BLACKSMITH OF HIS OWN SUCCESS

There are 2 blacksmiths working at MASHZAVOD LLP and at UMP in general. One of them is Konstantin Zhuravlev. Konstantin Aleksandrovich is a 5^th category blacksmith on hammers and presses of the boiler assembly workshop’s forging and blanking site.

– Konstantin, what is it like to be a blacksmith?

– Blacksmith is a master of artistic metal processing. You need to be able to work with many materials and find your own approach to each one. There are so-called insidious metals. For example, X12M is a steel alloy grade that is difficult to forge. There are capricious metals, for example, molybdenum: if it is slightly overheated or underheated, it will burst. By the way, we work with practically all materials: ordinary steels, stainless steel, special steels, bronze, brass...

– Describe your work process - from getting an order to a finished element.

– When blank drawings arrive, a technologist issues a work order. Most often, a blank is cut off, thrown into the furnace, heated up to a certain temperature and then, like from dough or plasticine, given a desired shape – you can beat it, press it, stretch it (make it thinner) or upset it (increase the diameter). The number of elements and products manufactured per shift is always different. For example, if we make a knife for a guillotine, which is under 100 kg, then we manage to make 6 pieces in a day, i.e., we forge 600 kg per day.

– What products do you manufacture?

– The product range is large. There are dies for various products, vacuum pumps, molybdenum boats for UMP UO, screws, rotors, construction equipment and much more.

We craft some things by hand. However, processing of heavy and large blanks is performed using special equipment, for example, mechanical and hydraulic hammers. We also work on presses with flame furnaces. But naturally, our main tools are sledgehammer and hammer.

– They say a good blacksmith is hard to find these days. Do other companies try to lure you away?

– Frankly, they do and quite often.

– Do you intend to leave?

– No, I have never even had such thoughts. I am devoted to my plant, my dear enterprise. Everything suits me here - great work, superb colleagues, friendly atmosphere. This is my second home.