OJSC "Lipetsk Metallurgical Plant "Svobodny Sokol"": history, production, products

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

OJSC "Lipetsk Metallurgical Plant "Svobodny Sokol"" is the oldest enterprise in the city of Lipetsk, which has celebrated a century of history. Production specializes in products unique for Russia - high-strength cast iron water pressure pipes.

Historical background

Lipetsk Metallurgical Plant was founded in 1899 by Belgian entrepreneurs. Since the production facilities were located in the village of Sokolsk, which later became part of the city limits of Lipetsk, the enterprise was called the Sokolsky Metallurgical Plant. The company reached its full capacity in 1900 after the launch of two blast furnaces.

In the Soviet period, the production was renamed the Lipetsk Metallurgical Plant Svobodny Sokol. For many years, the company has been producing high-quality industrial cast iron. Since 1934, the organization has switched to the production of cast iron water pressure pipes.

Iron production

Today, the Lipetsk Metallurgical Plant includes 14productions. The main ones are blast-furnace and pipe foundries. The blast furnace shop has two furnaces with a capacity of 700 m3 each with a set of bottling and auxiliary equipment. They provide the release of liquid and pig iron. The workshop produces foundry and ultimate iron of various categories.

Due to the small volume of blast furnaces, metallurgists are able to smelt very high quality metal in any quantities, even in small batches. The casting technology makes it possible to achieve the highest quality metal, the structure of which is characterized by stable mechanical properties, the absence of free cementite in the microstructure, minimal tendency to edge separation and excellent machinability. Cast iron is produced in ingots up to 9 kg, they are conveniently transported in bulk in rail freight cars.

Pipe production

In 1990, on the eve of the collapse of the USSR, a pipe foundry equipped with modern equipment was commissioned at the Lipetsk Metallurgical Plant for the production of high-strength cast iron water pressure pipes, in the structure of which graphite is in a spherical (spherical) state. This material combines unique properties - the mechanical qualities of steel and the corrosion resistance of cast iron:

• high elongation;
• impact resistance;
• tensile strength;
• plasticity.

These properties are obtained by modifying ordinary gray cast iron with magnesium. Altered graphite particles in high-strengthmaterial are in the form of microscopic spheres-balls. They eliminate the formation and propagation of cracks, giving cast iron both hardness and ductility.

Shaped castings

Lipetsk Metallurgical Plant mastered serial production:

• Water cooling refrigeration plates for blast furnace cooling device. They are made of low-alloy chromium cast iron in various sizes and weights from 1.58 to 2.9 tons.
• Chutes for pig iron, as well as slag from blast furnaces.
• Castings from cast iron grades SCh-15, SCh-20 with dimensions of 3x1, 2x1 m and a maximum weight of 3.5 tons.
• Castings from aluminum alloys up to 8 kg.

The plant plans to master the production of parts for the under-packing device of blast furnace air heaters (under-packing grates, support columns).

Synticom

The Svobodny Sokol plant has mastered the industrial production of a new class of synthetic composite metal charge with the commercial name Sintik. A charge blank for metallurgical production is a material consisting of cast iron and iron oxides, the composition, properties and future behavior of which are set at the manufacturing stage.

Sintikom is produced from pig iron grades P1, P2 or foundry pig iron PL2 and an oxidizing agent (iron pellets from Lebedinsky or Mikhailovsky GOKs) in the form of pyramidal castings weighing 7-10 kg, similar to hard iron ingots.

Other products

JSC "Lipetsk Metallurgical Plant" produces a wide range of products:

• Shaped casting: cast-iron manholes for cable telephone and manholes; fence gratings; grinding iron balls. The latter are made of white cast iron with perlite-cementite structure and are designed for grinding various materials in ball mills.
• Blast furnace sludge. It is used in casting castings in iron foundries. Due to the small volume of the plant's blast furnaces and modern equipment, metallurgists receive cast iron grades L1-L6 of sufficiently high quality.
• Nodular cast iron is used in the manufacture of critical castings.
• Pig iron is required for the production of conventional castings.
• Crushed blast-furnace slag fractions: 0-5 mm, 10-20 mm, 20-40 mm.
• Dump blast-furnace slag: fraction 40-250 mm.
• Coke breeze: fraction 0-10 mm, ash content not more than 18%, humidity not more than 24%.
• Flare dust.
• Scrap metal 5A, 12A.

Prospects

Today "Free Falcon" is going through hard times. Despite the unique products in the form of ductile iron pipes, the plant is actually bankrupt. However, the bankruptcy procedure does not necessarily mean the closure of production. Shareholders and administration have time to spend on the improvement of the enterprise. Neither creditors nor the city authorities are interested in stopping production.