The industrial act iv i ty of the workers, engineers, technicians, and office personnel has sharply increased in re-

cent years at the Chelyabinsk Meta l lurg ica l Plant. In the first six months of the current year many more suggestions and inventions have been submitted and adopted than during al l of 1959.

Of course, with an increase in the number of suggestions submitted in the shops, their del ivery to the planning and es t imate depar tment of the plant for approval increased. The Komsolmol organizat ion of the department showed valuable in i t ia t ive in developing the idea of creating general design offices. The young engineers and technicians of the departments, Comrades Garel ik, Davidenko, Tokarev and others, are among the group ini t ia t ing the accelera t ion of examinat ion and approval of suggestions submitted from the shops. During free t ime they and the shop workers and authors of the suggestions examined and concluded on tens of suggestions comprising about 15% of all suggestions sub- mit ted to the planning and es t imate depar tment for approval.

Much stilt remains to be done at the plant to improve the work of the general design office. In a number of shops these design offices do not have sufficient space, they do not all have the necessary tools and equipment, some are in great need of help from the shop t rade-union organizations, especia l ly to acce le ra te the introduction of those suggestions which were worked out by members of the general design office. But what has been done already fosters the further growth of creat ive in i t ia t ive and industrial act ivi ty of the co l lec t ive of the enterprise.

EN R O U T E T O I N C R E A S I N G THE P R O D U C T I V I T Y

G. I . B r o d s k i i

Translated from Metal lurg, No. 11, pp. 33-34, November,1961

The co l lec t ive of the Petrovskii Dnepropetrovsk Meta l lurgica l Plant successfully completed the second year of the Seven-Yea~" Plan and is not reducing its tempo in the current year.

The plan for the first months of this year has been fulfi l led for the entire meta l lurg ica l cycle , and thousands of tons of rneta! have been produced ahead of schedule in excess of the established plan.

Year by year the plant increases the production of pig iron, steel, and rolled products. For instance, in 1960 the production of pig iron was 20% and steel 8% more than the preceding year. The qual i ta t ive indices for reducing the cost of production have been improved considerably this year. The cost of production of pig iron was reduced by 3%, steel by 2.98%. The plan for the productivity of labor was overfulfi l led by 0.6%; compared to a corresponding period of last year, the productivi ty of labor increased by 1.7%.

The blast furnace operators have appreciably improved their work. The average u t i l iza t ion factor for the ca- paci ty of blast furnaces is 0.719.

During the first half of 1961, the steehnakers tapped an average of 9.14 tons of steel per 1 m 2 of hearth area, whereas the plan cal led for 9 tons.

What are the main factors for increasing the productivity ? Let us dwell on the most important of them.

The improvement in production methods and the use of natural gas in blast - furnace production and oxygen in converter production were significant in the plant 's achievement of high production indices.

The co l lec t ive decided to fulfil l ahead of schedule the State Plan for the third year of the Seven-Year Plan for the entire meta l lu rg ica l cyc le and to give to the country, in excess of the plan, 5,000 t of pig iron, 13,000 t of steel, and 14,000 t of commerc ia l rolled products. These obligations are being considerably overfulfil led. Since the first of the year thousands of tons of pig iron, steel, and rolled products have been produced.

The successful fu l f i l lment of the State Plan and obligations is first of al l fostered by the widely developing com- pet i t ion for the t i t le of Brigades, Shock-workers, and Enterprises of Communist Labor. On 1 July 1961, 620 col lect ives

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were contending for this high t i t le and 42 brigades had already been awarded it. They are the init iators of highly ef- f icient labor in their shops.

The engineers of the shops and offices of the plant management are re la ted by an in t imate friendship with the l ife of these brigades. The problems of the best organizat ion of labor and preparation for production, of providing conditions for achieving high working indices of the brigades, sections, and the shop as a whole are solved joint ty.

As a rule, the Brigades of Communist Labor overfulfi l l the technica l norms of production, work without rejects , do not permit downtimes of the machinery and thus ensure overfulf i l lment of the production assignment.

Last year the Brigade of Communist Labor of the No. 2 open-hear th furnace,where steelworker I. A. Shpak works, produced 1600 t of s teel over the annual plan, and this y e a r the brigade is working even better . Thus work al l the br i - gades in the converter, open-hear th , and other shops.

Great attention at the plant is devoted to problems of automation and mechaniza t ion of labor processes. The real iza t ion of these measures in this area will make i t possible to release many workers and thus f i l l out undermanned sections.

Mechanizat ion and automation of industrial processes have already released 102 persons. The plant has already mechanized the del ivery of samples in the converter shop and manipulat ion on the front side of the finishing stand of the 800-mil l ; the arresting devices of the hot-cut t fng saw and the transfers in the section shop, the arresting devices of the 550-mi l l , e tc . , have been automated.

At a number of shops, labor-consuming processes have been mechanized , which fac i l i ta ted the labor of the workers. The del ivery of pressed art icles which previously was a very laborious operat ion is now accomplished by an e lec t r ic carr iage in the refractories shop. The del ivery of c lay in this shop is also mechanized. The roll ing stock in the transportation shop has been refi t ted with automat ic couplers,and car-dumpers were introduced.

The plant this year is taking measures to automate the blast heaters of the blas t - furnace shop, the heating proc- esses of the recuperat ive pits of the rai l and beam shop, to antomate the heating processes of the open-hear th fur- naces, and to use in blast furnaces natural gas and an oxygen-enr iched blast: in converters operating with an oxygen blast, blowing of the mel t will be ended at a given carbon content by using an oxygen integrat ing instrument.

With each month mechanizat ion and automation are introducing more widely into meta l lu rg ica l production. Switching of the blast heaters from blowing to heating and vice versa has already been automated on two btaat fur- naces. Work is now being carried out to automate the blast heaters of another blast furnace. The circui t of this auto- mat ic device at our plant was the first to be introduced in the republic. It makes i t possible to s tabi l ize the blast t em- perature and to increase the eff iciency of the blast heaters.

The rea l iza t ion of these and other measures will ensure the overfulf i l lment of the State Plan for production.

The propagation of the work of innovators and the leading workers plays a major role in increasing the produc- t ivi ty of Iabor.

There are numerous technica l descriptions of the most eff ic ient working methods at the plant. Schools of the most eff ic ient working experience have already been held with respect to 39 of these technica l descriptions: these are the exper ience o fP . S. Makhota, steelworker and Hero of Social is t Labor; P. I. ggorov, blast - furngce operator and Hero of Social is t Labor; cupola-furnace operator N. G. Chernoivanenko, and many other leading production workers.

The shop foremen, engineers, and technicians act ively par t ic ipa te in these schools.

The results of studying and propagating the experience of innovators are very indicat ive . For instance, the cut- ters of the sheet-rol l ing shop increased the ful f i l lment of the present norms from 101 to 106-108%. The press opera- tots of the refractories shop increased their rate of work and fulfi l led the norms not by 103% as previously, but by II0-112%.

An improvement in the works of the inventors and innovators at the plant has already had an effect on increas- ing the productivi ty of labor.

The society of the All-Union Society of Inventors and Innovators has considerable authority at the plant.

t t suffices to note that 30a9 suggestions were submitted from 1418 authors during the year. An economic sav- ing of 1336,000 rubles has already been obtained from the 1325 suggestions that have been introduced.

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The metallurgists of the plant repeatedly occupy first place in the socialist competition among enterprises of the metallurgical industry.

In the third year of the Seven-Year plan the collective of the Petrovskii Plant is going all out for a profitable operation by the maximum use of facilities and all possible improvement of the organization of labor and production.

The metallurgists of the Petrovskii Plant are not resting on their laurels, they are busy improving production methods, mastering new complex roiled shapes, and copying the experience of the leading plants with respect to large- scale mechanization and automation.

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