JSC "Serpukhov Automobile Plant": history, products

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

JSC "Serpukhov Automobile Plant" (SeAZ) was a large machine-building enterprise in the Moscow region. The company specialized in the production of wheelchairs for wheelchairs, small cars "Oka" and spare parts. Today the conveyor was stopped, and the joint-stock company was declared bankrupt.

Foundation

The history of the Serpukhov Automobile Plant begins in 1939. On July 7, the People's Commissariat for Mechanical Engineering decided to organize a motorcycle production in the city of Serpukhov. The workshops of labor colonies for minors were identified as a production site, which subsequently grew to the scale of a full-fledged factory.

Acting director of the plant Potapov and chief engineer Kovalenko were instructed to accept the schedule of "reconstruction" work for the steady implementation and draw up technical documentation within five days. The government demanded the production of up to 15,000 subcompact motorcycles per year, with productionwas not equipped with either the appropriate equipment or trained personnel.

However, in 1940, a motley team, consisting mostly of troubled teenagers, was able to assemble an experimental batch of motorcycles of the MZL series with a two-prong engine for testing. By June 1941, the enterprise had already produced 180 units of motor vehicles of the L8 model with a four-pin engine. The war prevented the further development of production in this direction.

War hard times

In October 1941, the main facilities and a number of skilled workers were evacuated to the Urals. Part of the production was transported to the city of Tyumen, the second part - to Izhevsk. The assembly of army motorcycles of the AM-600 model was organized at the new location, and other defense products were also produced. After the Nazis were driven back from Moscow, in December 1941, the repair of captured motor vehicles for the needs of the front was organized at the Serpukhov Automobile Plant.

Design school

In 1943, the State Defense Committee decided to restore the motorcycle industry. The city of Serpukhov was identified as the branch center. Outstanding designers from Izhevsk were sent here to organize the Central Design Bureau of Motorcycle Construction: I. G. Gusakov, A. E. Mamai, I. Ya. Nikiforov, I. V. Poniatovsky, S. I. Safonov, V. I. Lozhkin, G. A. Veiner and V. M. Vorona.

By 1946, a powerful design and experimental center was formed on the basis of the Serpukhov Automobile Plant. Until 1951, the enterprise operates inas a pilot production of the Central Design Bureau.

From motorcycles to sidecars

The tragic legacy of the last war was a large number of disabled people. In order to alleviate their plight, to help them in their rehabilitation and integration into society, the Central Clinical Hospital developed and introduced into serial production the S1L three-wheeled motorized carriage in 1951.

From now on, vehicles for the rehabilitation of the disabled have become the main products of the Serpukhov Automobile Plant. The design of wheelchairs is constantly being improved. In 1957, the production of the S3L model with a more powerful engine was mastered, and in 1958, large-scale conveyor production of the four-wheeled motor carriage S3A began.

Since 1970, the plant has been producing the S3D motorized carriage with an all-metal load-bearing body, the production of which continued until 1995. In total, from 1953 to 1995, 572,000 motorized strollers of various series and modifications were produced.

Along with vehicles for the disabled, the factory produces consumer goods:

• children's bikes "Moth", "Baby" and "Hummingbird";
• trailers for cars;
• shock absorbers for heavy motorcycles of the Irbit and Kyiv motorcycle plants.

Automotive manufacturing

The accumulated experience in the production of four-wheeled sidecars has become an excellent tool for the development of the production of "mini cars". In the first half of the 80s. The Central Design Bureau of the Serpukhov Automobile Plant has developed andproduced prototypes of a small-sized economical passenger car, which later received the name "Oka".

By order of the Minister of Automotive Industry V. N. Polyakov dated 25.04.1982, the youth teams of designers of the Volga and Kama automobile plants, as well as the Serpukhov motor plant, were entrusted with the development of the design of an especially small class car. Young designers of SeAZ take an active part in this: N. D. Rakov, A. P. Popov, N. A. Pavlov, S. M. Shelestov, A. N. Galanin under the guidance of Deputy Chief Engineer I. E. Ivensky.

25.06.1985 The Council of Ministers of the USSR instructs to prepare facilities for the large-scale assembly of the legendary small car at the AvtoVAZ, KamAZ and SeAZ plants. The Serpukhovites have begun the most significant reconstruction in the history of the enterprise. The project, which provides for the production of 10,000 cars annually on the basis of broad cooperation, is being developed by the Volzhsky Automobile Plant and Giproavtoprom.

The production of power units and front wheel drives is entrusted to VAZ, the production of chassis components and large stamping is entrusted to KamAZ plants. The most modern technological solutions are being laid, including the creation of capacities for applying soil using the cataphoretic deposition method in the painting industry and welding the body with robots on a flexible automatic line. The construction of new production and administrative premises, the reconstruction of old workshops begins.

Realities of the time

The reconstruction of SeAZ had to be completed in neweconomic conditions of perestroika, characterized by hyperinflation, lack of defense means of enterprises and a general decline in production. The technical and material support provided to the plant during this period by AvtoVAZ, which made it possible to complete the reconstruction and organize mass production of a modern car, is invaluable. However, in an unstable market, mainly using barter schemes, production did not expand and was unprofitable.

Hard, painstaking work of the team made it possible to ensure the growth of car production from 3,000 units in 1996 to 18,000 thousand in 2001 and to break even in 2000. In the autumn of 1999, the company assembled the 50,000th car, and on September 4, 2002, the 100,000th. The economic crisis of 2008 undermined the financial condition of the company. On February 22, 2009, bankruptcy proceedings were initiated against SeAZ. The fate of the auto giant is sad. Today, a photo of the Serpukhov Automobile Plant causes only despondency, but once working life was in full swing here.