March 11, 2013. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) saved over 400m RUR due to rationalization efforts last year. Over 1,500 good ideas (which comes to 90% of all the proposals) were launched at Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s ‘white metallurgy’ departments, the company’s press service reports.

All these improvement ideas are targeted at cost savings, improving the quality of produce, increasing productivity, enhancing labor safety, and expanding the lifespan of equipment. Designing a new algorithm for customizing the settings of the coupling sleeve making machines at the Finishing Center was one of the most significant improvement proposals of the year 2012. The new algorithm makes its possible to select a certain cutting mode for each specific pipe union, which means the product quality goes up by quite a few per cent. Then, there was a proposal on making the welding strips shorter that won the company Best Young Innovator contest. It was put forward by Chief Welding Engineer Alexander Kopylov and Chief Industrial Automation Service Engineer Denis Savchenko. The proposal is expected to save the Vysota 239 Department 27.8m tons of materials a year.

In fact, it is not only in the newest and innovative departments where improvements take place. They also affect some of the divisions that have been operating for decades. For example, replacing the materials used at the 30-120 pipe piston prover at Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s tube-rolling department results in over 9m RUR worth of savings every year.