

Alexey Proskuryakov